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Niagara Falls; People Mover, WEGO, NF Transit
Topic Started: Sep 9 2013, 06:02 PM (542 Views)
Helman700
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I would imagine many of you have been to Niagara Falls, I was a few times in my childhood and just recently went over the labor day weekend. When I went as a child on our family vacation I remember being enamored with the Niagara Falls "People Mover" which I later found out were the purpose-built Orion IV's operated by the Niagara Parks Commission.

The Orion IV's (which I never got to really fan or ride unfortunately) ran along what is now known as the "Green Line" in the new system from the outer parking lots along the gorge-side attractions down to Victoria Park and back (this is all on the Canadian Side).

Here is a link to a fan site with some good photos of the original Orion IV's Orion IV Bus.
There was apparently one other vehicle built for NYC HERE.
They were powered by propane and it is my understanding that there was only one "tractor" only in service, the rest had the semi-permanent trailers. They had replaced a few open trailer trucks in 1985 and were just replaced with new 60' Nova's with a newly rebranded and reorganized route system in August 2012.

The new WEGO system is operated now by Niagara Falls Transit (no longer directly by the Parks Commission) and continues the Green Line service, but also includes a Blue line to the Fallsview hotel area, Red Line further West and Purple Line to the Bus Terminal and Train Station. These four lines are run during tourist season and are in addition to the regular NF Transit routes. I would imagine they are funded by the Commission.

It was nice to get to ride on the relatively brand new system and vehicles, though I would have loved to have ridden the Orion's before retirement. While I didn't have time to find them I would imagine they must have at least a few in storage unless they all got sold off which I doubt. My wife wanted me to mention that at one point we were disappointed in the service as we waited 45 minutes for the line when it was supposed to be running every 15.

Here's a few shots of my trip (Yes, I took a few of the Falls as well):
Spoiler: click to toggle


Videos:
Video WEGO at Transit Center
Video WEGO at Whitewater Walk
Video WEGO at BECK II
Video WEGO Interior, Watch It Bend and Hear the Engine


On my last day we stopped on the American Side, they actually have a similar service that runs the length of the gorge, the trailer is partially open and again the vehicles run on LPG, though they aren't as interesting as the Orions
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