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Belleville Transit

OC Transpo 8238

By OC Transpo 8238
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D40LF

D40LF

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Unfortunately we are still going to run a couple of Orions

As this is an expansion bus not a replacement.

I will check the build date, and when I get a plate number post them here.

Lettering was done this morning.

Are you still in Calgary?

Yes I am, although I obviously have to plan a trip back to see the new buses, oh and my family too....

Anymore buses planned soon?

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  • 6 months later...
Bentley

Bentley

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I bought this photo on Ebay last summer. It's from July 1977. No I know that prior to the Belleville Bus Terminal was opened buses met at the 4 corners downtown for transfer. This photo would seem to suggest however that at one point the transfer point was a block north right across from the maze mall. Was this the case?

$(KGrHqIOKjoE4h6lbJe,BOVE4iCo3!~~48_3.jpg

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rob9701

rob9701

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I bought this photo on Ebay last summer. It's from July 1977. No I know that prior to the Belleville Bus Terminal was opened buses met at the 4 corners downtown for transfer. This photo would seem to suggest however that at one point the transfer point was a block north right across from the maze mall. Was this the case?

Yes. But I believe the schedules from that era listed "White's Hardware" as the downtown stop. White's was along that section as well. The Maze Mall was a relatively new creation at that time and only had about ten years as a retail-oriented "mall" although that might even be stretching it. The license bureau was in there for many years before moving to College Street West and was directly accessible from the riverside parking lot. Nowadays it's either mostly empty and/or home to offices of the non-profit variety.

That downtown "terminal" ended around 1980 or so when the city rebuilt Front Street and eliminated much of the on-street parking by building the extremely wide sidewalks that you see to this day along in front of Giant Tiger, etc., and further up toward Victoria. This work reduced the street itself to two driving lanes and was a pain due to delivery vehicles blocking the way, etc. The buses were displaced to the stops at Century Place eastbound on Bridge (4 stops), the Bank Of Montreal westbound on Bridge (1, and then 2 stops) and southbound on Front just south of Bridge (2, and then 3 stops).

Realize too that in that old route and schedule scheme that would have been in place in 1977 that there were three routes that were composed of two 15 minute sections - West Hill-North Park, West Hill-Hillcrest and East Hill-Plaza. If I remember correctly transfer points (and terminal locations) for routes northbound out of downtown were in front of the courthouse on Pinnacle Street. I'll need to find my old maps to verify this. I was very young then.

That bus in the photo (#27) was the first of those New Look buses in Belleville and spent many of it's early years on the Parkwood Heights route as the sign shows in the photo. #37 would replace it on that route soon after. Belleville assigned buses to routes and they were generally left there for years.

That bus (#27) was also smashed up and repaired around the time of the photo in a crossover accident on the westbound 401 during a charter to Union Station. The deaf school (now Sir James Whitney) used to charter a bus to get out-of-town students to Union Station and one Friday night the accident occurred. If "we" remember right Elliot Motors in Belleville fixed the smashed-in drivers side front corner. #27 was retired in 1990 or 1991, likely 1991, with the arrival of #47.

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Bentley

Bentley

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Yes. But I believe the schedules from that era listed "White's Hardware" as the downtown stop. White's was along that section as well. The Maze Mall was a relatively new creation at that time and only had about ten years as a retail-oriented "mall" although that might even be stretching it. The license bureau was in there for many years before moving to College Street West and was directly accessible from the riverside parking lot. Nowadays it's either mostly empty and/or home to offices of the non-profit variety.

That downtown "terminal" ended around 1980 or so when the city rebuilt Front Street and eliminated much of the on-street parking by building the extremely wide sidewalks that you see to this day along in front of Giant Tiger, etc., and further up toward Victoria. This work reduced the street itself to two driving lanes and was a pain due to delivery vehicles blocking the way, etc. The buses were displaced to the stops at Century Place eastbound on Bridge (4 stops), the Bank Of Montreal westbound on Bridge (1, and then 2 stops) and southbound on Front just south of Bridge (2, and then 3 stops).

Realize too that in that old route and schedule scheme that would have been in place in 1977 that there were three routes that were composed of two 15 minute sections - West Hill-North Park, West Hill-Hillcrest and East Hill-Plaza. If I remember correctly transfer points (and terminal locations) for routes northbound out of downtown were in front of the courthouse on Pinnacle Street. I'll need to find my old maps to verify this. I was very young then.

