All-Time List of Canadian Transit Systems

St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador

Principal System

St. John's Street Railway Company (01 May 1900 - 1901)
Incorporated 10 November 1897 (Nfld). Name changed to Reid in 1901.

Reid Newfoundland Company (1901 - December 1920)
Company transit and power operations reorganized as a subsidiary StJ'sL&PCo 1920.

St. John's Light & Power Company (December 1920 - 1924)
Subsidiary of the Reid Newfoundland Company. Sold to International Power interests 1924.

Newfoundland Light & Power Company Limited (1924 - 15 September 1948)
Operations ended in favour of bus services 1948.

Golden Arrow Coaches Limited (just before January 1940 - May 1949)
From late 1939 to September 1948 operated generally in parts of the city not served by the street railway. Operations became city-wide when the NL&PCo ended transit operations. Company became strikebound May 1949 and did not resume service. Franchise to operate revoked by city council October 1949. (Transit Journal Jan 1940, Baker)

various private jitney operators (circa May 1949 - December 1949)
During the strike at Golden Arrow and for a period after, ad hoc transit service was provided by many independent jitney operators. (Baker).

Transit Limited (December 1949 - circa December 1950)
Company formed by group of jitney operators granted a franchise to operate city transit service. (Baker).

Capital Coach Lines Limited (December 1950 - April 1958?)
Subsidiary of United Service Corporation of Nova Scotia. Listed by the DBS in 1955-56, and 1956-57. Operations acquired by the City of St. John's 15 November 1957. (Baker).

St. John's Transportation Commission (April 1958 - present)
Marketed in recent years as St. John's Metrobus and Metrobus Transit. Service in St. John's and Mount Pearl. The Town of Paradise has funded a pilot transit project to join Metrobus 27 June 2016 (CBC 16 December 2015). (Dawes et al. 1972, CUTA 1976-77, CUTA 1989, CUTA 1991/2, photos: William A. Luke, Peter Cox collection).

system logo (1997) system logo (2010)	Service area population	125,000 (1991)
	Vehicle fleet	59 buses (2000)
	Employees	150 (1991)
	Ridership	3,014,073 (2009)
	Data sources:	CUTA 1991/2 CTHF/SSG 2000 CTF [Aug. 2010] (ridership) website 2010 (logo)

Notes

Public transportation service in the suburban/rural region around St. John's was provided for many years by a variety of bus and jitney operators. Allison Voith's 1973 article (see References below) enumerated at least 7 bus and 15 jitney operators connecting to St. John's (and more than a dozen similar operations elsewhere in Newfoundland). The division between suburban and rural is difficult to discern but at least two operations, Eastern Bus Lines (Pouch Cove - St. John's) and Lee's Bus Service (Petty Harbour - St. John's), seemed suburban in character.

Modes

References

• Baker, Melvin, Oral History and municipal government: A history of the bus service in St. John's, Newfoundland, 1948-1957, Atlantic Oral History Association, 1982.
• Connors, William. The Street Cars of Old St. John's: A Photo History. Creative Publishers, St. John's (Nfld), 1989.
• Metrobus, Welcome to Metrobus, St. John's, Newfoundland Canada, a world wide web site at the URL: http://www.metrobus.com/ 1997.
• Page, David, Self-Propelled Cars on the Newfoundland Railway, a World Wide Web page at the URL: http://www.railways.incanada.net/Circle_Articles/Article_Page03.html 2009.
• Voith, Allison, “Public Transportation In Newfoundland”, Part I: Canadian Coach Magazine, Vol. IX, No. 5, September–October 1973, pp. 3-9; Part II: Canadian Coach Magazine, Vol. IX, No. 6, November–December 1973, pp. 10-11, 13.