I love riding the bus, seriously. I sit back, read, relax, sleep, write, or just plain listen to podcasts. I couldn't imagine losing time to driving.
Losing time to driving? What do you mean?
I'm productive on a bus, but if I were driving, I couldn't do any of the activities listed above for me, not even podcasts as I like intellectual ones that I get my thoughts lost into. Driving requires focus.
I actually prefer multi-day Greyhound trips to domestic flights.
My trips to Winnipeg, as an example. My first trip to Winnipeg, to start university, was a 31-hour journey. The longest I've even do was 44-hours from Toronto to Saskatoon. Living in Winnipeg, I made a few trips to Edmonton, including one with a lengthy detour across Central Manitoba when another bus broke down.
I quickly realized the Greyhound wasn't just about passengers, it's how freight - such as medicine and blood, the newspapers, and other goods - moved across Northern Ontario and the rural Prairies.
Each stop had freight to upload, and usually people waiting for it.
The bus ran three times per day from Toronto to Winnipeg, and I often thought us passengers on top were ancillary to the freight business.
Today, there's only one bus per day. Flights Winnipeg to Thunder Bay to Toronto are cheaper, a lot of freight moves by Canada Post (I doubt Greyhound is moving newspapers much anymore), and Greyhound just isn't making the money it used to.
It's even worse for other communities, with no bus services left. Oliver Moore of The Globe and Mail reports.
We loss as a society if our rural areas are not viable, and increasingly, they are stuck in a spiral, one that needs addressing.