That bus in the photo (#27) was the first of those New Look buses in Belleville and spent many of it's early years on the Parkwood Heights route as the sign shows in the photo. #37 would replace it on that route soon after. Belleville assigned buses to routes and they were generally left there for years.

That bus (#27) was also smashed up and repaired around the time of the photo in a crossover accident on the westbound 401 during a charter to Union Station. The deaf school (now Sir James Whitney) used to charter a bus to get out-of-town students to Union Station and one Friday night the accident occurred. If "we" remember right Elliot Motors in Belleville fixed the smashed-in drivers side front corner. #27 was retired in 1990 or 1991, likely 1991, with the arrival of #47.

Thanks for the info. As a side note I always imagined The Maze Mall was probably a much more active and profitable mall once upon a time. The decor of that place (still very 1970's chic) suggets a lot of investment went into that place in the beginning.
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rob9701

rob9701

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Thanks for the info. As a side note I always imagined The Maze Mall was probably a much more active and profitable mall once upon a time. The decor of that place (still very 1970's chic) suggets a lot of investment went into that place in the beginning.

There were ladies wear stores in there, as well as a small toy store. By the mid 1980's I think much of it was non-retail and it never really recovered, at least from a retail perspective. Sam the Record Man was in the front store for a couple of years on the north side of the doors. Sam's moved up the street to the building that burned in 1992, now the empty spot on the south side of Greeney's book store. After the fire Sam's moved into Century Place, in about where that coffee place is now, with windows along Bridge Street. That Sam's was only open for a few years and then closed leaving just the one in the Quinte Mall. For years after the fire you could still find the odd CD at the Sam's in the mall that had some black on the plastic wrap suggesting it had survived that fire.

The Century Place experiment was one of the forays in the 90's of the music stores into some of the not-so-trendy Belleville spots, and outside of the Quinte Mall none of the big name record/music stores lasted very long. Around the same time A&A got a spot in the Belleville Plaza (now Bayview Mall) that was a very big flop - I don't think it was open a year. It was located where the "Half-Price Books" is today or a door-or-two away on that side.

The 1990 Belleville city directory lists the following in the Maze Mall:

-Jerky John's Jean Joint

-License Bureau

-Sam the Record Man

-JR Switzer Construction

-Quinte Learning Center

-Credifax Services

-EMS Associates

-TJ's Property Connection

-Nicholson Accounting

-Bel O Sol Suntan Studio

-Risk-Q

-LHM Insurance Agency

-Dominion Mercantile

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gmnewlook

gmnewlook

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I have a quesion for you guys. Monday August 6th is a statutory holiday. I checked on a website (http://www.statutoryholidays.com/ontario.php) and it says that the Civic Holiday the first Monday of August is not an official stat holiday. Since on stat holidays, Belleville Transit doesn't offer any service (I wonder why...), does this mean that on the 6th there'll be buses on the road since it's not an official stat holiday? I'm asking because my wife are taking the girls on a visit to my cousin's in Newmarket and we are planning on having lunch at MickeyD's on N. Front and I noticed the Transit terminal is a 3 minute drive away, so I was thinking when the girls are playing in the play place, I could swing by and snap a few pics.

Thanks. :)

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general682002

general682002

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I have a quesion for you guys. Monday August 6th is a statutory holiday. I checked on a website (http://www.statutory...com/ontario.php) and it says that the Civic Holiday the first Monday of August is not an official stat holiday. Since on stat holidays, Belleville Transit doesn't offer any service (I wonder why...), does this mean that on the 6th there'll be buses on the road since it's not an official stat holiday? I'm asking because my wife are taking the girls on a visit to my cousin's in Newmarket and we are planning on having lunch at MickeyD's on N. Front and I noticed the Transit terminal is a 3 minute drive away, so I was thinking when the girls are playing in the play place, I could swing by and snap a few pics.

Thanks. :)

They won't be running on Civic Holiday.

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D40LF

D40LF

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Stopped in Belleville today, got photos of 1067, 1068, and 1169.

9850 is parked outside missing its fleet numbers. No sign of 9849, which I guess was already towed away, or 9851, which I guess was inside the garage.

Also took a quick look for number 30, it used to be in Shannonville but there was no sign of it.

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