New Winnipeg-Regina bus has Brandon stop

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This article was published 10/03/2021 (1780 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In nine days, a bus company will start making Winnipeg-to-Regina passenger trips with Brandon as a stop along the way.

As reported by the Winnipeg Free Press on Tuesday, Regina-founded company Rider Express is stepping up to fill one of the gaps left by Greyhound’s departure as of March 19.

The company previously ran a Regina-Winnipeg route but cancelled it before the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of business.

Now it’s giving the route another shot, adding on to its current routes going between Vancouver and Calgary, Calgary and Edmonton and Edmonton and Regina.

The route, which leaves Regina for Winnipeg at 11 p.m. on Friday, stops at the Esso station at 501 Park Ave. in Moosomin, Sask., at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, continues on to the Petro-Canada station at 340 Frontage Rd. in Virden at 3 a.m., drops by the Petro-Canada station at 100 Highland Ave. in Brandon at 4 a.m., visits the Flying J Travel Centre in Portage la Prairie at 5:30 a.m. and arrives at Maple Bus Lines at 926 Sherbrook St. at 6:30 a.m.

The reverse trip leaves Winnipeg at 11 p.m. on Saturday, then stops in Portage la Prairie at 12:05 a.m. on Sunday, Brandon at 1:30 a.m., in Virden at 2:30 a.m. and Moosomin at 2:35 a.m. before arriving at the company’s Regina offices at 1517 11th Ave. at 5 a.m.

Tickets cost $100 going from Winnipeg to Regina, but prices scale down if you join the trip somewhere in the middle.

For instance, boarding the bus in Brandon and travelling to Winnipeg costs $76.19 one-way, according to Rider Express’s website.

Speaking to the Sun on Tuesday by phone, Rider Express manager of operations Omer Kanca said the company is adding additional stops along the route if demand is high enough as well as trips running on additional days of the week.

He said the company has been trying to get funding from various levels of government to help fund routes and stops at more remote communities.

“It’s not always viable for private companies to service those areas,” said Kanca. “So far we haven’t got any government support, but we are searching for it.”

For instance, if interest and funding were available, Kanca said there would be the possibility of adding a second Manitoba-Saskatchewan route going from Saskatoon to Winnipeg by way of Highway 16.

Rider Express has yet to approach the Manitoba government for support, but Kanca said it has already approached the federal government and the governments of other provinces.

The manager said the pandemic has been difficult on the company and the industry as a whole, with a direct Regina-to-Calgary route eliminated because of it.

“We will be starting that route again as soon as we see that people start to travel again,” he said. “There is a lot of pent-up desire for travel and we would like to be ready for it as well … people are bored, really.”

He estimates that over certain periods of time during the pandemic, Rider Express was losing between 75 and 90 per cent of its revenue.

“But I think there is going to be a comeback,” said Kanca.

During a November 2019 visit from the Amalgamated Transit Union’s national president John DiNino, the union held a media conference outside the empty Greyhound station in downtown Brandon calling for the establishment of intercity transit, saying that Manitoba was one of the provinces hardest hit by Greyhound’s departure.

Reached for comment on Tuesday, the union believed the addition of the new route was positive, but stopped short of calling it a solution.

“Though we are encouraged by the news of a Winnipeg-Regina bus route, this still falls short of a national public intercity transit strategy,” a spokesperson for the union wrote in an email.

“The private market has not and will not adequately replace intercity transit services in Western provinces.”

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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