Regina Transit

Regina Transit is the public transportation agency operated by the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is the oldest public transit system in Saskatchewan and has been city-owned since its inception.

History

Regina Transit's roots go back to July 28, 1911 (as the Regina Municipal Railway) with streetcar operations, originally on ten miles of track, growing to 20 miles in the early 1930s. The "Dirty Thirties" saw huge deficits resulting in major cut-backs in service. With a shortage of gasoline and steel during World War II, streetcar ridership grew dramatically. The 32 streetcars used in 1945 carried 9,000,000 more passengers than they did in 1940. An important event in the system's history was a fire in its "bus barn" on January 23, 1949 that destroyed 17 trolley coaches, nine gasoline buses, five steel streetcars and nine wooden cars. On September 5, 1950 The last streetcar made its final run through the streets of Regina and the Regina Municipal Railway became the Regina Transit System. Regina Transit provided trolley bus service from 1947 to 1966 using Canada Car and Foundry Brill trolley buses. Since 1955, its preferred transit fleet has been buses because their freedom from overhead lines makes them suitable for detours and charters. An innovation in the early 1970s was its Telebus service, which used a telephone/radio dispatching system to send buses to individual homes. This service...
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