Inter-city buses helping connect B.C. families during the holidays, amid highway travel restrictions
CBC
With non-essential travel restrictions on highways 3 and 99 in effect through the holidays, inter-city buses are the only option for travellers in B.C.'s Interior hoping to get to and from the Lower Mainland by road.
The buses are an essential service in the province which means vaccination is not mandatory and travellers do not need an essential reason to use them.
"A lot of people haven't seen their families in a long time, " said Michael Hathaway, the owner and director of Mountain Man Mike's, "so I think it's important right now to bring families together."
Mountain Man Mike's is an intercity bus company that provides round trip services between Nelson and Vancouver and Nelson and Calgary.
Hathaway said he's been in a frantic rush to get his larger buses in service before the holiday, as bookings have increased significantly ever since travel restrictions were announced mid-November.
"Our bookings have actually tripled," said Hathaway. "A majority of our volume is on that Nelson to Vancouver corridor and Manning Park. We're getting a ton of bookings for that area.
Glenn Desjardine, the operations manager for Ebus, said they've added more travel dates and times to their schedules this holiday season to accommodate the spike in passengers.
Ebus's three major routes are the Kelowna to Vancouver corridor, the Kamloops to Vancouver corridor and the Kamloops to Kelowna route.
"The last few days we've seen a lot of bookings, especially on the primary days that people want to travel like December 21st to the 24th and then again the 26th to the 30th," he said. "So we encourage people to book in advance."
Currently, proof of vaccination is strongly recommended but not mandatory to ride the Ebus, Desjardine said, but they will be implementing a full vaccination policy come Jan. 10, 2022.
"We didn't want to impose a change on our travel policy just before Christmas, leaving people with no other option," he said.
"I think it's the responsible thing to do to the communities that we serve and the people that we're serving as well."
Suman Kumar who lives in Prince George, B.C. says she was planning to drive to Surrey to visit her husband and two children but she might be spending the holidays alone again this year.
Kumar said she can't afford a bus ticket as she hasn't been able to find full-time employment after losing her job twice during the pandemic.
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