Getting to Pearson

[ijmorlan]

I am so confused.  Why can a bus not go to the airport?

A bus can’t go anywhere without a license, and the process for getting a license is involved. It’s not like getting a driving license, where you just have to follow a simple process and as long as you follow the process you are entitled to the license. In particular, you have to show that there is a need for the service, and convince a board of this, with the existing operators on the proposed route allowed to try to show the opposite.

To be clear, I think there is a difference between scheduled service which is what we are talking about, and charter services. On the other hand, I have a vague recollection of the University of Waterloo Federation of Students having trouble with Greyhound or somebody complaining about their chartered bus services between campus and places like Ottawa. Of course those services effectively operate like scheduled services.

This is very different from most businesses. For example, to open a restaurant, I would have to follow a bunch of zoning and health regulations, and get various licenses, but if I follow the rules I’m pretty much entitled to the licenses and to operate the restaurant. I don’t have to convince some “restaurant stability board” that there is a need for mexican-mongolian fusion or whatever I want to serve.

To be fair, transportation does require some regulation. In particular, there are fundamental issues around practices such as jitneying and various games that competitors can play with schedules. I’m not sure exactly what the right regulation is, but I’m quite certain that requiring would-be competitors to prove a “need” for their service is inappropriate, just as it would be in the restaurant or wrapping paper businesses.