By Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
A new passenger bus and parcel service is running from Saskatoon to Alsask, and the same operator is offering a connecting route from Alsask to Calgary.
The province’s Highway Traffic Board approved an application in July for Alsask Bus Services Ltd. to operate a passenger service from Saskatoon to Alsask. The private bus company has been operating a passenger service from Alsask to Calgary since 2012.
People can now travel between Saskatoon and Calgary seven days a week. And a Monday-to-Friday passenger service will allow people to attend appointments in the cities and return home the same day.
Alsask Bus Service also offers a freight service between Saskatoon and Calgary. You can ship packages from nearly anywhere along this route and packages will arrive the same day.
The Kindersley Bus Depot also works with Tiger Courier Inc. to offer a freight service, so businesses and individuals have more than one option to ship packages from the area. Tiger Courier partners with Greyhound Canada, so items can be sent across Canada.
Get more information about the Alsask Bus Services passenger and parcel service and book tickets at www.alsaskbus.ca. You can also get more information from agents at bus depots along the Saskatoon to Calgary route.
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John and Pearl Humeny are the agents at the Kindersley Bus Depot. John said they have been working at the depot for more than 40 years. John said Yiming Lu, the owner of Alsask Bus Services, has been working hard to get things in place for the daily and weekday passenger service from Saskatoon to Calgary.
He noted that the passenger service started up on Aug. 8 for both the daily service from Calgary to Saskatoon and Saskatoon to Calgary, and the weekday passenger service that offers same-day return from the cities.
The daily service runs on statutory holidays. The Monday-to-Friday service doesn’t run on statutory holidays. There are several stops along the route, including Kindersley, Drumheller and Rosetown, and several flag stops. You can board at Brock, Fiske and Netherhill, along with several other stops along the route from Alsask to Saskatoon.
According to the agents in Kindersley, to board the bus at a flag stop all you need to do is call the Alsask Bus Services toll-free number (1-888-880-8868). Passengers can pay the driver or pay using an online option.
All schedules are available on the company’s website, including a schedule for the weekday Alsask-to-Calgary route. The agents in Kindersley say Alsask Bus Services is still working on details regarding depot locations, but it’s part of the early stages of operating a new bus route.
John said agents in Kindersley have been using social media to get word out about the resurrection of passenger service from Alsask to Saskatoon. Information has also been provided to places such as retirement homes.
“It’s a needed service,” the agent added. He said Lu, the bus service operator, has been awesome to work with and he believes the province made a mistake by shutting down the Saskatchewan Transportation Co. (STC) because people rely on the bus service.
In earlier interviews, Lu said it was nice to get the approval from the Highway Traffic Board to operate a passenger service.
He still had to finalize an arrangement with Greyhound, get the routes going and make sure he was meeting all the requirements of his permit.
Greyhound provides service to and from the depots in Saskatoon and Calgary, so the details of connecting routes needed to be arranged. People could buy tickets from Greyhound and end up on Lu’s buses.
Lu said his goal is to provide a safe and reliable service, so he hopes people get on board with Alsask Bus Services to travel between the two cities and their communities. He said it was important to start up the route.
“Since STC shut down, we lost a lot of business,” Lu said, referring to his bus service and how he needed both passenger and freight service from east of Alsask to make it worthwhile. “People need the service on this line.”
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