P.A. company starting bus service to Edmonton
Harkanwal Singh and his business partner hope their homegrown bus company will be able to fill at least some of the void left when Greyhound Canada’s coaches roll out of Saskatchewan for the final time.
Greyhound’s planned departure will leave the province without a major bus service.
The provincial government axed the 71-year-old Saskatchewan Transportation Co. in its 2017-18 austerity budget.
Singh, an electrical engineer, and Charanjit Singh own KCTI Travels, a small transportation firm that began running passengers and parcels between its Prince Albert headquarters and La Ronge in August.
In an interview Monday, Singh said the company plans to run a small bus between Saskatoon and Edmonton, beginning Nov. 1.
The bus will leave Saskatoon in the morning and return at night, with one-way fares of about $80.
“Customers were wondering what would happen once Greyhound left this area, so when we took the chance we thought, ‘OK, it’s a good thing that we will be able to go into service because people need that service,’ ” Singh said.
KCTI Travels isn’t ruling out more routes or larger coaches, either. Singh said the loss of a “feeder” route from Winnipeg may reduce ridership to Edmonton, but the company could experiment with a second bus on the route later next month.
The company also expects some of its business to include people headed west for specialist and other medical appointments.
The provincial government’s decision to scrap STC was among the most controversial in its last budget, leading to questions about transparency and fears of limited options for seniors, Indigenous people and others living in remote communities.
Many of those fears were compounded in July, when Greyhound — citing plummeting ridership, increased competition, regulatory constraints and the rise of low-cost airlines — announced its plan to end service across most of Western Canada.
The province has long maintained that private-sector operations would fill the gap left by STC. While the network of routes offered by companies such as KCTI Travels is small, it appears to be growing.
Rider Express Transportation announced last week that it had purchased five 50-seat highway coaches to serve two new routes, one linking Edmonton and Winnipeg and a second joining Winnipeg and Calgary.
The Regina-based company already operates routes in Saskatchewan, which link Regina, Saskatoon, Swift Current and Prince Albert.
Singh said he hopes adding service to Edmonton and back will help KCTI Travels’ bottom line. Ridership between Prince Albert and La Ronge is sparse, often insufficient to cover costs, he said.
“The La Ronge route we started was a really good thing that pushed us to enter this big route. Otherwise, it was not possible. But the La Ronge route gave us the experience so that we were able to make this decision.”