A refurbished school bus debuted as Flin Flon’s newest transit bus on Monday morning.
The bus, previously used to transport Denare Beach students to and from school, underwent six months of work to become a suitable transit bus for the Flin Flon area.
Reg Hiebert of Northern Bus Lines, the City of Flin Flon’s transit contractor, refurbished the bus himself.
“With our garage shutting down, we can’t use the top-of-the line technology anymore,” said Hiebert. “We don’t have the mechanical people or the equipment on staff anymore to do the full-scale city coaches.”
So Hiebert took “one step back in technology” and adapted a school bus with low mileage to fit the needs of a city coach.
“We took the best of the B-class technology and put it into the new bus,” he said.
While the cost of the refurbishment was not released, Hiebert said it was substantially less than the $250,000 or $300,000 an A-class coach would run, or even the $150,000 for a new school bus with the same amenities.
Hiebert used seats and whatever else he could from a red transit bus that was pulled out of service. The refurbished school bus has 24 seats and standing room.
“We basically took out the interior of the top-of-the-line bus and put it into this bus,” he said. “We did all the little things to make it live on our roads and for riders to travel with comfort.”
Hiebert expects the new bus will last 10 years.
Riders
On a cold, winter day a Flin Flon transit bus can average up to 32 riders, but a warm, summer day may see as few as six riders.
Hiebert took those numbers into consideration when he began the refurbishment of the school bus.
The front portion of the bus has nine side-facing seats with the back portion of the bus leaving more leg room than many would expect.
“There’s way more room than [a bus] in the city,” said Hiebert, pleased with the outcome.
The bus also has safety rails throughout the interior to help passengers navigate.
“It is taller off the ground,” said Hiebert, comparing the vehicle to the previous transit bus.
With that in mind, Hiebert used a lower-profile tire to keep the bus closer to the ground.
“I did the best I could,” he said. “It’s the best I can do to make it [last] in our conditions.”
The new bus also comes with surveillance cameras, which were installed while it still ran as a school bus.
The new bus joins one other school bus on the Flin Flon transit route, though only one will run at a time.
“You always need two because if one goes down, you always need a spare,” he said.
Both busses are white with red lettering on the sides and back.
The newer bus, 142, is lighter than bus 146, which serves as the winter bus.
“Summer ridership is lighter so we’ll use the lighter bus and save the more expensive bus,” Hiebert said. “Having less hours on the big ones makes it easier to maintain.”
Northern Bus Lines is under contract to provide public transit services to Flin Flon until May 1 at the earliest and September 1 at the latest.
Once the contract is up, the plan is for the city to purchase two buses and run the transit system on its own.
The city is also set to buy the Northern Bus Lines garage and turn it into the new public works shop.
