CALGARY – The wheels on the bus go round and round, from Calgary to Canmore with Cochrane in between.
A new regional transit service has announced Canmore as one of the four inaugural Snow Travels Inc. stops, launching this Thursday (July 23).
“We did the market research and found bus service where people can enjoy the ride from one city to another is missing from Alberta,” Snow Travels Inc. President and CEO Abu Ramil said earlier this week.
Based out of Calgary, Alta., the buses will have four target destinations, Canmore, Drumheller, Lethbridge and Edmonton, with secondary stops in Cochrane, Red Deer, Okotoks, High River, and Nanton – to start.
“I think Canmore is one of the most important cities that everyone wants to go [visit] … to enjoy mountain time in the summertime and wintertime,” Ramil said, explaining his decision to include the mountain town.
Inspired to take action after Greyhound Canada ended bus service in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in the summer of 2018, the president and CEO of the new company knew he wanted to fill the gap in a safe and affordable manner.
“We did the research before the pandemic and put a pause on the relaunch … we wanted to make sure we were going in the right direction,” Ramil said, noting the company has taken several precautions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including mandatory mask requirements, disinfecting after every ride and operating at 50 per cent capacity to ensure social distancing.
“People are hurting financially and we wanted to make sure people can connect from one city to another safely and affordably.”
After the discontinuation of services two years ago, Greyhound Canada put out a press release saying the decision was “regretful” but noted routes in rural parts of Canada were just not “sustainable anymore.”
Other regional bus services have popped up in southern Alberta, including On-It Transit which offers services to Banff and Canmore, and other southern communities.
Ramil said he hopes the new service offers a safe and affordable option, with one-way tickets starting as low as $25.
Visit the website at snowtravels.ca for more information on Snow Travels Inc.
