Bus companies eyeing Windsor-to-Toronto route

Two bus companies are planning to step in to fill the inter-city transportation void left when Greyhound Canada ceased operations in Canada last May.

"We're in negotiations to try to get into the Windsor bus terminal downtown," said Badder Bus President Doug Badder. "We're just waiting for that to get approved and once it happens, we'll start with one bus."

That approval has to come from Greyhound Canada, which still controls interest in the bus terminal.

Transit Windsor executive director Tyson Cragg said once that is in place, Transit Windsor welcomes the service.

"There would have to be some further discussions on that because, obviously, we do have interest in that facility and we'd have to ensure from an insurance perspective, and from the servicethey're going to be providing, that they are a legitimate provider and that they check out in terms of being able to fulfil all the obligations much like Greyhound did," said Cragg.

Cragg said a handful of other operators have expressed interest in using the terminal including Rider Express Transportation Corp.

"We would like to connect Windsor with the rest of the country," said general manager Omer Kanca, from the company headquarters in Calgary.

Rider Express operates 20 buses with 50 employees mainly in Western Canada. The company plans to start up a Windsor-to-London-to-Kitchener-to-Pearson Airport-to-Union Station in Toronto route on July 19.

• Megabus to roll between London-Toronto with Windsor expansion possible

• Greyhound Canada shutting down all bus service permanently

The company would operate one bus leaving from Windsor in the morning and one bus leaving Toronto in the afternoon and arriving in the evening.

Owner Firat Uray said they too are waiting for authorization to use the downtown bus terminal but will use an alternate location temporarily. Uray said they are still waiting for authorization to go to the airport in Torontoas well.

"This service will also be connecting to Ottawa," said Uray. "We started July 1 Ottawa-to-Toronto runs."

Rider still has to work out details on the schedule, the location of where it would operate out of Windsor and pricing. Badder would offer rates as low as one dollar for early bird bookings, but even though they are offering $25 rates for their new London-to-Toronto service through their partner company Megabus.com,which kicks offThursday, the cost from Windsor is still undetermined.