Emily Whitlam ventures where few buses will ever travel, heading for the Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies aboard one of Brewster Transport Company’s Terra Bus off-road vehicles
This summer, I sampled some of Canada’s public transport during a three week trip, which started in Vancouver and ended in Toronto. My travels took me through four provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. The country’s coaches are predominantly of the Prevost brand, with many inner-city service buses being New Flyer Xcelsiors, D40LFs, DE40LFs (the hybrid version of the D40LF), and some vehicles from the Low Floor Series by manufacturer Nova Bus – the latter type of single-deck service buses make up the bulk of British Columbia-based BC Transit’s fleet.
Holiday highlight
By far the greatest highlight of my holiday was experiencing one of Brewster Transport Company’s mighty Terra buses, which each weigh 25,000kg (or the equivalent of 60 large grizzly bears!). These vehicles were running tours up to the Athabasca Glacier, situated along the stunning Icefields Parkway road. Produced by Foremost Industries (based in Calgary), the Terra Bus is a tri-axle all-wheel-drive snow coach with a carrying capacity of 56 – at a towering height of 3.96m and length of 14.89m, this design belittles the Prevost coaches which transport intrepid travellers to the coach station at the foot of the glacier. I felt rather small standing next to the 1.5m tall tyres, which are inflated to 20 pounds per square inch – a low pressure, in order to reduce damage to the surface of the ice.
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