Coalmont Energy also has a bus, but unlike the local BC Transit one it gets a lot of use here. Most of the 12 seats are occupied on each trip.

The bus is a 4×4 van conversion by Clydesdale of BC. Yes, it’s a BC product, but not a friendly one. This writer was barred from their web site, though Google cache did come to the rescue:

There are probably many of you who do not know that we exist, but we are a conversion company based out of British Columbia Canada. We have been around since 1979, and have been doing conversions since the mid `80s. Original development was based on a need for crew vehicles, ambulances, buses and other vehicles of such to be able to handle the winters in a more capable way.

This vehicle is a recent acquisition by the mine, but the idea was first mentioned a long time ago when Steve Dimond came to talk to our community. With the number of employees planned, there was a concern about the amount of traffic going up the Blakeburn Road. Now that the mine is up and running the bus has become a necessity. It saves wear and tear on the road, and makes travel safer because of the reduced traffic. This is also environmentally preferable to having a couple dozen employee’s trucks putting on the miles.

The bus makes two round trips per day as it picks people up and drops them off after each shift. The first trip starts in Princeton at about quarter to 6 in the morning and you’ll see it stop in Coalmont. Here you see the Clyde on Parrish as the workers are making the homeward journey after the first shift.