Valley Bus will be transitioning its services to help better serve the community effective as of Monday, May 1, with the non-profit Valley Bus Society contracting transportation and dispatch services to Bubba T’s Bus Tours and Shuttle Service.
Although Bubba T’s will be taking over service operations, the Valley Bus Society board will continue to remain active in the community and will put its focus on fundraising to help offset and manage costs.
“Contracting (the services) out will leave more time for the board to do fundraising and those kinds of efforts,” says Valley Bus Society President Ron Tremblay. “Instead of being split in two directions and going nowhere, we can focus our efforts on one direction.”
Valley Bus was started in 1984 when The Royal Purple and the Elks clubs got together and bought the first handibus for the community. Operations of the service were handed over to the Town of Drumheller during the early days prior to the formation of the Valley Bus Society, which has maintained operations since.
Over the last several years, the Valley Bus Society has run into challenges as ridership-the main source of revenue-began to dwindle around 2018 to 2019.
Town Councillor Tony Lacher, who is the appointed Town representative on the Valley Bus Society board, shares ridership was about 1,200 people a month at its height, but has dwindled to less than half in recent years.
Not only did ridership decline, expenses began to increase as the fleet required repairs and potential replacement, and Mr. Lacher says the society came to the decision about two years ago it would need to change its business plan, and that’s when discussions regarding subcontracting operations began.
“We’ll look to the community for continued support-we’re going to be out fundraising and looking for donations, we still have an operation to maintain,” Mr. Lacher says.
Although the Town of Drumheller provides the Valley Bus Society with an annual grant, it is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization. The Town offered space on its municipal website to post an Expression of Interest to assist in the search for a subcontractor.
Two tenders were received and, after review, Bubba T’s were chosen as the successful applicants.
Brothers Norm and Tom Fournier, co-owners of Bubba T’s, have lived in the Drumheller Valley for some four decades. They tell the Mail they have seen and heard first hand the need for the Valley Bus service in the community, and say they want to make the transition as smooth as possible for existing Valley Bus riders.
“The goal is to provide the best service possible to the elderly and disabled in the community,” Tom says. “We’re in it for the seniors and handicapped people in the community; we’re not in it to make a million.”
Bubba T’s will use two of its own handicap accessible buses currently in its fleet, and will also lease a third from Valley Bus. Norm and Tom hope they will be able to resume out of town trips, which had been previously discontinued, and aim to keep existing services the same as best as they are able.
Bubba T’s will officially take over service operations and dispatch effective as of Monday, May 1.
