The Director of Business Development with Ebus says they aren’t closing the door on even more expansions in B.C.

John Stepovy says the Alberta-based company gets about dozen suggestions from the public each week, asking for service to various communities across Western Canada.

“They know that we are in the mode to expand to serve more communities and it’s the public, it’s municipal administration that are interested, economic development,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest out there for further growth, and we are certainly open to talking to other communities.”

Stepovy adds they’ve taken the approach to first establish a strong base of riders, before looking for those future expansions.

“First off it was Kamloops, Kelowna, Vancouver, that triangle,” he said. “We want to offer a safe, comfortable and mostly a sustainable service for them to know that six months from now, they could book a doctors appointment and we’re going to be there to provide that service for them to get to their appointments.”

He noted that any expansions they undertake have to be the right opportunities, both for the company and potential customers.

“You know people don’t want to be on a bus for 10, 12, 15 hours with the cost of flights coming down,” Stepovy added. “You know we sort of think that that three to five hour bus trip is kind of ideal and comfortable for people to be on.”

Stepovy admitted their proposed Kamloops to Prince George route is an exception to that, but says there were plenty of requests for that service along Highway 97.

The other route awaiting approval is a Kamloops to Kelowna route through the Shuswap.