The recovery process after the pandemic has begun for Maritime Bus.
Owner Mike Cassidy says due to the pandemic, gross sales dropped by $33 million in 2020 and $25 million in 2021.
During that time, the company’s workforce shrunk to about 175 people, down from more than 500 in 2019.
He now feels as though he is getting control back, “Now, as business begins recovering, he feels as though he is back in control, “I can make my business decisions. I can hire employees, and can purchase buses. We are forecasting at least 85 per cent to 90 per cent of our 2010 business should be back in 2022 from July to December.”
He says typically in the month of March they see around $12,000 fares and last month they were getting close to that, “8,200, two-thirds of my ridership is there and I feel quite strongly we’ll have a good Easter. University and College out, students travelling, it should be a good April and then we’ll be right through straight to the summer and into back to school and then it’s Christmas again.”
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick announced this week they’ll make a combined $900,000 investment in the passenger and cargo bus service.
Cassidy says, “As of today, I am returning to normalcy. I have to run my business as a typical business person would run their business. There is always the fear that we could have the sixth wave. But now after 24 months, I’m not thinking of a sixth wave. I am not even going to budget for the sixth way. I have to become motivated again as a business person to conduct business as usual. I can’t sit on the fence, thinking that another wave is coming right behind me. My attitude is I’m out front. I’m going to be doing good business. And I’m going to be doing business the way we did in 2019. And I don’t really want to think of a pandemic and I believe most people, whether you’re in business, or you’re just your personal lives, yes, we’re tired. Yes, we’re fatigued. We want to be cautious, but we want to believe that we can continue with our lives and that’s my attitude today.”
Maritime Bus is an intercity passenger bus service that runs between the Maritime provinces, including rural routes in Cape Breton and northern New Brunswick.
The private company has been running in the region since Acadian Lines went under in 2012. It also provides parcel freight services, including blood shipped by Canadian Blood Services throughout the Maritime hospital network.
A big chunk of Maritime Bus revenue comes from visitors and cruise ships passengers taking tours. Cassidy has said he believes both will return in 2022 and help shore up the company’s financials.
With files from Tara Clow and Trevor Nichols of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content sharing partner.
