Private sector isn’t replacing STC buses

Bus users need to appeal to the provincial government to stop pushing the myth that the private sector has some magic ability to reproduce a similar bus service to that provided by STC.

Finally grasping the concept that STC was a public service and not a profit-making venture would also help.

To date, the facts are that only two routes — between Regina-Saskatoon-Prince Albert and Regina-Yorkton — are experiencing either five-day or seven-day regular service, and that is with 14-passenger vans.

While there have been some 15 applications to the Highway Traffic Board for operating rights since the end of STC service, this has not translated into replacement services. Many applicants were only wanting to provide special event, school bus and charter services. Others, after being granted operating authority, have decided to put operating plans on hold after realizing that services would incur financial losses.

One of the two original applicants approved to provide Regina-Saskatoon-P.A. service has “merged” with the remaining operator, Rider Express.

An immediate result was a $10 fare increase. This same company has tried services to North Battleford, Meadow Lake and Estevan, but all have been discontinued. A taxi company based in Nipawin was offering a service from its home community to Saskatoon, but this also has been abandoned due to financial concerns.

None of these events are a real surprise given the economics of bus transportation in a large, sparsely populated land mass such as Saskatchewan.

Without revisiting all the costs and hardships caused by killing off STC, the current government needs to stop peddling the fairy tale that private sector operators will ultimately satisfy the ongoing need for an organized bus network. It will just not happen without subsidies.

If this is finally understood then perhaps the philosophical hangup can be bridged and the reality that a public subsidy rather than private operator subsidies is the better solution.

Whether this government can swallow this dose of reality remains to be seen. Martin Wooldridge, Edenwold