SPRINGHILL – It’s been more than a month since Maritime Bus took over bussing in the Maritimes and while no increase of service has occurred here in Springhill that doesn’t mean the issue is dead in the water.
Maritime Bus owner Mike Cassidy responded before the New Year to letters from the Springhill and Area Chamber of Commerce, the town and concerned citizens over the reduced service, saying he hopes to find a solution after revisiting the information he had at hand when the decision was made to drop Springhill as a destination when his company took over for Acadian Lines.
Since then, Cassidy said, one of the obstacles Maritime Bus will have to overcome if its to increase traffic to-and-from Springhill is find a new agent to accommodate the service.
“Right now, the former agent has said to me – for all the right reasons – right now bussing doesn’t fit their business model,” Cassidy said. “Their business has grown since they first started and it wouldn’t fit their current model, which I totally understand.”
While looking for a new agent, Cassidy said Maritime Bus is learning from its fledgling weeks in operation, making changes to improve its service and exploring how to accommodate a number of areas presently without service both here in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
“We want to look at areas where there is no service based on what I know now,” Cassidy said.
Maritime Bus will dig into the issue in earnest beginning the end of the month and into February, Cassidy said.
Maritime Bus went into operation Dec. 1, after Acadian Lines discontinued cargo and passenger services in the region. Springhill and Area Chamber of Commerce president Frank Likely took a lead role in championing services here, highlighting the number of Nova Scotia Community College students who rely on the service, as well as businesses and the federal prison, which used the service for shipping.
