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) |
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.
Electric railway | 01 May 1900 - 15 September 1948 | Motor bus | circa 1939 - present |
The author is always interested in comments, corrections and further information. Please email to: dawwpg@shaw.ca This page last modified: Wednesday, 15-Jun-2016 15:03:12 CDT