Two bus lines have stepped up to the plate to fill the void after Greyhound departed the Battlefords market in late October.
One line that announced the beginning of operations Nov. 19 was KCTI Travels, which announced Monday that Alberta’s department of transportation has approved its passenger service between Saskatoon and Edmonton.
North Battleford is included on the route, which also covers Lloydminster, Vermilion and Vegreville. The company announced in a news release that it will use a 15-passenger Ford transit van for the route, which will run five days a week.
KCTI’s website states it is using the Tim Hortons location at 11402 Railway Ave. as its stop to pick up and drop off passengers in North Battleford. KCTI is scheduled to depart North Battleford going westbound to Edmonton at 9:50 each morning. Its departure time from North Battleford to Saskatoon is listed at 9:45 p.m.
More information can be found at www.kcti.ca.
The other service announced for the area is Rider Express, which is launching a route between Edmonton and Saskatoon running six days a week except Saturdays.
The company stated on their website that they expected that route to be ready by Nov. 19. They also expect to expand that route to include Winnipeg in the near future.
Rider Express has posted its schedule on its website at www.riderexpress.com. According to their schedule, their eastbound route to Saskatoon is scheduled to depart North Battleford and 3:10 p.m. and arrive in Saskatoon by 4:40 p.m. daily. The westbound route to Edmonton is scheduled to depart North Battleford at 6:30 p.m.
According to Rider Express, their pickup and drop off point for passengers in North Battleford is the Petro-Canada location on Highway 16.
