Calgary travellers describe 14-hour ordeal on Greyhound bus

Frustrated passengers pulled into Calgary on Tuesday morning after being stranded on a Greyhound bus in northern Ontario for 14 hours with no explanation of why they’d been left.

Paul Hitchin, 29, was to report for work in Calgary on Monday morning.

Everything seemed fine as he travelled from Barrie, Ont., by bus until around 3 a.m. Sunday, when the bus stopped in a parking lot in White River — a community of about 1,000 people approximately 390 kilometres outside Thunder Bay.

"The bus driver said, ‘Looks like bad weather. Sit tight,’ and then he just left," said Hitchin.

Passengers in the packed bus found themselves waiting from 3 a.m. Sunday until around suppertime before they were moving again.

In that time, Hitchin says they had next to no word from the bus drivers or Greyhound on why they’d been abandoned, nor were they given any place to sleep or anything to eat.

"They didn’t even offer us a bottle of water," Hitchin said, adding passengers had to walk half a kilometre to the nearest fast food restaurant to eat and were forced to sleep on the bus not knowing when — or if — it would get going again.

"They didn’t offer us nothing. They said because it was weather-related was the reason they didn’t do anything," he said.

Greyhound spokeswoman Maureen Richmond said poor weather conditions shut down local roads, causing the delay, but acknowledged the situation could have been handled better.

"There was a definitely lack of communication between Greyhound employees and the passengers, and for that I very much apologize," said Richmond.

Disgruntled passengers are urged to contact Greyhound at 1-204-949-7341 to discuss the incident, said Richmond, who couldn’t say if they would be offered any compensation.

"I realize it was extremely upsetting and caused a lot of concern and inconvenience for the passengers," she said.

Hitchin said there’s no excuse for keeping passengers in the dark.

"It would have been one thing to get stuck yourself . . . you’d know what is going on and it eases your mind a bit. But nobody knew where the drivers were, what had happened or how long we’d be stopped."