A new deluxe motor coach with amenities like private cabins and flat-screen TVs may be making daily runs between Fort McMurray and Edmonton as soon as May.
Randy White moved to Alberta from Newfoundland almost 30 years ago to work in the oil sands and has traveled 63 countless times.
“I’ve lost a number of friends on the road, and had close encounters myself,” he says.
He’s the man behind the new Oil Sands Express and says it will keep the highway safer.
“The big idea is, like if it all works and what not, to start of, I’ll be taking 56 people in my bus per day, off that highway,” he continues, “you know, these are people who are working all day, who are too tired, but they’ll drive, because they won’t stay in camp an extra day, believe me, it’s like prison.”
He explains what it would look like.
“Okay, well your in your cabin, you got internet, you got a flat screen TV, you got a mini fridge and microwave oven, you have an X-Box or PlayStation, you have an ice chest and you have a little desk, and more.”
He says the idea just came to him one day.
“You know travelling back and forth there for 30 years, just getting sick of the buses, and trying to figure out a way to make it more comfortable,” he adds, “and I went on a train there a few years ago, and the light went on, and I said ‘Gee, it be nice to have a bus crossed like a train,’ you know, where you’ve got your own little private space.”
He says he just has to finalize financing but there are already two motor coaches on retainer ready for customization.
He says he plans to have five in total.
He’s given plans to TEC Edmonton, a not-for-profit agency that helps develop businesses from technological ideas.
It’s a joint-venture between the Greater Edmonton Economic Development Council and the University of Alberta.
He says he’s looking for $300,000 to get it up and started.
Fares would cost $149 from Fort McMurray to work camps, $169 from Edmonton to Fort McMurray and $229 from Edmonton to site north of Fort McMurray.
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