More than 6 million Canadians take a Greyhound bus ride every year, and like never before, their safety is in the public spotlight.
Back in December, the company unveiled heightened security at terminals in major cities, including Edmonton. Passenger screening with metal detectors and a commitment to check all carry-on baggage was part of the new security measures.
The measures were announced just four months after a brutal killing aboard a Greyhound, where 22-year-old Tim McLean was stabbed to death and decapitated on a bus headed from Edmonton to Winnipeg.
At the time Greyhound said the new measures were not a result of that killing.
The procedures have been in place for about three months and CTV decided to put them to the test, buying a ticket from the main terminal in downtown Edmonton to Vegreville earlier in the week.
Our reporter packed a number of prohibited items on a carry-on bag, placed out of sight under a hockey jersey and a couple of books. According to the company policy, a wrench, screwdriver, pliers and pocketknives are items among the 74 items we packed but are not allowed in the passenger area of the bus.
Our reporter found that several of the measures unveiled in December, didn't appear to be in effect anymore, the carry-on luggage screening took place at only some gates and there were no metal detectors in sight.
CTV's carry-on bag was looked at, however the four prohibited items were not found by Greyhound security. Our reporter boarded the bus with no problems.
After the one-hour bus ride to Vegreville, our reporter got off the bus and let a few of the passengers in on our experiment, and needless to say some were surprised.
"I find it a little unnerving just because here are so many people who travel on the bus every day. Can't afford to fly maybe can't afford the security and we really shouldn't have to be put at risk," said passenger Amber McTaggart.
Another passenger felt security needs to be more of a priority for the company to protect the passengers.
"I don't think that's good enough, what else should be done? Some kind of metal detector or something because they just open your bag, that's it. They don't really dig under or in it," said Brenda Westlin.
In CTV's case, on this particular trip, Greyhound's security measures failed to keep potentially dangerous items off the bus.
CTV brought along some of the video we shot on hidden camera to show the company's local director of safety and security that CTV was able to get through security at the Edmonton Greyhound,
She admitted to us that she was surprised at our findings and that mistakes were made.
"Little surprised, because it does deviate from our company policy. This is not the right procedure and now that we've seen that we can go in and investigate," said Lorraine Card with Greyhound Canada.
CTV was allowed to check out the terminal in Calgary with our cameras in plain sight and discovered baggage checks and metal detectors were used according to policy.
The company is flying its U.S. based head of security from Seattle to personally look into what CTV found. Our reporter was told operations managers from terminals across Canada will be made aware of CTV's story and have been asked to keep a close eye on the security process.
With files from CTV Edmonton's Bill Fortier
