A new bus service through the South Okanagan officially begins operations Wednesday.
Mountain Man Mike’s, which already operates routes on Highway 3 between Vancouver and Alberta, is adding the new service effective Sept. 16.
“We have applied and were granted the right to run between Osoyoos and Kelowna on Highway 97. We’re going to link that leg to our Vancouver run, and that Vancouver run also links to a leg that goes all the way to Calgary,” explained owner Mike Hathaway. “There are some companies that operate between Vancouver, Kelowna and Calgary, but there’s a lot of cities that got left out, and Highway 97 was one of those corridors, so we decided to take this opportunity to get into the Kelowna market.”
There will be a single round trip Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The bus will leave the Four Points by Sheraton near the Kelowna airport at 8:55 am and pull into Osoyoos at 11:40 am.
The bus will depart Osoyoos at 12:30 pm and arrive back at the Four Points by Sheraton at 3:35 pm.
Along the way, the bus will make stops in Oliver, Okanagan Falls, Kaleden, Penticton, Summerland, Peachland, West Kelowna and Kelowna.
“We’ve heard from a lot of people happy about this new service,” said Hathaway. “A lot of towns like Penticton have been interested in getting access to Vancouver. It’s been really positive feedback so far."
A full trip from Osoyoos to Kelowna will cost $30.
Hathaway began operating the company in May of 2019.
“We started small, with one bus and one staff member. It was just me,” he explained. “We expanded to Vancouver, then Calgary, and have proven that we are a capable company.
“We now have three buses and a staff of 10, and have been growing exponentially. And we haven’t received government funding whatsoever. I’m funding the whole thing out of my pocket.”
And the really interesting part?
Hathaway runs his buses on biodiesel.
“The blend is up to 80%. I still do run some diesel in the system, especially during winter to stop stuff from freezing up. We’ve been running on biodiesel for about a year and around 250,000 kilometres on the buses, and we haven’t had any fuel system issues with them. It’s been a good, reliable fuel source.
“We have a company we work with. We give them dirty vegetable oil, and they give us laboratory-tested biodiesel.”
For further information on schedules, click here.
To book a trip, click here
