Starting in 1945, employees located in Deep River, Chalk River or Pembroke travelled to CRNL on NRC (later AECL) owned and operated buses. Initially this was true for all employees but as automobiles became more readily available and security measures eased, some employees formed car pools and drove to work. Those who continued to bus would be required to purchase bus tickets that were “punched” by the drivers as they boarded the buses. Three, punch-type, examples are shown here.
One, dated 1973, is a 36-trip Deep River, another is 30-trip Pembroke one and a third, undated one, is a six-trip ticket usually purchased by someone who regularly drove in to work but needed the occasional ride. A Deep River passenger wanting a ride to or from Pembroke would have two punches taken on his ticket. Note the variation in “punch” shape corresponding to different bus drivers. By the 1990s many more employees were using private vehicles and bus usage was decreasing. To cover the costs associated with operating a bus service AECL introduced an opt-out program. Those employees wishing to continue to use the buses needed to commit to the service and were issued photo-identification bus passes, the cost of which was automatically deducted “at source”.
