Bud Fenner, left, manager of the Greyhound bus station at the Tioga Hotel in Coos Bay helps a customer with a package early this morning. World Photo by Madeline Steege

Small bus companies will be able to cover most of the gaps in service, they claim, after Greyhound Lines Inc. announced last month it would abandon its U.S. Highway 101 route by Aug. 18. The service cancellation would eliminate nine stops on the South Coast, including Coos Bay, North Bend, Bandon, Florence, Reedsport, Newport and Brookings, along with 25 others in the state, 260 total in the nation.

That was one of the main items up for discussion when the Legislature's Joint Interim Committee on Transportation, Trade and Economic Development heard from local transit officials Thursday at Southwestern Oregon Community College. They discussed how a coherent transport system is essential to a strong economy and public transportation is a necessity for areas such as the South Coast, with a high elderly population.

"Greyhound's recently announced cutbacks will significantly decrease mobility in Southern Oregon," said Martin Loring, an Oregon Department of Transportation public-transit division administrator who addressed the panel that included state Sen. Ken Messerle, R-Coos Bay; Rep. Alan Brown, R-Newport; and State Sen. Rick Metsger, D-Hood River.

"Greyhound is doing this for their own business reasons. Their corporate goal is to generate sales and revenue plus a 15 percent profit," Loring added.

No Greyhound officials were at the meeting, but more than 25 local people, mostly tied to transportation ventures and programs, attended.

Because of huge losses following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Loring said, coupled with steadily rising gas prices that pushed Greyhound's operation costs to $3.26 per mile, the company could no longer maintain service to marginally profitable areas. Loring also said ODOT has $500,000 available per year in federal funding for public transportation, not nearly enough to replace Greyhound with state-run bus service.

"We may find a local provider that may be able to take it over," Loring said, adding that those who cannot drive cars depend on public transport to travel between the small communities on the South Coast. "The process of figuring out how to deal with Greyhound cuts has just begun."

Some of the soon-to-be-closed routes already are covered by other bus companies, including Porter Stage Lines, which runs a line out of the Tioga Hotel in Coos Bay, where Greyhound also operates. The company is owned by Al Porter, who said the hotel station will stay open because of his bus route that heads to Eugene, and from there, through Bend and on to Ontario.

"Most people prefer to take the Porter line anyway," said Bud Fenner, manager of the Tioga station, adding that when Greyhound canceled afternoon routes in October 2003, it left only one northbound and one southbound bus. Both arrive in Coos Bay in the middle of the night.

Using Loring's statistics about Greyhound riders, the committee calculated four to five passengers a day on South Coast bus routes.

"We'd love to have those 4.5 passengers," Porter said.

Another bus available from the Central Coast is Valley Retriever, which operates from Newport to Bend via Corvallis and Salem with plans to begin service to Portland.

Greyhound will maintain service exclusively on interstates 5 and 84, including in Eugene, but not from Southern Oregon to Northern California on Highway 101.

Curry County Public Transit currently sends three buses per day from the North Bend Municipal Airport to Brookings. If those buses can go about 30 miles farther south, says Bill Dooley, general manager of Curry transit, the route could connect with the Greyhound system in Crescent City, Calif., ultimately maintaining a connection from the South Coast to San Francisco.

"This was planned considerably prior to Greyhound dropping its service," Dooley said about the connection, adding he has a license to operate in California. "We're also looking into operating between Crescent City, Grants Pass and Medford because there would be no main line to the valley and we have senior citizens that require that type of service."

At the meeting, Loring alluded to future Greyhound cuts, in places including Texas and California."It's a national problem," Loring told the committee, adding he will gather demographics on those who use the Greyhound system on the South Coast.

During public commentary, Lakeside Mayor Ed Gowan said people in his town are concerned.

"I've had many calls asking, 'What are we going to do? Where are we going to turn now?'" Gowan said, suggesting the state subsidize funding for some Greyhound stations to keep them open until alternatives are found. "The crux of this whole problem is regulation. I think there is entirely too much control by some people who control the gas prices and the coast suffers for it."

At its last meeting, the Lakeside City Council issued a resolution expressing opposition because, it said, "the loss of this service means an almost total lack of readily available public transportation."

For places like Lakeside, the small bus companies are communicating with Greyhound and with each other to devise corresponding schedules where one route ends and another begins.

"Just for a public service, people need to know what their options are," Messerle told Loring, adding the transportation department must devise alternatives.

"It should be a requirement to give proper notice if they pull out of the market."