THUNDER BAY – Started in 1926, the International Transit Company, founded by Max Hurtig, provided regular bus service linking Thunder Bay with most of the small communities of Northwestern Ontario and beyond. This included points as far west as Kenora and south to the US border and on to Duluth.
Nipigon and Kenora were eastern and western hubs with Port Arthur housing the central office.
Several of the company’s buses are seen here just off Water Street in the 1930s. Only 8,500 people took the company’s buses their first year of operation but in 1946 that figure had risen to 125,000. The cost of a trip varied depending on the destination: the Lakehead to Duluth was $9.45 and a trip to Kenora cost $16.05.
International Transit lasted until 1965 when it sold its lines to Greyhound, Grey Goose and Excell Bus Lines.
Text by Tory Tronrud, Thunder Bay Museum – Photo courtesy of the Thunder Bay Museum
