Spending 20 hours on bus without heat 'really inhumane,' passenger says

A recent bus trip through the Canadian North has left travellers cold and annoyed after they said they spent about 20 hours on a Greyhound bus without heat as the temperature outside dipped below –30 C.

The heat stopped working about 20 minutes after the bus left Whitehorse on its way to Fort St. John, B.C., on Monday, said passenger Owen MacKinnon.

After two hours in an unheated bus, MacKinnon said the driver stopped to allow passengers to retrieve clothes from their checked  luggage.

"I had snow pants and sweat pants and two hoodies and two jackets on and I was still cold," he said.

After seven hours, the bus pulled in to the rural community of Watson Lake where local fire Chief Dan Miller says he got a call from a Greyhound supervisor to help out.

"They had 15 people on board so she asked if I had some blankets that we could loan them from the fire department," he said.

Passenger Beckie Hobus said the driver then briefed the travellers on their options — stay in Watson Lake at their own expense and wait for the next bus scheduled to come through a few days later or get back on the bus. She said passengers opted to get back on the bus.

"It was really inhumane," she said. "This whole experience for 20 hours, zero heat in minus 30 below is just not right."

Heat began working again: Greyhound spokesman

Greyhound spokesman Eric Wesley said the extreme cold was to blame for the problem.

"The bus began to lose heat because the [furnace] components began to freeze up," he said.

But he said heat began functioning again during the stop at Watson Lake, contrary to what passengers reported.

"I could see my breath and I had a blanket over my head for a while and when I pulled the blanket off there was frost covering my blanket," said MacKinnon.

After the bus arrived in Fort Nelson, B.C., nearly 20 hours after its departure, it was taken off the road and replaced. Passengers then travelled from Fort Nelson to Fort St. John on the second bus.

Greyhound is not considering compensation for passengers, said Wesley.