Despite the loss of Greyhound service, Thompsonites will have more options for transportation come the fall.
The company is being run by Jimmy Pelk, Vipan Sikri and Siddharth Varma, who started TBL to fill the need that they saw arise by the recent Greyhound announcement.
The announcement was made yesterday at City Hall by Pelk and Varma that the new company, Thompson Bus Limited (TBL), will start limited service September 1st with full operation the day after Greyhound locks their doors.
At the announcement, Pelk said that one of the most important things for their new company is that it’s transportation for Thompsonites by Thompsonites. He added that their main goal is to meet the needs of the consumer.
Pelk, the general manager of Twin Motors Thompson, said that they don’t currently know what vehicles will be in the TBL fleet or how much a trip will cost. He said that those decision will be made later once they know what is needed.
Councillor Duncan Wong was one of four City Council members in attendance and asked if Thompson Bus would consider running municipal transit routes. Varma responded with a resounding, and quick, yes. Deputy Mayor Colleen Smook spoke to Arctic Radio News yesterday, and said that there are internal discussions being held, but no announcements have been made as to what will happen to Thompson City Transit once Greyhound leaves.
The initial release from Thompson Bus says that they plan on providing service to medical facilities in Winnipeg, Richardson International Airport, surrounding hotels and the Polo Park Shopping Centre.
TBL said that their primary focus will be transportation to and from Thompson, though they would be open to expanding to areas like Flin Flon or The Pas should the demand be there.
The announcement comes 10 days after Greyhound announced that they will end all service in the prairies as of October 31st, and nine days after Ontario-based Kasper Transportation announced that they would be starting a Winnipeg-Thompson bus route.
