The manager of a bus service looking to start up in Merritt is disappointed by a lack of provincial funding for rural buses in the area.

Merritt Shuttle Bus Service operations manager Gene Field says there was no money in this year’s budget to add rural bus service or to help companies like his that are proposing to start up.

“They knew about it, in fact we had contacted the MLAs and had them kind of hammer the government about this service. And I know Ms. (Jackie) Tegart was very adamant about this being one of her priorities. And we also had the people, when they called us, we had them contact Minister Trevena’s office and let her know how much they need this service,” Field says.

“And when I found out that there was no funding available, even though they told me to wait for the budget, it really bothered me. Because all these people are now left high-and-dry with no bus service at all.

“If they were really thinking about it, it wouldn’t of taken that much money at all to be able to fund a lot of these smaller companies. You know, give people an incentive, say you have $2 million dollars in a budget that people can access. Because a lot of these communities only need one or two busses. Even if it was three times a week, at least they would have bus service.”

Field is still looking to obtain a license from the Passenger Transportation Board to begin operating his bus service in the Kamloops area.

Routes previously served by Greyhound including Kamloops to Cache Creek, the Fraser Canyon and Kamloops to Valemount have been without a long-haul bus service since May 31 of last year. Greyhound further pulled all of its routes in western Canada on Oct. 31.