Any replacement for the private-sector bus terminal should remain in Victoria’s downtown core to serve the many thousands of tourists arriving every year, say tourism industry officials.
Options are being examined now that the bus lines have been given 18 months’ notice to move out of 700 Douglas St.
“We want to see [people] dropped off in the downtown core,” said Frank Bourree, board chairman of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce and a tourism consultant. “However, they don’t need a big bus depot, really. You could drop off passengers on the sidewalk downtown somewhere.”
Fairmont Empress Hotel owner Nat Bosa hopes to build a high-end residential rental property on his bus-depot property. He is also spending $30 million to upgrade the Empress and its grounds.
Losing the bus depot is not a dramatic blow, since the property could be better used, Bourree said.
But, he said, the drop-off for passengers needs to be located south of Johnson Street and as close to the harbour as possible.
The depot serves passengers travelling to and from Vancouver and Whistler via Pacific Coach, as well as those taking sightseeing tours and heading to the airport. Greyhound buses travel from the depot as far north as Port Hardy.
The bus depot opened in 1961, relocating from 814 Wharf St.
John Wilson, owner of Wilson’s Transportation Ltd., which leases space at the current depot and operates Grey Line Sightseeing double-decker buses and an airport service, favours a much smaller location downtown.
A downtown storefront for tickets and parcels, a small waiting area and curbside pickup and drop-off area for passengers are all that’s required, Wilson said, adding buses would be there for only five to 15 minutes. “It doesn’t have to be a stand-alone building.”
All three companies that use the depot — Pacific Coach, Greyhound and Wilson’s — realized that the facility was not long for this world, Wilson said.
The property is leased on a monthly basis to Greyhound Canada, which acts as Pacific Coach’s on-site agent.
Darian Tooley, Pacific Coach’s director of sales and marketing, said the company is considering options.
“The present appearance and condition of the terminal is not consistent with the standard of service and customer experience which Pacific Coach would like to deliver,” she said in a statement.
The company has run service between Victoria and Vancouver for more than 50 years, she said, and carries about 200,000 passengers between the two cities each year. The majority of passengers in the summer are tourists, while in the winter, most are locals, Tooley said.
In 2002, Pacific Coach considered moving to the 2600 block of Douglas Street, and four years later, it mulled a move to the block between Discovery and Pembroke streets.
Victoria mayor-elect Lisa Helps said bus transportation is important for the tourist trade and for those who don’t want to drive to the ferries.
But a new location “doesn’t necessarily need to be smack-dab in the middle of downtown,” she said, noting land is available on the edge of downtown.
“I don’t think that we should fly into a panic about the bus station moving out of the core of downtown,” Helps said.
“I would like to see us work with the transportation industry to find a site.”
Helps said she wants to see the depot site redeveloped, along with the nearby Crystal Court Motel property on Belleville, to re-energize that area.
