Rider Express taking second shot at Regina-to-Calgary bus route

Rider Express is hoping the second time is the charm for its bus route between Regina and Calgary.

The company will start the route on March 13, stopping in Strathmore, Brooks, Medicine Hat, Swift Current and Moose Jaw along the way.

Rider Express tried to run the same route in 2018, taking it up after Greyhound pulled its service out of Western Canada. But Rider Express cancelled the route after just a few weeks.

“There weren’t enough passengers for us to keep so many routes, but now the company is already settled with other routes that are going well so now we can try one more time, and we are sure this time it will work out,” said Firat Uray, owner of Rider Express.

Over the three years the company has been in business, it has grown a fair bit. Uray said the company has routes between Regina and Saskatoon twice a day, goes from Regina to Saskatoon and on to Edmonton, and has service between Calgary and Vancouver.

The Regina-to-Calgary route will start in March, and Uray said he’s also hoping to add a Calgary-to-Edmonton route in April.

“That way, most of the western route which Greyhound used to provide, we are taking over,” said Uray.

The ridership has grown as well. When the company started, Uray said it had two 14-passenger vans but now there are 17 vehicles in the fleet and 13 of them are full-sized coach buses.