‘It’s really kind of a nightmare’
Passengers prepare for future as STC ends 71 years of service
REGINA, SASKATOON, PRINCE ALBERT, MELFORT AND POINTS IN BETWEEN
Hudson is easily the most content and relaxed passenger on the bus this morning — even considering the man dozing across the rear seats.
Hudson, a black Labrador cross, stretches across his own seat and that of Cheryl Dolan, his companion on whom he rests his head.
The Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) bus has meant freedom and independence for the woman, who lost her eyesight 26 years ago. She and guide dog Hudson travel regularly on the bus between Saskatoon and Davidson, her home for the last decade.
“STC gave me that option of being able to go wherever I needed to go without always imposing myself on other people,” says Dolan. Her husband, a structural engineer, recently moved overseas for work, so Dolan’s options for getting to Saskatoon for medical appointments, visits and shopping are few and certainly more complex.
She’s quick to add that while her situation is somewhat unique, many people rely on the public bus service.
“Unless we have people who care about us, and we have friends and family who can help us out, it’s really kind of a nightmare,” says Dolan.
In keeping with plans revealed on budget day in March, STC’s buses grind to a permanent halt on Wednesday.
For a Saskatchewan Party government grappling with a deficit, too many of those buses ran closer to half-empty for too long. But for supporters of STC, those buses were half-full, a necessary public service begun 71 years ago.
“Although I understand the money issue, there are things we need to subsidize because it’s the right thing to do,” says Dolan. “I don’t know what they could have cut instead of the bus, but I’m sure there was something.”
On Monday and Tuesday, a Leader-Post reporter and photographer travelled a few bus routes to collect and share the stories of some of STC’s last passengers.
One woman speaks of visiting her sister in Saskatoon before the buses stop running; an SIAST student studying meat cutting heads back to his classes in Prince Albert; a mom from that same city returns from meeting with a medical specialist for her nine-month-old; a man travels to Fort McMurray and a waiting job; a former chief of a remote northern First Nation tells of relocating to Prince Albert so his wife could be closer to medical care.
The reasons for using STC as varied as the faces.
“Everybody needs the bus,” says the former chief, who declined to give his name. He and his wife are going home after a medical appointment in Saskatoon. “It’s going to be a hard time for everybody.” He’s baffled by the economics for the government, explaining that those on assistance often get bus tickets for travelling to medical appointments, but at times, they’re put in a taxi from Prince Albert to Saskatoon at a cost of $250 each way.
Marcel Kimbley hails from Beauval, in the north, but is currently staying in Prince Albert. The Metis man is “disgusted” by the government’s decision. “Some people up north have no vehicles,” he says. “I’ll sure miss the bus.” At nearly age 84, Kimbley says he might have to resort to driving himself.
Some are infrequent riders; others are regulars on a first-name basis with the drivers, who have collectively logged more than 41 million miles (not kilometres) on STC buses. Frequently at the stops in these dying days of the bus service, passengers wish their STC friends well, often sealing the goodbye with a hug or a handshake. At least one driver has tears in his eyes.
“It’s my second last trip,” another driver announces to his exiting passengers. “Take care and have a good summer.”
For Emma Boe, it will be her first summer in Regina. She says she’s moving because of the loss of STC. “I thought what’s the good in being out here,” says the retiree, who moved to Melfort, closer to where she grew up, from Vancouver 13 years ago. “Yeah. It was the bus that made me move. Otherwise I could have stayed here another four years or so.” She doesn’t own a car, and doesn’t want to have to beg rides from family and friends.
“As soon as I heard it (in the budget), I thought that is not going to be any good for me,” she adds.
Perhaps it’s surprising the end of a bus service could drive people from their homes, but Georgie Elliott is also on the move. The senior relocated to Moose Jaw a few years ago for a quieter, smaller-city life. While she enjoyed her time there, she’s made the tough choice to move again in June, back to Saskatoon.
“I thought it would be best for me,” she adds. Elliott felt she had no choice with STC shutting down. At least every three months, she took the bus to Saskatoon for medical appointments.
“I’m stuck ... I can’t go anywhere (without the bus),” she says. “It’s the feeling you don’t know what will happen next.”
Elliott travels on this day with her sister Joy Postlewaite, who lives in Saskatoon. “It’s worse for women,” she says of the bus service’s loss and worries about vulnerable people resorting to hitchhiking.
Calling Bjorkdale home for nearly three decades, Sandra Lune boarded the Hudson Bay bus and transferred at Melfort for Regina. She knows the journey well, travelling weekly at times for medical appointments or to help at her daughter’s home daycare.
“This is my last run to Regina. It’s a very sad, sad trip,” says Lune.
It’s Tuesday, STC’s service ends Wednesday, but she doesn’t go home until the end of the week. Lune has no idea how she’ll get there.
While private carriers have applied for some routes, Lune doubts hers will be one of them. She adds that she wouldn’t want to use a service that didn’t have the same checks and balances as STC. “I want to know who I’m driving with.”
Lune says STC tied the rural areas to the province’s major cities. “Saskatchewan’s not a corridor like Alberta,” she adds, comparing her home province to the west to her adopted one. “It’s spread out everywhere so we really, truly need this bus service.
“In the end, they’re going to realize this is a mistake,” adds Lune.
The closure also means the end of the line for 220 unionized workers.
“I love what I do, and I do what I love,” says an affable Walter Kacuiba, whom the regulars greet as “Wally.” He drove his last route Tuesday, from his hometown of Prince Albert to Melfort, Saskatoon and back to P.A.
Kacuiba’s career path after high school back in ’68 also began on a highway, as a flag person. His first job behind the wheel was driving a bread delivery truck, next as a city transit driver, then driving bus charters across North America, and finally for STC starting almost 12 years ago. He recalls being forced from an icy grid road by a wayward moose, fog so thick “you have to cut it through with a knife,” and postcards from around the world sent to him by former passengers.
“I just love being on the road,” he adds. Even on vacations, he and his wife motor off somewhere. “I get behind the wheel, and I’m relaxed.”
Asked about the road ahead for the 67-year-old who’s made a career of going forward, Kacuiba says all he knows for sure is that he’ll move on somewhere. “I get antsy. I can’t sit around.”