There hasn’t been a regular bus route running between Owen Sound and Guelph in over a decade, but come March there may be two of them.
London-based carrier Voyago was previously selected for a $1.4-million provincially-subsidized, 39-month pilot project to operate a transit line between Owen Sound and Guelph, which will have stops in Chatsworth, Williamsford, Durham, Mt Forest, Arthur, Fergus and Elora.
That bus line is expected to start in a month or two.
But a second company that lost the bid for the pilot project, Thunder Bay-based Kasper Transportation announced it will start a bus line between the two cities starting Jan. 15.
Kasper Transportation was one of two companies in contention for the contract, said Dennis Kefalas, director of Public Works and Engineering with the City of Owen Sound, but it was awarded to Voyogo.
Kefalas said the hope was to have the Voyago service up and running early in the new year, but the company is still in the process of obtaining a license to operate in Grey County.
“They are looking at probably an end of February or beginning of March start up date,” said Kefalas of Voyogo.
In the meantime, Kasper Transportation is planning to begin operating a competing twice-a-day service using a large passenger van in the same corridor.
“I’m excited to see this new route go into operation,” said president Kasper Wabinski in a press release. “We’ve successfully applied and hold the only license for this route and have focused on implementing service as safely and quickly as we can.”
The Ford Transit HD 350 XLT and 250 XLT vans have seating capacity of 12 to 15 and meet the definition of a bus, said Wabinski.
Kasper Transportation applied for the public vehicle (PV) license in 2018. On Monday, Wabinski told GuelphToday if Voyago applies to the Ontario Highway Transport Board for a PV license he has the right to contest that application.
Kefalas said both Voyago and Kasper Transportation were bidders for the original request for proposal to run the subsidized pilot project, but neither company was compliant at the time.
The City of Owen Sound decided to work with Voyago to bring them up to compliance for the pilot, said Kefalas.
“They worked out the details of what they needed to do to provide the service to meet our needs and to be compliant with their qualifications,” said Kefalas. “They are working hard to get their license as quickly as possible and getting the buses up and running.”
The second proponent, Kasper Transportation, was not selected and will not have access to the provincial subsidy, said Kefalas.
“They were one of the proponents that originally submitted, but they were not compliant and were not going to be able to meet some of our requirements,” said Kefalas. “Then all of a sudden he decided he was going to start running the bus service using some vans and we said ‘okay, we can’t stop you.’”
Kefalas said there is a need for the service, but he is unsure of it will support two competing companies.
“That’s hard to say, I guess we will find out,” he said.
The Kasper Transportation morning service will leave Owen Sound City Transit at 8 a.m. and arrive at Guelph Transit at 10:30 a.m. It will then leave Guelph at 10:45 a.m. and arrive in Owen Sound at 1:11 p.m.
A one-way ticket between Owen Sound and Guelph will cost $25. A ride between Fergus and Guelph will cost $10.
In the afternoon, the Kasper Transportation van will leave Owen Sound City Transit at 2:30 p.m. and arrive at Guelph Transit at 4:55 p.m. It will then leave Guelph at 5:15 p.m. and arrive in Owen Sound at 7:41 p.m
