All-Time List of Canadian Transit Systems

by David A. Wyatt

Greater Sudbury, Ontario

The City of Greater Sudbury was formed 01 January 2001 by the amalgamation of cities of Sudbury and Valley East, the towns of Nickel Centre, Capreol, Rayside-Balfour, Onaping Falls, and Walden, and several adjacent townships.

A previous amalgamation in January 1960 combined Sudbury with McKim Township, Frood Mine, and part of Neelon Township.

Principal System

S-CCSER streetcar (newdavesrailpix) Sudbury - Copper Cliffs Suburban Electric Railway Company (11 November 1915 - Fall 1951)
street railway/light rail Incorporated 1912 (Ont.) Introduced first motorbuses 1947. Streetcars discontinued 1950. Company reorganized as SBL in the fall of 1951 (Knowles). (Photo: NewDavesrailpix)

Sudbury Bus Lines 15 (GM old look) (William A. Luke) Sudbury Bus Lines, Ltd. (Fall 1951 - 31 March 1966)
All-bus operation. Private enterprise. Ceased operation at the end of March 1966 (Wallace, p. 224). (photo: William A. Luke).

Laurentian Transit (Sudbury) Ltd. (01 April 1966 - 01 January 1972)
(Dawes et al. 1972) Umbrella corporation for the joint operation of transit in Sudbury by Nickel Belt Coach Lines, Local Lines Ltd., and DeLongchamp Cartage Company (Bus Ride, Feb. 1990). (Wallace, p. 224 omits DeLongchamp). Operated without a franchise until 01 January 1967 (Wallace, p. 224).

Sudbury Transit 411 (GM new look) (W.E. Miller 1985) Sudbury Transit (System) (01 January 1972 - 31 December 2000?)
Operated by the City of Sudbury Community Services Department. (CC73, TC75, CUTA 1976-77, CUTA 1989, CUTA 1991/2, CUTA 1992, photo: W.E. Miller [Peter Cox collection]).

Service area population90,000 (1991)
Vehicle fleet42 buses (2000)
Employees103 (1991)
Data source:CUTA 1991/2
CTHF/SSG 2000

Greater Sudbury Transit (01 January 2001? - 25 August 2019)
Amalgamation Sudbury Transit with suburban operations in coordination with the amalgamation of several municipalities to form the City of Greater Sudbury. Service extended to include Lively, Capreol, Hanmer, and Val Caron. System rebranded in 2019.

Ridership4,250,142 (2009)
Data source: CTF [Aug. 2010] (ridership)

GOVA (26 August 2019 - present)
Name derived from the English word “Go” and the French word “Va”.

GOVA [Sudbury] logo 2019
system logo (2019)
Data source: CBC News 2019

Secondary Systems

DeLongchamp Cartage Company [Sudbury] DeLongchamp Cartage Company (1920 - 31 March 1966)
Bus service operator in areas outside pre-1960 amalgamation Sudbury, including Capreol, Coniston, Garson and Errington Mine (Delongchamp 2012). One of the components of Laurentian Transit in 1966. Company (a partner(?) in Laurentian Transit) ended operations 1972. (Wallace, p. 224, photo: Delongchamp 2012).

Creighton Mines Jitney Service, October 1924 (GSHM coll. MK0682EN) Creighton Mine Jitney Service (1920s? - 1927)
Proprieter Ted Marsh. Jitney service in Creighton Mine, a locality in Walden. Fleet sold to a Sudbury transit operator 1927 (Greater Sudbury Public Library 2015, photo: Greater Sudbury Public Library).

City Bus Lines (? - circa 1950)
Service in Sudbury. In operation at least from October 1947 (RS). Acquired by the SCCSER 1949 or 1950 (Knowles).

Nickel Belt Coach Lines ticket (front) Nickel Belt Coach Lines (? - 31 March 1966)
Bus service operator in areas outside pre-1960 amalgamation Sudbury. One of the components of Laurentian Transit in 1966. (Wallace, p. 224).

Local Lines Ltd. (? - 31 March 1966)
Bus service operator in areas outside pre-1960 amalgamation Sudbury. One of the components of Laurentian Transit in 1966. (Wallace, p. 224).

Frood Bus Lines (? - 31 March 1966?)
Bus service operator in areas outside pre-1960 amalgamation Sudbury. (Wallace, p. 224).

Belanger Bus Lines (? - circa 1987)
Bus service between Sudbury and Onaping Falls & Rayside-Balfour. Owner Richard Belanger died 1987. Business sold to Druve Sookram (Sudbury Star 25 October 2008).

Sookram Bus Lines (GM T6H4523N) (Bob Heathorn/barp.ca June 1994) Sookram Bus Lines (circa 1987 - 31 December 2000)
Operating bus service from Sudbury to Onaping Falls, and Rayside-Balfour. Operations purchased circa 1987 from Belanger (Sudbury Star 25 October 2008, photo: Bob Heathorn/barp.ca).

Nickel Centre Transit Orion 01 (1994 Bob Heathorn/barp.ca) Nickel Centre Transit (? - 31 December 2000?)
Bus service between Sudbury and Nickel Centre. Photographed in 1994. (photo Bob Heathorn/barp.ca).

Rayside-Balfour Transit (1995-31 December 2000)
Suburban service for Rayside-Balfour in the greater Sudbury area. (CTHF/SSG 2000).

Vehicle fleet2 buses (2000)
Data source:CTHF/SSG 2000

Northway Bus Lines Inc. (? - 31 December 2000)
Bus service between Sudbury and Valley East, operated for the City of Valley East. Company based in Capreol, (CUTA 1988) (not in CUTA 1991/2, Sotnyk 1981 or Perera 1973)

Vehicle fleet3 buses (2000)
Data source:CTHF/SSG 2000

Martin Bill Bus Lines Limited (? - 31 December 2000)
Bus service from Sudbury to Walden (Lively) west of central Sudbury. (CUTA 1992 "non-member"). The phone number for MBBL also appears under "Walden (Town of) / Transit" in the 1996 phone book. (CTHF/SSG 2000).

Vehicle fleet1 bus (2000)
Data source:CTHF/SSG 2000

Modes

Electric railway11 November 1915 - 01 October 1950
Motor bus1947* - present (city)
1920 - present (suburban)
* SCCSER acquired its first motor buses in 1947. Several “small independent bus operations” already operated motor buses in areas not served by streetcars (Knowles).

References


Copyright ©1989-2019 David A. Wyatt. All Rights Reserved.
Return to All-Time List of Canadian Transit Systems

The author is always interested in comments, corrections and further information. Please email to:

dawwpg@shaw.ca
This page last modified: Wednesday, 10-Jul-2019 23:37:23 CDT