New exhibit opens door on history of Lethbridge Transit

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman on June 17, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman The Galt Museum and Archives explores the history of the Lethbridge Transit System and its impact on the comunity through their Ticket to Ride:Transit Through the Years exhibit on display to Sept. 4.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Galt Museum and Archives’ new exhibition is going back over a 100 years into the city’s past to highlight the history of Lethbridge Transit and the impact it has had on the community.
“Ticket to Ride: Transit Through the Years it’s a really interesting look at how transit as an important public service has really shaped the community of Lethbridge in important ways,” said Tyler Stewart, curator for the Galt Museum and Archives.
He said public transit is a vital public service for many people who live here and that has been true for over 100 years.
“This project came (about) through talking with the folks at Lethbridge Transit who are interested to share some of their history and it’s really awesome that a lot of the staff at Lethbridge Transit really care about the history of this organization,” said Stewart.
He said that many of the items on display have been lent by both current and past staff of Lethbridge Transit.
“They (staff) were really instrumental in helping us share some of those stories, capture some of the history, the anecdotes, the key moments of Lethbridge public transit history,” said Stewart.
He said that one of the things he loves about the exhibition is that it is not just about the transit system as a piece of infrastructure.
“None of that works without people and so the stories of the people who work for the transit system I think are some of the most interesting and colourful parts of the exhibition and really help bring it to life,” said Stewart.
He said one of the really key parts of the exhibition is the story of Mariette Moroz who was the first female bus driver for Lethbridge Transit.
“I was very fortunate to work with her family, who lent us a number of objects from her career as a bus driver that we have on display here. It’s really special to us to work directly with members of the community in telling the story of their family members as that family member is not just special to them, they are special to the story of Lethbridge Transit,” said Stewart.
He added that one of the interesting questions that is at the heart of the exhibition is the balance between public and private service delivery.
“When the streetcar system, the original municipal railway first opened in Lethbridge in 1912 the people of Lethbridge voted in a referendum that they wanted that to be a public service,” said Stewart.
He said balancing a public service is always tricky between cost and quality of the services.
“That question is examined in a few ways in the exhibition, both from public transit but also from the school bus system which was recently privatized here in Lethbridge,” said Stewart.
He said there are two other parts to the exhibit. One is thinking about the evolution of transit and the exhibit looks at how we started with the streetcar system on rails and eventually moved to the bus system. The other part looks at the future of public transit and what might come next.
“Lethbridge has some hybrid electric and diesel buses, but will we have self-driving buses here? Maybe instead of having congestion on Whoop Up Drive, we might have an aerial transit link from downtown to the Westside. That’s not crazy, that’s like probably going to happen at some point, it’s just a question of what it will actually look like,” said Stewart.
For now a new still-terrestrial option for transit will be available over the summer, a CultureLINK bus which will become available to the public from June 27 to Sept. 30, 2022.
“It’s a transit project that connects the key cultural attractions of Lethbridge on a free bus route, so this will be a new route that goes between the Galt Museum, Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, Southern Alberta Art Gallery as well as the nature centre down in the river valley,” said Stewart.
More information will become available closer to June 27 through Tourism Lethbridge and Lethbridge Transit.
The exhibit will be on display until Sept. 4 at the Galt Museum and Archives.

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