INNISFAIL - As Greyhound Canada prepares to end passenger bus and freight services in Western Canada this fall, other bus lines are considering stepping up to fill a potential need in Central Alberta, including Innisfail.
Red Arrow, which serves much of the province and has a depot in Red Deer, is one of them. Last month Greyhound Canada announced it was ending its passenger bus and freight services in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The company added it was also cancelling all but one route in B.C.
“We’re looking at all options,” said John Stepovy, director of sales and business development. “We’re looking at how to best innovate transportation in the province for today’s demands.”
He noted some of those opportunities may include utilizing existing routes, creating new routes or forming new partnerships with smaller, local or regional transportation providers that could connect into the Red Arrow system.
“We know Innisfail is tied in with Red Deer County in the rural transportation pilot,” he said. “There is certainly an opportunity to partner with the community, since there is going to be an established bus service that potentially could connect with the Red Arrow service to go further south to Calgary or Lethbridge or north to Edmonton, Cold Lake, or Fort McMurray,” explained Stepovy.
The town currently is working to finalize details of the newly announced provincial transportation initiative, said Karen Bradbury, community and social development coordinator.
“Our focus is trying to figure out details on what the service (with the rural transportation pilot project) is going to look like,” said Bradbury. “The transportation service review committee is looking at all transportation options for the community as a whole,” she added, noting they have had inquiries about public transportation to larger cities.
“There’s always a need for those longer trips to Edmonton and Calgary. We have had people inquire about services to those larger centres.”
Stepovy noted challenges in providing a viable public transportation service and said all people must be willing to use it.
“We need to figure out how to encourage those that have the ability to drive their own vehicle and have access to their own vehicle, to actually make a conscious decision to use public transportation,” he said, noting the importance of carpooling and using public transportation regularly.
“Those kinds of things would help in developing sustained services,” he added. “If a community needs it, then the entire community needs to support (transportation) services.”
Red Arrow is open to talks with municipalities across Central Alberta, he said.
“We’re engaging with provincial officials, with municipalities and with citizens,” said Stepovy. “We’re just trying to figure out where services are needed and take a community by community approach.
“We’re open to conversation and if the Town of Innisfail believes there’s a need, we’re certainly open to conversations with all communities.”
