Greyhound Bus Lines has been fined $1,500 under B.C.'s Passenger Transportation Act for operating a bus without heat between Whitehorse and northern B.C. late last December.

The penalty - the stiffest allowed under the circumstances - was levied earlier this month following a complaint by Whitehorse resident Dave Hobus, whose daughter Beckie endured the 20-hour overnight trip to Fort St. John, B.C. last Dec. 29.

Hobus went to the B.C. government after Archie Lang, the Yukon's Transportation minister, said there was nothing he could do.

"Well, I think I need to talk to him now that B.C. has been able to levy a penalty," said Hobus. "If a provincial government could find fault and penalize them, then why not the Yukon?"

Temperatures in the territory plummeted to -30 C that evening Beckie and a busload of passengers were en route to B.C. Despite protestations from passengers, the driver continued.

"Our daughter phoned us initially from Teslin; she was in tears, frozen and wasn't sure that she could continue," Hobus told the Star today.

According to Hobus, the driver told passengers they could get off and wait for another bus. As there are only three buses each week from Whitehorse, Beckie decided to ride it out.

"After, my daughter called Greyhound to complain and was told, 'You chose to get back on the bus, you could have gotten off,'" said Hobus of the bus company's less-than-stellar customer service.

"When the bus got to Watson Lake, passengers were bitterly cold and complaining and the driver said to them, 'If you don't like it, get off the bus and wait for the next one ...' which is two or three days away and

made it clear it would be at their expense."

When the story broke at the beginning of this year, a Greyhound spokesperson told one media outlet that the company did not intend to compensate passengers.

Calls by the Star last January to Greyhound's head office in Dallas were never returned.

Today, attempts to contact the company were met with a message that both its media lines had been disconnected.

Hobus said he the company should be prepared for emergencies of all kinds, particularly if it intends to operate buses in extreme climate zones.

"They're required to carry fire extinguishers; why shouldn't they be required to carry something like blankets to deal with a cold weather emergency?" he asked.

"At least in this case, the bus was able to keep going; what if the bus breaks down and the bus doesn't have any heat?"

Last Jan. 2, the Star reported a similar occurrence just before Christmas on a Greyhound bus travelling from Whitehorse to Fort Nelson, B.C., which suggests the frigid Dec. 29 ride was not an isolated incident.

In addition, another report suggested the same thing happened on a Greyhound trip last Jan. 7.

A spokeswoman for Lang told the Star today the minister had no comment, and forwarded media inquiries to public relations personnel for the Department of Highways and Public Works.