As STC ends, passengers left waiting for new service

The last Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) bus rolls out of the barn Wednesday evening.

As of now, no private company is offering any bus routes although 11 have applied to do so through Saskatchewan’s Highway Traffic Board (HTB).

One of those is Carpe Diem who has applied to run a service on most major routes in the central and southern parts of the province.

“We haven’t actually heard any more news about it, but with people contesting it, we haven’t been able to move forward with our passenger service,” co-owner Mitch Blyth explained to the 980 CJME Morning Show. “It has really delayed things badly for us, we had hoped for a seamless transition but apparently it is not going to happen.”

Typically the HTB process takes 30 days but that can be much longer if anyone lodges a notice of opposition. If that’s the case a public hearing is held and the process can take far longer.

The Amalgamated Transit Union has filed an opposition to Carpe Diem’s application.

“The people of the province are the ones that are suffering, we were supposed to have a meeting with the Cancer Society which we’ve had to postpone indefinitely pending approval,” Blyth confirmed.

Blyth said they have been able to get moving on the Carpe Diem Express Parcel Service.

The last STC bus leaves Regina for Preeceville at 6 p.m. with the last bus arriving from Saskatoon at 9:30 p.m.

In Saskatoon, the last bus heads for Unity arriving at 9:45 p.m. with the last bus ever on the road between Prince Albert and Hudson Bay, late Wednesday night.

Buses will still be on the road Thursday being driven without passengers back to the garages in Saskatoon and Regina.

The bus depots in Regina and Saskatoon will remain open until the Greyhound contract expires in September.

STC will be officially wound down by March 2018.