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Smaller Town Ontario

 
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Cdntruckphotog



Age: 71
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Mississauga Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:59 pm    Post subject: Smaller Town Ontario Reply with quote

The smaller cities outside the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) often have a local transit system. When I can; I'll try and get examples of these.
We will start with Orillia Ontario. This is a small city in Central Ontario north of Toronto but only on the periphery of Ontario's "Cottage Country".
The decline of the manufacturing base has hit it rather hard.
Here is an Orillia Transit coach on a rainy early April day in 2009.
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Cdntruckphotog



Age: 71
Joined: 18 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Mississauga Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:00 am    Post subject: NIAGARA FALLS Reply with quote

Niagara Falls is a well known tourist destination. On the Canadian side, during the Great Depression of the 1930's, a large park was created by the Niagara Parks Commision and Ontario Hydro.
Today "People Movers" go from attractions like the Floral Clock to The Falls .

I wasn't able to get a nose on shot.

Away from the Falls tourist areas Niagara Falls Ontario is another hollowed out manufacturing city. High unemployment, empty stores are the features.
Niagara Transit runs from a garage on Bridge Street. Bus 2063 was returning to the garage on October 3 2009
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timecruncher



Age: 73
Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 456
Location: Louisville, Kentucky

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice shot of the Orillia New Flyer.

I spent a week up there (twice!) north of town in tiny Port Stanton, attending a CUTA scheduler's workshop and then (a couple of years later) a planning and route design workshop. The programs were held at a conference center (er-centre) on Sparrow Lake.

Middle of nowhere, but the lake was sparkling clear and the CN mainline runs through the middle of the complex. We took breaks in time for the passage of The Canadian, of course!





27 cars with half a dozen domes and Park-series obs/dome on the rear. Now that's the way a long-distance passenger train should look!

I drove up to Windsor from northern Kentucky, rode VIA up to Toronto, but since the Ontario Northland train does not run on Saturday, I rode from Toronto through Orillia to Washago on PMCL. ON's bus schedule, while more frequent, was not as convenient, alas.

Excellent class, too. CUTA (The Canadian Urban Transit Association) is on top of technical training for the transit industry in North America. Of the 30 or so attendees, perhaps half were from Canadian properties and the rest of us were from U.S. properties. Ya wanna learn about how to properly schedule service - this is the place to go!

timecruncher
le horaire-adjusteur


Last edited by timecruncher on Tue Oct 06, 2009 7:45 pm; edited 1 time in total
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timecruncher



Age: 73
Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 456
Location: Louisville, Kentucky

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A few more photos of Ontario in the area north and west of the GTA from the Motor Bus Society convention last October. I've not seen this many fishbowl GM coaches in many, many years!

First, one of the 35-footers at Brantford, ex-St. Catherines, I believe:



Brantford had a little bit of everything. They also had some ex-Anchorage 5307N's, and this fugly ElDorado thing/creature/whatever:



Stratford had a couple of ex-Queens (I think) fishbowls, both used mostly in school service, but looking mighty nice:



Guelph is about 80% Nova LFS, but they have some Classics from U.S. properties. This one looks mighty fine in the sun. I especially like the p/r code on the destination sign. Yeah, right!



Downtown Guelph on a Sunday morning found all of the line-up buses with Nova LFS models. This small city has 30-minute pulsed service on weekends. Most U.S. cities this size would have no service or perhaps a few cutaways in some silly color scheme running Monday - Friday only, but not in Canada!



Woodstock was the real suprise. This town has a population of around 15,000 and has four bus routes with 30-minute pulsed transfers downtown. Everything on the street on a Sunday morning was new-look GM except for one Nova LFS! Amazing:







So yes, there is some amazing transit just north of the border. Absolutely worth a 4-day weekend to visit!

timecruncher
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A. Aikman



Age: 32
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sarnia is interesting. The use high floors all the time. the use Orion I`s and 2 Orion V`s and a few cutaways on Sundays.

(Brantford 9725 is an Ex-Hamilton bus)
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