Moving to Saskatchewan: Getting Around Once You Arrive

Most provinces have gaps in their intercity transport. Saskatchewan is the one that closed its network on purpose. If you are moving to saskatchewan, or have already arrived and are working out how to get between towns, that single decision explains more about your options than anything else.

This is not a reason to avoid the province. Saskatchewan is affordable, the insurance is the cheapest in the country, and the two big cities work perfectly well. It does mean that the moment you need to travel between places, you are on your own in a way you would not be almost anywhere else.

The province that closed its own bus company

The Saskatchewan Transportation Company was a Crown corporation that ran intercity buses for 71 years. In March 2017 the province announced it would be wound down, and by 31 May that year passenger service had stopped entirely.

The scale of what went is worth stating. STC carried roughly 250,000 people a year and served 253 locations across the province. The stated reason was cost: the subsidy had risen from about $25 per passenger a decade earlier to $94 per passenger by the end. A University of Saskatchewan study afterwards documented the effect on people who had relied on it, and the phrase that came back repeatedly was that quality of life had been compromised.

Greyhound then withdrew from Western Canada in 2018. Within roughly a year, a province the size of France lost almost all of its scheduled ground transport.

What is actually running in 2026

Private operators have picked up parts of the map, and it is fair to say the situation has improved from the low point. It is also fair to say it remains unreliable.

• FlixBus expanded into the prairies in May 2026, adding service through Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current and improving links between Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
• Rider Express and a handful of smaller operators cover some corridors, generally with one departure a day or less.
• Turnover is the problem. As of July 2026, seven bus companies had stopped operating or ended public passenger service in the province since STC closed. The Prince Albert to Saskatoon shuttle ended in July 2026.

So transportation in Saskatchewan between cities exists, but it is thin, it changes without much notice, and any given route may not be there next year. Planning a life around it is difficult in a way that planning around Winnipeg Transit or TransLink is not.

The cost side is genuinely good

None of the above is a cost problem, and it would be misleading to imply otherwise. The cost of living in Saskatchewan runs about $2,800 to $3,200 a month for one person. A couple without children in Saskatoon averages around $3,785 a month all in, and a family of four about $5,455. A central one-bedroom in Saskatoon is roughly $1,100 to $1,450.

Car insurance is the standout. SGI is a public insurer and Saskatchewan has some of the lowest rates in Canada, commonly $100 to $160 a month for comprehensive cover, with basic insurance bought together with your plate. Compared with the $1,835 average in Alberta or the $3,194 first-time quote in British Columbia, this is not the province where insurance is the obstacle.

One detail worth knowing if you are relocating to Saskatchewan from somewhere warm: there is no provincial law requiring winter tyres, but SGI may reduce your coverage after an accident if you were not running them. It is a rule people find out about at the worst possible moment.

Parking is not the expense here either

Downtown Saskatoon and Regina are inexpensive to park in by national standards, and outside the two cities parking is rarely a cost at all. That said, a passenger still pays nothing, and two people arriving in one car occupy one stall rather than two.

The larger saving is the vehicle itself. If your work is in Saskatoon or Regina and only your longer trips fall outside transit, sharing those trips can be the difference between needing a car and not needing one, which is worth considerably more than any parking fee.

What one departure a day takes from you

Saskatoon to Regina is 260 km and about two and a half hours by road. Where scheduled service exists on a corridor like that, it typically runs once a day.

A single daily departure decides your entire schedule. A morning appointment in the other city means going the day before and paying for somewhere to stay. An appointment that runs late means missing the only ride home. On routes where the service was withdrawn altogether, the question does not arise. A carpool leaves when the driver leaves, which on a once-a-day corridor is the whole argument.

When the bus was the only option and it stopped

This is the part of the STC story that matters most for anyone without a car.

Those 253 locations were not all cities. They were small towns and First Nations communities where the bus was the only scheduled way out. People used it for medical appointments in Saskatoon and Regina, for court dates, for university, for visiting family, and for sending parcels and prescriptions between communities. When it stopped, some of those trips simply stopped happening.

Immigrants in Saskatchewan settling outside the two main cities run into this quickly, as do seniors, students, and anyone who cannot afford a vehicle and insurance in their first year. A rideshare Saskatchewan option is frequently the only way to reach a specialist appointment or an immigration office at the hour it is scheduled. No licence, no insurance policy and no credit history are needed to travel as a passenger.

Distance makes isolation worse

Saskatchewan has about 1.2 million people spread across 650,000 square kilometres. Outside Saskatoon and Regina, communities are small and far apart, and winters are long enough that people stay indoors for months.

Two and a half hours in a car with someone travelling the same road is one of the few situations where a real conversation happens without anyone planning it. Because CoTravel shows ratings and trip history, people who run the same corridors regularly end up travelling together more than once, and on a route with no bus that familiarity matters more than it would elsewhere.

260 km, shared

The average vehicle on Canadian roads emits about 206 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Over the 260 km between Saskatoon and Regina that is roughly 54 kg of CO2 one way, or about 107 kg for a return trip.

When a province removes its bus network, the traffic does not disappear. It converts into single-occupancy car trips, which is the least efficient possible outcome for the same journeys. Filling seats on trips already happening is the only correction available while the network is missing, and on a corridor this long it saves more than any change in driving style.

Rideshare Saskatchewan: how CoTravel works

CoTravel is built for intercity travel rather than short urban hops, which is precisely the gap left when STC closed. A driver already making the run posts their trip, including departure time, pickup area and seats available. Riders browse what is going, request a seat, and settle the fare in the app.

Every CoPilot and passenger is ID-verified and every trip is rated by both parties. You can read how we handle that on our Safety & Trust page.

The busiest corridor in the province is the one between the two cities, covered in our guides to the Saskatoon to Regina carpool and the Regina to Saskatoon carpool. For trips out of province, see the Saskatoon to Calgary carpool.

Moving to Saskatchewan: common questions