But it want to be able to increase fares by up to 35 per cent for tickets bought closer to departure.<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Maritime Bus is looking to make some changes to its bus services:<\/p>\n
Information Morning – Moncton11:08Maritime Bus service looking to make some changes<\/p>\n
Mike Cassidy is the owner of Coach Atlantic\/Maritime Bus.<\/p>\n
Cassidy said this change would allow the company to better manage how many buses are needed for particular routes, based on demand, and to ensure that every traveller gets a seat on that route.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith dynamic pricing, all we\u2019re asking, for example, is if you\u2019re travelling this Sunday, would you let us know by Friday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you do wait within that window, let\u2019s say it\u2019s a 48-hour window, we would just like to be able to charge a little bit of a premium for the late booking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The application also includes requests to introduce different prices for refundable and non-refundable tickets. According to the board, refundable rates would be subject to a minimum charge of $5 up to 20 per cent of the ticket price.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777197266_918_default.jpg\")
Mike Cassidy, the owner of Maritime Bus, says dynamic pricing will allow the company to better manage how many buses are needed for particular routes and to ensure all passengers get a seat. (Steve Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Cassidy said Maritime Bus now provides customers with a credit toward future travel if they can\u2019t make their trip, but riders say they want more options.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers are saying we\u2019d rather get a cash refund, just like the airlines \u2026 all we\u2019re asking is a little bit of a premium if you wish to buy a refundable ticket.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassidy said the company is asking for permission to introduce dynamic pricing, but exactly what this structure will look like or how it will be applied have not been set in stone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to get board approval before you can even try it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777197266_670_default.jpg\")
Maritime Bus recently received approval to increase its fuel surcharge from 8:5 per cent to 13.5 per cent for all passenger fares. That increase came into effect on April 15. (CBC)<\/p>\n
Another request in the application is to reduce the number of trips between Moncton and Halifax from three daily trips to two, a move Cassidy said would not affect customers because it matches the schedule buses have been running for the past four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how we\u2019ve been operating since 2022 coming out of COVID,” he said. “This frequency that we\u2019re asking to be dropped is not going to affect any of our customers today, it does not affect any routes, it does not affect any stops along the routes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the trip the company is requesting to drop was part of a route that connected the Maritimes to Quebec and locations farther west, which the company hasn\u2019t been able to restore since the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Pressures in transportation<\/p>\n
University of New Brunswick engineering professor Trevor Hanson, the co-ordinator of the Community, Transportation Research Lab and the UNB transportation group, says the type of dynamic pricing Maritime Bus can be an effective way to manage rising costs.<\/p>\n
it is typical in airline travel, he said. With inter-city bus travel, where the industry has been economically regulated, it\u2019s often a challenge when it comes to changing prices, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are impacts, change of price affects ridership, it\u2019s going to impact demand to some degree that presumably the company would have investigated. But it\u2019s probably being done because of all the pressures that we\u2019re seeing in transportation, such as increased costs,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hanson pointed to fuel prices as one of the big pressures facing the industry right now.<\/p>\n
He also said the inter-city bus industry is not typically subsidized, so companies need to find ways to cover their costs to operate, which can be quite high. And consumers are facing those same pressures, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs costs go up they\u2019re going to look for ways to ensure their own sustainability and at the same time, passengers are looking to lower their costs because of all the other pressures that we see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tricky balance that often requires trying innovative ways to cover costs and keep consumers happy, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case it\u2019s doing something that we see in other modes of transportation, but it is going to result in some changes,and it\u2019s going to result in more expenses for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuel surcharge increase already in effect<\/p>\n
Maritime Bus recently received approval to increase its fuel surcharge from 8.5 per cent to 13.5 per cent for all passenger fares. That increase came into effect on April 15. Cassidy said the increase comes in response to rising fuel prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAny increase that you see on the base price of a Maritime Bus ticket would be the surcharge on fuel,\u201d he said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
“Our value statement is you keep the base price the same, but if fuel prices fluctuate, if they go up, we have a higher fuel surcharge and if they go down then naturally that percentage is lowered,.”<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s motor coaches have 900-litre diesel tanks that can cost $2,000 to $3,000 to fill at current prices, which is a huge operating expense, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassidy said he hopes fuel prices will come down and he can adjust the surcharge accordingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board will hold a public hearing via videoconference on June 18. The Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board will also conduct a virtual hearing at the same time from its offices in Halifax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maritime Bus has submitted an application to regulators asking to make some changes to its rates and service.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-629582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}