Medicine Hat-to-Lethbridge shuttle service aims to hit the road in March

In July 2018, the province announced a $700,000 grant for a new shuttle service linking Medicine Hat to Lethbridge and stopping at 10 rural communities in between.

Now, five months later, the wait for this new transport is almost over.

The plans for the privately operated service were first revealed in July last year. This marked a significantly important time for many rural residents as Greyhound had announced just weeks before its intentions to cancel all Alberta transit.

With this cancellation effective Oct. 31, 2018, thousands of people living within southern Alberta have since found themselves without any transport options.

“The people that will be accessing this, it’s very important to them,” said Cameron Mills, manger of economic and community development with the Town of Coaldale.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The people that will be accessing this, it's very important to them," said Cameron Mills, manger of economic and community development with the Town of Coaldale.

“It gives them an opportunity to get in and out of Lethbridge to Taber or Medicine Hat, or wherever, without necessarily having their own vehicle.”

Slated to link nine towns on Highway 3, including Seven Persons, Bow Island, Burdett, Grassy Lake, Purple Springs, Taber, Barnwell, Cranford, Coaldale and circling back to the community of Redcliffe; the Medicine Hat/Lethbridge shuttle service was announced as a two-year pilot program aiming to broaden rural public transportation through the private sector.

“The province is under-writing the broader proposal,” said Mills. “They’re providing the opportunity for a private company to come in and do it without fear of heavy losses.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The province is under-writing the broader proposal," said Mills. "They're providing the opportunity for a private company to come in and do it without fear of heavy losses."

Mills said a service provider has been confirmed and each municipality along the route has solidified locations where the shuttle will stop.

Both a website and Facebook page outlining where these stops are and how to access the service will be made available within the coming weeks.

“It’s a fairly flexible program so if we find that there’s tweaks that need to be made — maybe the location we’ve chosen for a stop isn’t ideal — then it’s an easy enough thing to change, say, after six months.”

Although no definitive date has been confirmed, Mills said the shuttle service is set to hit the roads in March, with aims to run twice daily, from Monday through Friday.