The Rider Express transportation service has added a new route in Western Canada, and it will make available limited transportation from Moose Jaw to Regina on weekends.
Currently, the new Calgary-Regina route from the bus company will leave from Calgary on Friday evening for overnight service, and make the return trip from Regina to Calgary on Sunday evening.
For Moose Jaw passengers hoping to make the journey to Regina, this means that they can catch a ride from Moose Jaw to Regina at 7:15 a.m. on Saturday mornings, and catch the trip from Regina to Moose Jaw at 9 p.m. on Sunday evenings.
“We are planning to connect more routes and more cities between, so this is one of the steps that we are trying to connect Alberta to Saskatchewan,” said Firat Uray, owner.
The route will pass through Strathmore, Brooks, and Medicine Hat, Alta. before continuing on through Swift Current and Moose Jaw to Regina, and will launch on Mar. 13 coming from Calgary, and make the return trip leaving Regina on Mar. 15.
Passengers can board at any of the in-between stops, provided they have pre-purchased a ticket to ensure the bus stops at that town.
“We require our passengers to buy their ticket ahead of time, so when the bus leaves at the first destination, we know where we have passengers and where we need to stop,” said Uray.
Rider Express has been operating in western Canada for just over a year now, said Uray, and felt it was time to expand further in their service.
The company attempted to provide a Moose Jaw to Regina route just over a year ago, although ridership was too low to sustain the route.
Uray is hoping that ridership will be higher now that the company has been operating it’s western routes a bit longer, so they can expand their services to communities in this area.
“We get lots of requests and we want to answer those requests right now, and we are feeling comfortable that we'll see enough passengers,” said Uray. “Once we build up enough passengers, we will add more days and we're hoping by April, we can add at least four routes a week.”
The Moose Jaw pick-up and drop-off location with Rider Express’s bus route will be at the Fas Gas Plus on the Highway #1 service road, located at 2 - 1700 Lakeview Road.
Tickets are available online, and cost around $30 per one-way trip.
