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Apr 16, 2024 · The evolution of transit in Toronto has been a fascinating journey, spanning over a century. From its humble beginnings with horse-drawn trams in the late 19th century, to the modern subway and streetcar network we know today, Toronto’s public transportation system has played a crucial role in the city’s development and growth.
- The Earliest Days
- The Rise of The Toronto Street Railway Company
- Steps Towards Electrification
- The First Stab at Public Ownership
- William Mackenzie Takes Over
- The TTC Through Boom, Bust and War
- Metropolitan Toronto and The Car Change The Picture
- Decline, Fall and Rise
- Where Do I Go from Here
- References
When Toronto was incorporated as a city in 1834, it had a long way to go towards becoming the metropolis of today; it’s population at the time was barely 10,000, or less than half the current population of Owen Sound. Though Toronto was already a significant commercial centre, the only transportation the city could boast were stagecoaches to and fr...
The popularity of Williams’ service had already demonstrated to city council and various business interests the viability of public transit in the city. This would prove to be his undoing. In 1861, Alex Easton, a Philadelphia native came to Toronto to help set up a conglomerate of local business owners to build a street railway in the city. Having ...
In the 1870s and 1880s, electricity transformed from an experimental curiosity into something practical that could light cities and moves vehicles about. The 1880s found John Joseph Wright, an English immigrant, experimenting with electricity in a small shop near Yonge and King, and selling light bulbs and the electricity to light them to various s...
As Toronto grew, so too did the ridership of the Toronto Street Railway, from 44000 in 1861 to 55000 in 1891, when the TSR’s 30-year franchise expired. On May 16, 1891, the city sought to take over the system. The attempt did not go as well as planned. The city first ordered the Toronto Street Railway Company to agree to hand over operations withou...
The Toronto Railway Company’s president and owner was William Mackenzie, a railroad mogul who had founded the Canadian Northern. In the TRC’s first years, Mackenzie introduced a number of innovations, and his leadership proved popular with the public. The new company maintained a five cent fare, introduced free transfers and reduced fares for child...
The 1920s was a period of great activity within Toronto. Not only was there considerable work in uniting the operations of the Toronto Railway Company and the Toronto Civic Railways, but the TTC had also inherited from the TRC an aging system which had been left to deteriorate by its disinterested owners on the eve of the end of their franchise. A ...
In the early 1950s, Toronto and its suburbs had to contend with sprawling development held back after two decades of depression and war. In order to answer the problem of sharing infrastructure funding and distribution, the Province of Ontario took the step of collecting Toronto and its twelve suburbs under the auspices of the Municipality of Metro...
In the 1970s and the 1980s, the Toronto Transit Commission was seen worldwide as a ‘transportation showcase’. From 1979 until 1990, it won awards after awards for safety and design. Unfortunately, in the 1990s, it fell upon hard times. Political foot-dragging slowed subway development to a crawl, and budget cuts, the recession, and the inability to...
Click here for our history of Toronto’s bus network, particularly 82 RosedaleBromley, John F., TTC ‘28, The Upper Canada Railway Society, Toronto (Ontario), 1968.Bromley, John F., and Jack May Fifty Years of Progressive Transit, Electric Railroaders’ Association, New York (New York), 1973.Filey, Mike, Not a One-Horse Town: 125 Years of Toronto and its Streetcars, Maps Project handbooks, Toronto (Ontario), 1999.Hood, J. William, Street Railways - Toronto: 1861 to 1930, Maps Project, Toronto (Ontario), 1999.Sep 5, 2020 · That PCC streetcar in the view is one of 140 purchased by the Alexandria transit authority from our TTC when a large number of the Commission’s streetcar fleet became surplus with the opening of ...
Apr 16, 2024 · Toronto’s streetcar system can be traced back to the late 19th century when horse-drawn streetcars were first introduced. As the city grew, the streetcar network expanded, with electric trams eventually replacing the horse-drawn ones. Today, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates a fleet of both modern and heritage streetcars.
Nov 11, 2023 · To get a sense of just how predominant streetcars once were in Toronto, this map of the network in 1945 from Transit Toronto is good start. Nine years before the Yonge Line would open, the city is ...
Overhead line, 600 V DC. System map. The Toronto streetcar system is a network of eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is the third busiest light-rail system in North America. The network is concentrated primarily in Downtown Toronto and in proximity to the city's waterfront.
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Apr 16, 2024 · The history of streetcars in Toronto dates back to the late 19th century. The first horse-drawn streetcar began operating in 1861, marking the beginning of a new era in urban transportation. Over time, the system expanded, with the introduction of electric streetcars in the 1890s.
