THUNDER BAY -- Thunder Bay Transit expects to complete the phasing-in of the newest members of its fleet by the end of February.
A dozen buses were purchased from Quebec-based manufacturer NOVA with money obtained from the federal public transit infrastructure fund.
Eight of the 29-passenger vehicles were rolled into service during January.
Transit manager Brad Loroff says passengers will notice some differences with the latest design, most notably related to seating.
Compared with other members of the 48-bus fleet, the configuration requires a two-passenger reduction in capacity.
"What people will notice is that we've moved away from the side-facing flip seating design, where these are now forward-facing along the driver's side" of the bus," Loroff said in an interview.
All seats face forward with the exception of six spaces in the designated priority seating area. "They're designed intentionally so that they can be flipped up to accommodate wheelchairs," Loroff said.
Passengers will notice other changes in the appearance and feel of the seats.
They are hard-shell, contoured composite seats rather than the cloth seating found in older buses.
In addition to being more comfortable because of the contour, Loroff said the new material is much easier to keep clean, which carries two advantages.
"With the cloth seats, we have to carry about a $30,000 per year inventory of cloth to do replacements and so on," Loroff said.
He also noted that when cloth seats need to be replaced because they are soiled, a bus must be pulled out of service until the work is done.
That's less likely to be necessary with a composite seat because it can usually be cleaned just by wiping.
Thunder Bay Transit's buses come with a variety of seating configurations and a range of projected years of service remaining, depending on when they were purchased.
Loroff said the normal life expectancy of a conventional bus is about 18 years.
