Town of Banff Shuttle Bus (1994 - 199?)
(RS). Contract operator
Banff Transportation and Tours.
Probably just renamed to BTS.
Banff Transit System (199? - 31 May 2008)
"Half-hourly on two routes in the summer, half-hourly on 1 route spring and fall, and hourly on that same route in winter" (DW 1998).
Multi-route service in operation by or before 2005.
Contract of operator Banff Transportation and Tours terminated prematurely 31 October 2007. Temporary contractor
Pinnacle Tours assumed operations from 05 November 2007 until
31 May 2008, when a new contractor took over.
(Photo: Dale Randall).
Roam (01 June 2008 - present)
Operations contracted to
Brewster, Inc.. (photo: David Wyatt).
Responsibility for service assumed by
Bow Valley Regional Transit Authority
01 March 2012.
The BVTA
is administered by the
Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission (established 21 April 2011)
(Bus Industry, Vol. 25, No. 96, June 2011, pp. 12-13).
Commission members are the Towns of Banff and Canmore, and Improvement District #9 [Banff National Park].
The BVRTA began transit service between Canmore and Banff in December 2012
(website 2012).
Local service in Canmore began 01 November 2016.
Free daily service to Lake Minnewanka implemented 19 May 2017 - 10 September 2017 in cooperation with
Parks Canada.
Service between Banff and Lake Louise started 09 October 2018.
Operated under contract by
Brewster Tours (Street Side Guide 2015).
system logo |
Ridership | 519,354 (2009) |
Data sources: | CTF [Aug. 2010] (ridership) website 2010 (logo) |
Lake Louise Tramway (1912 - 1930 (Annually May through September))
A 3½ mi. (5.7 km) single track narrow gauge (3'6"/1067mm) line operated by open and
closed gasoline trams, between
the CPR station at Laggan (renamed Lake Louise 1914) and the Chateau Lake Louise
hotel (elevation 5680 ft (1731 m)). Tramway and hotel were properties of the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company. (Lavallée 1972).
Parks Canada (19 May 2017 - 09 October 2017, 18 May 2018 - 08 October 2018)
Daily free shuttle service in Lake Louise 19 May 2017 - 10 September 2017, 18 May 2018 - 08 October 2018.
Daily free shuttle service from Lake Louise to Moraine Lake 11 September 2017 - 09 October 2017, 10 September 2018 - 08 October 2018.
Daily free bus service between Banff and Lake Louise 19 May 2017 - 10 October 2017, 18 May 2018 - 08 October 2018.
gascar tramway | 1912 - 1930 | motorbus | 1994 - present |
Brooks Transit (04 September 2001 - circa 31 December 2001)
“Two routes operating between 0700 and 1700 Monday to Friday. There will
also be a shuttle service from the downtown core to the Brooks Campus of
Medicine Hat College.” Operated by
Cardinal Coach Lines.
Service discontinued due to low ridership.
(CTN 2001, 2002) (photo KdR 2002).
Newell Mini-bus (circa 2012 - present)
Demand-responsive bus service connecting locations in the County of Newell
with Brooks. Schedule rotates through the week:
Tilley & area (Mondays);
Scandia & area (Tuesdays);
Gem & area (alternate Wednesdays);
Patricia & area (alternate Wednesdays);
Rolling Hills & area (Thursdays); and
Bassano & area (Fridays).
Service is open to anyone, including Brooks residents visiting County locations.
(website 2012, 2015, photo: Newell County website).
? ("a few months in 1970.")
Promotional operation conducted by a real estate developer (Canadian Coach 1971).
Camrose Community Bus (circa April 2016 - present)
Introduced initially as the
Camrose City Bus operating fixed route service two half-days per week (Tuesday mornings and Friday afternoons). September 2016 increased to two full days per week (Tuesdays and Fridays) and rebranded Camrose Community Bus.
By January 2017 service was three days/week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays). On 18 February 2017 service increased to four days/week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays).
Operated by contractor
Rose City Handivan Society with funding from the City of Camrose.
Cold Lake Transit System (13 September 2004 - 07 June 2005)
Service cancelled because of deficits and/or low ridership.
Cold Lake Transit (26 August 2015 - present)
A new public transit system began service in Cold Lake in August of 2015.
Service is fare-free [at least through 2016].
system logo (2015) |
Data source: | website (2015) |
? (1920s?)
Bus service in Crowsnest Pass established circa 1920. Owned by
William “Bill” Blinston. Company apparently had one Reo
bus and employed two drivers. (Crowsnest Pass and Its People, p. 837 [1979]).
Community Transit Service (27 January 2016 - 26 February 2017)
Transit service three days/week (Wednesday - Friday) connecting Hillcrest, Bellevue, Frank, Blairmore, and Coleman. Five round trips/day.
(website 2016).
Fixed route service replaced with demand-responsive service in early 2017.
