Taxi service done by the end of the month for Castlegar, Trail
Posted on 05. Jan, 2012 by Chris Shepherd in Castlegar, Trail |
There won’t be any taxis serving Castlegar and Trail after the month is done, reports Timothy Schafer for the Trail Daily Times.
Photo source: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³, Flickr, Creative Commons.
John Foglia is closing Champion Taxi, in Trail, and Castlegar Taxi by the end of January. Rising costs and a dictated rates from the province have made the taxi business a losing proposition, Foglia tells the Times.
He said the call volumes weren’t enough to sustain the business, or more cabs. The calls would come in waves, six or seven per hour, and then nothing for several hours.
“People would complain ‘I can’t get a taxi in this town.’ Well, the reason is there wasn’t enough to keep two drivers on,” he said.
Source: Times
Read about the number of people out of a job with the closing of the taxi service at the Trail Daily Times.
The same story was covered by the Castlegar News as well, with Craig Lindsay getting into impacts the closing will have on seniors and some of Foglia’s suggestion that the cities need more taxis, not buses, to serve their communities.
3 Responses to “Taxi service done by the end of the month for Castlegar, Trail”
Leave a Reply
Yet another sign of the times, I guess.
About a year ago I had coffee with Julia and Rik, in Nelson. I remember feeling, and saying, at that time that the economic picture in our region might worsen. I felt then, and feel now, that the Kootenay Network might begin to play a vital role in the Kootenays – as people begin to feel the need to cooperate and coordinate in new ways.
Of course, I don’t much care for “Chicken Little” alarmism. But info exchange and mutual support MAY become crucially important. We’ll see.
Well said, Joel.
I also don’t care much for the “Chicken Little” alarmism but agree that inthekoots could be one of the resources that help cement us as a cooperative, progressive region by encouraging the flow of ideas.
Another function the taxis served was re-uniting people with their cars parked at the airport in the wee hours of the morning when they were forced to take the bus from Vancouver after their flights into Castlegar failed. A co-op taxi service might be an opportunity.
Taxi licenses are hard to get as I understand it and its a shame to see the entire area without service.