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13
PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION
Bus Transportation
Intercity Bus Service
Although intercity bus services represent a small segment of
the industry and generate a small share of the industry's operating
revenues, they provide the bulk of long-distance bus transportation.
This segment of the industry has two service categories, scheduled
intercity carriers and charter carriers, with the latter also
operating airport, sightseeing and tour services. Most of the
larger carriers in these two types of bus operations provide both
intercity and charter services.
Table 13-3 list Canada's scheduled carriers and the markets
they served in 2000.
Scheduled Intercity Carriers
The total number of passengers using scheduled intercity services
provided by all industry segments (intercity carriers, charter
carriers and school bus operators) has been in a fairly steady
decline since the late 1970s, hitting a low of 10.8 million passengers
in 1993. As shown in Figure 13-1, ridership in recent years has
been fairly stable, ranging from 12 to 14 million passengers annually.
Following modest increases in ridership between 1994 and 1998,
the number of passengers decreased by almost 1 million in 1999
from the year before.
In 1999, 28 operators with annual revenues exceeding $200,000
reported total annual operating revenues of $106.5 million and
operating expenses of $97.1 million. As Table 13-4 shows, approximately
62 per cent of the operating revenues of these operators came
from scheduled intercity services, with charter and tour services
contributing nine per cent, and parcel express 16 per cent.
Using a service line revenue breakdown (Table 11-7), scheduled
intercity revenues in 1999 were $235.8 million - $65.9 million
by scheduled carriers, $26.9 million by charter carriers and $143.1
million by school bus operators.
Charter Operators
Charter bus services are generally characterized by the rental
of a bus to a person or group, where all passengers embark and
disembark at the same point. Charter operators have the flexibility
to offer a broad range of services, such as half-day school trips,
three-week excursions, one-way trips and local sightseeing tours.
Charter bus companies earned almost two thirds of their revenues
through charter services, as was the case for scheduled intercity
operators, a significant portion of their revenues are also generated
from other services, including eight per cent from intercity services
and 19 per cent from other passenger services such as
sightseeing, shuttle and tour services.
Figure 13-2 shows the changes in revenues generated from scheduled
intercity service compared with charter service since 1990. There
was a gradual increase in charter revenues between 1990 and 1994,
followed by a more significant increase over the past five years.
Scheduled intercity revenues gradually declined between 1990 and
1995, followed by a period of little change between 1995 and 1999.
Figure 13-3 shows the size of Canada's charter bus fleet from
1981 to 1999. The number of vehicles used in charter service peaked
at 3,305 buses in 1996 and is now at approximately the same level
as the early 1980s.
As the number of vehicles used in charter bus operations fluctuated
during the 1990s, the utility or average annual use made of each
vehicle steadily increased from a low of 40,000 kilometres in
1993 to almost 66,000 kilometres by 1999.
Figure 13-4 shows the utilization rate of the charter bus fleet
from 1981 to 1999.
The expansion in charter service is also indicated by an increase
in annual bus-kilometres. As shown in Figure 13-5, bus-kilometres
have doubled to 196.3 billion kilometres since 1991.
Urban Transit
All major Canadian cities have some form of urban transit service.
In terms of revenues, urban transit represents the largest component
of Canada's bus industry. Excluding subsidies, transit companies
accounted for 51 per cent of total bus industry revenues in 1999.
Urban transit services are subsidized by both municipal and provincial
governments, and transit revenues and subsidies combined accounted
for 71 per cent of total bus revenues. Some transit
operators also offer school bus and charter services, as well
as services to travellers with disabilities.
The number of vehicles and the utilization rate remained fairly
stable during the 1990s, with the number of vehicles in the 13,000
to 14,000 range and a utilization rate around 55,000 to 58,000
kilometres per vehicle. The number of vehicles in the urban transit
fleet has increased seven per cent since 1997. Figure
13-6 shows the number of buses in Canada's urban fleet from 1981
to 1999.
The composition of the fleet has changed over the past five
years, with significantly fewer standard motor coaches in operation.
To make services more accessible, low-floor buses are being added
to fleets in cities such as Vancouver, Calgary, Thunder Bay, Kitchener
and Montreal. The number of these buses in operation has increased
substantially over the past three years. Table 13-5 shows
the make-up of Canada's urban transit fleet by category from 1991
to 1999.
After a period of decline in the early 1990s, the number of
passengers using urban transit has remained fairly constant since
1994. In 1998, 1.41 billion passengers used urban transit, equalling
the level attained in 1992. Ridership levels in 1998 were 2.3
per cent higher than in 1997.
Not surprisingly, with the size of the urban transit fleet
remaining fairly stable during the 1990s, the total distance travelled
was also relatively constant during this period at around 750
million kilometres. Over the past two years, however, there has
been a modest increase in the distance travelled, to over 800
vehicle-kilometres in 1999, and in the number of passengers carried,
to 1.4 billion. This is the highest level since the early 1990s.
Figure 13-7 tracks the trend in urban transit by number of
passengers and vehicle-kilometres from 1981 to 1999.
Bus Transportation
- Apendix 13-1 Amended Framework
for Canada's International Air Policy as at December 21, 1999
- Apendix 13-2 International
Air Services as of December 31, 2000 (Excluding Canada-US Transborder
Services)
- Apendix 13-3 Scheduled Transborder
Services as of December 31, 2000
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