RIDECrowsnest (27 February 2017 - present)
Demand-responsive transit service operating five days/week. Mondays and Fridays service is municipality-wide. Tuesdays are dedicated to Blairmore and Frank, Wednesdays Hillcrest and Bellevue, and Thursdays Coleman.
(website 2017).
Valley Bus & Taxi Co. (January 1920 - 1923)
Owners
Harold Lowe and
James Lowe.
Operated between the Regent Theatre, Fernet Store, Newcastle Store and Monarch Mine.
Company sold 1923 to William H. Rounds.
(Tanke 2008).
Drumheller Bus and Taxi Co. (1923? - ?)
Operating a scheduled bus service from Nacmine via Drumheller to Rosedale (CR&MW September 1928, p. 555).
Nacmine is about 6 km west of Drumheller. Rosedale Station is about 8 km southeast.
A Calgary Herald article dated 15 October 1929 (p. 10) reported inauguration of a new bus service to Midland by
Drumheller Valley Bus and Taxi Co., owned by W. Rounds. It seems likely that careless reporting would account for at least some of the variations in company names between 1920 and circa 1937.
The Red Deer Valley Bus Lines (1930s?)
Owner
William H. “Billy” Rounds. Assumed to be a continuation of DVB&T. (Glenbow Museum NA-1846-10 circa 1935, photo: Wisconsin Historical Society 88033 1937)
Brown's Bus Line (? - ?)
Proprietor
William Brown was refused an operating subsidy by Drumheller City council
in 1962 (Calgary Herald Feb. 21, 1962 p. 16).
Mike's Bus Lines (? - ?)
Operator of local bus service in Drumheller in 1974
(Edmonton Journal Oct. 28, 1974, p. 19).
Woosh (18 April 2017 - present?)
Bus service connecting the townsite with the airport scheduled to coordinate with flight arrivals and departures.
Service is expected to be seasonal, operating in Spring, Summer and Fall.
(Fort McMurray Today 30 March 2017).
From 03 March 2017 a three month pilot of Saturday-only transit service is operated between Moose Island, Alberta, and Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. Residents of Fort Chipewyan travel by private boat to Moose Island to meet the bus service.
Fort McMurray Transit (April 1980 - present)
Operation conducted under contract by
Diversified Transportation Ltd. (CUTA TT89, pb96, website 2003).
In online and published materials this system refers to itself as
Fort McMurray Transit and
Wood Buffalo Transit, often in the same document (website 2011).
System has also used
Wood Buffalo Express in some materials (website 2003).
CTHF/SSG 1998 lists this operation as
Wood Buffalo Transit but CTHF/SSG 2000 returns to FMT.
Circa September 2011 the system adopted the brand name
Woosh.
Beginning 01 July 2013 operation and maintenance was contracted for 15 years
to
Tok Transit Alberta Limited a division of
Tokmakjian Group.
Woosh also operates a two days/week rural bus service connecting Fort McMurray with Anzac, Janvier and Conklin (website 2014, 2015).
Operating contract with TOK Transit cancelled effective 21 May 2015 in favour of in-house operation commencing 22 May 2015.
From 18 May 2017 a three month pilot of Thursday-only transit service is operated between Fort McMurray and Fort McKay.
(CUTA 1989, CUTA 1991/2, CUTA 1992)
system logo |
Service area population | 34,000 (1991) 47,705 (2006 census) 76,797 (2010 municipal census) |
Ridership | 1,178,872 (2009) | |
Vehicle fleet | 17 buses (2000) | |
Employees | 3 (City), 37 (DTL) (1991) | |
Data source: | CUTA 1991/2 CTHF/SSG 2000 CTF [Aug. 2010] (ridership) website 2011 (logo) |
Grande Prairie Transit (02 March 1981 - present)
Operation conducted by a contractor. Initial contractor in 1981 was
Evergreen Transportation.
Contractor from 1996 has been
Cardinal Coach Lines.
Conversion from a contractor operation to a municipal operation occured September 2013.
From December 2018 became the contract operator of the rural transit service in Grande Prairie County.
(CUTA 1989, CUTA 1991/2, CUTA 1992, Photos: Peter Cox, BARP)
system logo |
Service area population | 28,000 (1991) | Vehicle fleet | 15 buses (2000) | Employees | 21 (1991) | Data source: | CUTA 1991/2 CTHF/SSG 2000 website 2010 (logo) |
County Connector (05 December 2018 - present)
Bus service connecting Sexsmith and Clairmont with Grande Prairie.
Eight round trips each weekday. Service is operated under contract by
Grande Prairie Transit. A second route serving Wembley, Beaverlodge and Hythe expected to start in early 2019. (MyGrandePrairieNow 30 October 2018).
The author is always interested in comments, corrections and further information. Please email to: dawwpg@shaw.ca This page last modified: Friday, 21-Dec-2018 21:07:11 CST