This is interesting. I guess they are going from Winnipeg -> Brandon -> Regina because there is already a Winnipeg to Saskatoon Via Rail trip. No competition for the Winnipeg to Regina route though. And of course Regina is simply closer to Brandon

It's also a straight shot down the Trans-Canada Highway, and they already have a terminus in Regina for their existing lines. All in all, a good start for expansion.

Of course, what's really needed is routes to rural, northern, and underserved communities, but that won't happen without government subsidies.

From a european who only sees flixbus for routes between major, international, bus rides ( think paris <-> brussels ):

... They do regular bus rides in other countries? Like normal commute bus rides?

Well, this new route is about 360 km, so not exactly a commuter distance.

a new interconnected service line running from Regina to Brandon to Winnipeg

That is connecting larger cities together.

Winnipeg to Regina is about 575Km (with Brandon located between them, about 200Km from Winnipeg)

Thought so ( i have no idea where those places are on the map, sorry ), but op's ( @ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ) comment about commute and rural areas got me confused for a sec

Northern Canada is disproportionately rural and generally less developed than southern Canada, and in general it’s harder to connect rural communities to the rest of Canada because it’s such a big country so there’s a lot of distance you need to cover. I think ValueSubtracted is basically saying, it’s nice we have these buses to major population centres in the south, but what we really need is buses like this to connect rural and northern communities.

Well, not with that attitude

Excellent

Couldnt trains also do the trick? Would be a lot faster than buses to travel hehe

We do have trains connecting the country, including to some northern communities. But where there is no train service it helps to supplement with buses. Unfortunately most of our passenger trains use the same rail lines as our cargo trains, which causes a lot of delays, so it's not as fast as you might think. But our current government will fix that issue somewhat by creating high-speed rail in our most populous area

From what I can see on their website, dependingnon which direction the bus is going, the stops in Winnipeg are either at 5:00 am or midnight, and are either in a mall parking lot in the suburbs, or at a charter bus office in a sketchy part of town.

These are the same locations for the existing Ontario Northland bus to Thunder Bay.

Don't get me wrong, any bus service is better than what we have now, but they don't seem to be making it very attractive.

That is one benefit of Via Rail, its station is very accessible, near the forks