When Parks Canada announced in January it was closing Moraine Lake to private vehicles, Jesse Kitteridge and Alexandra King saw an opportunity.

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The Banff couple have launched a shuttle service, called Moraine Lake Bus Company (MLBC), to get hikers and sightseers to the picturesque location 45 minutes north of town.

Kitteridge is a former lawyer in Banff who left to work at a local busing company to gain experience, while King worked in visitor experience for Banff Lake Louise Tourism. Between the two of them, they have a unique understanding of the sector and local knowledge.

“When the news came out that the road was closing, a lot of people had the same idea — they saw the opportunity there that there are literally thousands of people who were turned away from Moraine Lake every day, and Parks Canada’s shuttle does not come close to meeting that need,” said Kitteridge, co-owner and director of operations.

“We were in a somewhat unique opportunity where I had this fairly specialized tour industry legal experience . . . and Alex was managing the visitor services team out at Lake Louise and . . . I think sort of created a perfect storm where we could do it.”

Private companies beginning to supplement Parks Canada’s shuttle service

They actually saw the writing on the wall before Parks Canada made its announcement. With the agency previously making a consistent push to get people using shuttles to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise, the couple began work on starting the company in November. To operate the service, they secured a Banff National Park tourist bus licensce as well as a Moraine Lake commercial transportation pass, in addition to standard busing and commercial licensing.

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The popularity of Moraine Lake and Lake Louise has grown exponentially in the past decade, and has led to thousands of vehicles being turned away from both locations on a daily basis between June and October. Lake Louise is still open to private vehicles, but most are turned away.

MLBC is set to receive two 24-passenger buses on a Ford F450 chassis with the option to purchase two more, depending on how pre-season sales go. Two thirds of their departures are set for Moraine Lake while the other third include a one-hour stop at Lake Louise. A round-trip ticket will cost $35, departing from Samson Mall in the Lake Louise village with bookings through their website. The ticket cost is set to ensure they can pay staff a living wage for Banff.

MLBC is just one of a growing number of private companies offering shuttle or busing service in the national park.

Where Kitteridge and King are separating themselves from other private companies and the Parks Canada service is their departure time: their first bus will leave at 4 a.m. to ensure those looking to get a daylong hike in can hit the trails early.

“We recognized the issues ourselves, so we started the bus company to bring people up there for that reason as well as to enjoy the sunrise and fill that void that has been left by Parks,” he said.

American tourists making more bookings to Lake Louise than Canadians: Parks Canada

To meet the demand of most tourists, Parks Canada last week signed a contract with Diversified Transportation.

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Booking through the Parks Canada website opened last week and in the first three days, 20,000 bookings were made for 66,000 tickets. Jed Cochrane, visitor experience manager for Parks Canada, said this represents about 18 per cent of the available bookings for the season.

The January announcement was met with frustration from many tourists over the closure of the road, but he said it was a necessary move and people will adapt to the change. It will, at the very least, help ensure visitors are able to plan to get to Moraine Lake instead of driving out from Calgary and being turned away.

Parks Canada also is seeing a higher percentage of bookings from American tourists over domestic tourists. Cochrane believes this is due to to shuttle services being the mode of transportation in a number of U.S. national parks, and visitors from down south are already used to it.

“Change is never easy . . . this is obviously a place that a lot of people hold dear,” said Cochrane, who was encouraged by the early bookings. “We think with time Canadian visitors will get to that same place too.”

Tickets for the Parks Canada shuttle this year are $8 per adult, $4 per senior, with a $3 reservation fee, while those 18 and under ride free.

He added that the bookings so far have been split 50-50 between Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Still, Cochrane said Parks Canada is preparing for continued congestion at Lake Louise and will work to solve these issues to ensure a better visitor experience and access for emergency vehicles. He would not commit to a similar private vehicle restriction for access to Lake Louise.

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For Diversified Transportation, this is an opportunity to expand its footprint and network. It has mostly operated out of northern Alberta, getting people to and from Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie. While it has had some routes through Calgary over the years, this will be its biggest push south.

It will be running full-service Prevost X-345 coaches to get people to the two lakes, with a scaled-back opening of May 19 and running from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. from June 1 to Oct. 15.

“This is a great opportunity to deliver safe transportation to Parks Canada where are we going to see people from across the globe, and an Alberta company working in Alberta and representing our populous province,” said David Richards, general manager of Diversified.