Bus service hoping to expand with new route connecting Okanagan to Calgary

As B.C. COVID-19 restrictions are easing, a bus service carrying passengers across the province is hoping to get the green light to connect Kelowna to Calgary.

Kootenay-based Mountain Man Mike's bus service has routes from Kelowna to Osoyoos, Kaslo to Vancouver and Kalso to Calgary and cities in between, according to its website.

Due to an increase in ridership, owner Mike Hathaway said the bus service recently expanded its service across the Okanagan in the last six months. Free ridership is also being offered until Feb. 28 between Kelowna and Osoyoos. That route was initially dropped but with an increase in demand across other runs within the last two weeks, it relaunched.

READ MORE: Kootenay transit company is approved for Kelowna-Osoyoos route

“We're seeing a lot of people travelling for spring break. Restrictions are opening up a little bit. People have been cooped up for a long time, they want to see their families since they’ve been putting off these trips for the last two years,” Hathaway said.

Christmastime hit record numbers since the company launched three years ago causing it to increase bus capacity on its most popular route from Kaslo to Vancouver, he said. The former Vancouver bus driver started the company with one bus and now has eight, with three 49-seat buses purchased this past summer.

“We grew through COVID, quite a bit actually,” Hathaway said.

“We were running our smaller buses after Christmas but over the last two weeks, we’ve seen those 24-seat buses sell out, so we decided it was time to bring in our larger buses,” he said, reporting about 200 passengers on the Kaslo to Vancouver route this month during a normally slow time of the year.

Mountain Man Mike’s is also hoping to expand with routes from Kelowna to Calgary and from Golden to Cranbrook. He’s still waiting on approval from the Passenger Transportation Board but is expecting to hear a response in the next two weeks.

That expansion would see five buses travelling between Kelowna and Calgary, he said.

“We’re trying to build up those ridership numbers a little bit, especially in the Kelowna, Osoyoos area because we are relatively new,” he said.

E-bus, which has a bus route from the Lower Mainland to the Interior, did not return a request for comment.

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