People who depend on car-pooling to travel cheaply between Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto are angry at the Ontario government for deeming a car-pooling company called "Allo Stop" illegal.

Ontario's three biggest bus companies -- Greyhound, Voyageur and Trentway-Hagar -- forced the closure, complaining the small company was competing with them.

The Ontario Highway Transport Board agreed. So now Allo Stop's passengers will have few options but to buy tickets from those same three bus companies.

Allo Stop has closed its offices in Ontario but will remain open in Quebec for now.

Karima Carmali uses Allo Stop almost every week to visit her boyfriend in Montreal. "Allo Stop is way cheaper. To go to Montreal I pay $10 for one ride," she says.

That $10 included $6 to cover the drivers' gas expenses, and $4 to Allo Stop for bringing the driver and passengers together. By contrast, a round-trip on the bus is over $50.

"I definitely won't be seeing him as often. I definitely won't be travelling as much," Carmali says. "I feel it's just another way that people who can't afford a car, or choose not to have one, have less power in our society. So it creates more pressure on me to get a car and to pollute the environment, which I don't want to do."

Christa Peters is vice-president of the Carleton Students' Association. She says Allo Stop's closure is a blow to students, who already face rising debt and tuition costs.

"Now in one area where the students have fairly inexpensive travel the Harris government says: 'Absolutely not, we're going to take that away from you too.'"

But for Karima Carmali, Allo Stop's demise is as much an environmental issue as an economic one. She says she can't understand why a government that professes to support car-pooling within Ontario's cities has decided it's a crime.