Chronicle Journal - Stories -

Opinion Poll
With a transit strike looming in Thunder Bay, what‘s your take on possible job action:
	It would be disruptive
	I’ll get by with other means
	I don’t use transit
	I hope there’s no stoppage

More Links	tbayjobline	TbayWeddings	Play Games!	^New! eVents Calendar	Advertise with Us	Contact Us

Other Links	Movie Times	Airport	Bus Schedule	Road Conditions	Library	Weather	Facebook	Twitter

High-tech transit on tap
By WARD HOLLAND
Sunday, June 10, 2007

Email this article
Send a Letter to the Editor
Printer friendly page

Thunder Bay Transit is looking to give its fleet of buses a high-tech upgrade.
The City of Thunder Bay‘s transportation and works department will ask council tonight to award a $646,000 contract to TBayTel and Grey Island Systems Inc. to outfit city buses with new equipment.
“Once implemented, Thunder Bay Transit will have a state-of-the-art system which will provide improvements for the drivers, management and, most importantly, to the users of the service,” Barb Stacey, manager of central support, says in a report.
“It is anticipated that these improvements will lead to increased ridership and funding, as well as a more efficient transit operation.”
If approved by council, advanced global positioning systems will be installed on the 49 buses in the Thunder Bay Transit fleet, so each one can be tracked.
Other devices will be located in bus doors to count the number of people who board.
Electronic display boards, similar to those used at the Thunder Bay airport, will be installed at the Water Street and Brodie Street terminals, and five other locations. Confederation College and Lakehead University are among those being considered.
Another device will allow bus drivers to send messages to a transit dispatcher in the event of an emergency.
The City of Guelph has a similar web-based system for its transit buses, Stacey says. The City of Thunder Bay‘s roads division also has such as system.
The $646,000 for the new equipment was included in the 2006 capital budget. Monthly operating costs for the high-tech system are expected to be about $4,000, which will come from gas tax revenue.
Also tonight:
• The engineering division will recommend that the city not submit an environmental assessment to expand the John Street landfill. The landfill was projected several years ago to reach its capacity by 2014, but that has been extended to 2030, a report says.
• The Superior North Community Futures Development Corp. will ask council to commit a total of $15,000 toward its Superior Train project which will look at re-establishing passenger rail service between Sudbury, White River, Wawa, north shore Lake Superior communities, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg.
Top of Page

Games!
Canadian Crossword
PlayFour!
Word Roundup