Windsor, Ontario was the first

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

city with an

electric street car A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

system, which was introduced in 1886.Harry Black, Canadian Scientists and Inventors. Markham: Pembroke Publishers Limited, 1997. Other Canadian cities soon followed suit, with

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontario ...

in 1887 and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1889. By

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, nearly 50 Canadian cities had streetcar systems in place. By the time Windsor's

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

system was dismantled in 1937, the system's scale was extensive and it serviced all 5 of the major riverfront communities of Windsor, Ford City (East Windsor),

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

, Walkerville and

Ojibway The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

Early Beginnings

The streetcar system adopted by the city of Windsor and surrounding towns was developed by Charles J. Van Depoele.Schramm, Kenneth. Detroit's Street Railways. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2006. Van Depoele had immigrated to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in 1874 to develop his electric system. Windsor was the first city to adopt Van Depoele's system, as well as the first in Canada to have any type of electric streetcar system. Prior to the electric cars, a horse-drawn streetcar system had been in place since 1872. The new

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

began development under two companies, the Windsor-Walkerville Street Railway Company and the Windsor-Sandwich Street Railway Company until the two merged in 1891 to later become the Sandwich, Windsor and Amherstburg Railway (S.W. & A.R.). Van Depoele's electric streetcar first ran in Windsor on June 6, 1886, servicing the small town nestled south of the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively refe ...

Expansion

Although initially the track spanned only a small portion of Windsor along the Windsor-Detroit waterfront on Riverside Drive, the S.W.& A.R. began expanding its service southward with an extension along Ouellette Avenue in 1893.R. Markovich, "The Evolution of Public Transport Networks in Windsor, (Ontario), and London, (Ontario), 1872-1968." MA diss., University of Windsor, 1971. The track started at the international

ferry landing A ferry slip is a specialized docking facility that receives a ferryboat or train ferry. A similar structure called a barge slip receives a barge or car float that is used to carry wheeled vehicles across a body of water. Often a ferry intended ...

and went south, providing access to a popular

race track A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also u ...

, while simultaneously encouraging

population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

south of the Detroit River where

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

was becoming readily available. The service began expanding from the small city of Windsor outward to the east and to the west to the towns of Sandwich, Walkerville, and East Windsor. Population was expanding in these areas largely due to the introduction of big industries in Windsor. Walkerville began expanding due to the

Hiram Walker Hiram Walker (July 4, 1816 – January 12, 1899) was an American entrepreneur and founder of the Hiram Walker and Sons Ltd. distillery in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Walker was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved to Detroit in 1838. He p ...

distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

and East Windsor because of the introduction of a Ford Factory in 1904.Kreipke, Robert C. Ford Motor Company: The First 100 Years. Turner Publishing Company, 2003. Subsequently, the S.W. & A.R. began expanding its track to these areas and to areas of dense population growth, creating access to much of the city and surrounding areas. People followed the track line, and the track line followed the people. Many Windsorites did not own

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

s, and found the streetcar a viable alternative to purchasing a new car. By 1921, the track had expanded to the towns of Amherstburg and

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...

at each end, measuring 37 miles in total. A second interurban electric rail line, the Windsor Essex and Lakeshore Hallway Company (commonly known as the Windsor, Essex & Lake Shore or WE&LS), connected Windsor with

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, Kingsville and Leamington along with smaller communities inbetween those town centers. As the automobile began rising in popularity and lowering in price, the use of the streetcars began to decline, despite the steady increase in population seen in Windsor at that time. In 1934, the company went out of business and its rails were incorporated into the system of the S.W.& A.R.

Disintegration

The electric streetcar system provided an extensive and effective mode of transportation to the citizens of Windsor until the 1930s, when the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

left the world in financial turmoil. The streetcars were expensive to repair and were beginning to deteriorate, and because of costs S.W. & A.R. began to cut down some of the less-travelled and less-profitable routes on the track. The newly comprised City of Windsor, consisting of the Sandwich, Windsor, Walkerville, and East Windsor communities in 1935, was unable to bear the financial burden of the S.W. & A.R. Buses began to be considered a viable alternative to streetcars, because they were much less expensive to purchase.Plaut, Jonathon V. The Jews of Windsor, 1790-1990. Canada: Thistle Printing Limited, 2007. The S.W. & A.R. found that it would be less costly to purchase a set of buses than to repair the deteriorating rails. It was also thought by many that it was contradictory to continue using electric streetcars instead of automobiles in the automotive capital of Canada, where automobile ownership was rising and providing stiff competition to

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

ation. In 1937 the City decided to abandon the streetcar system in favour of a city bus system. The last Windsor electric streetcar ran on May 7, 1939. The rails were removed from the ground and a city bus system has been in place ever since. The only remaining rails can be found at the intersection of Sandwich Street and Mill streets in Windsor. Recently, additional rails have been dug up at the intersection of Riverside and University streets, during the construction of a monument of Chief Tecumseh. Street car system 1886

Legacy

The streetcar system’s carhouse, on

University Avenue A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, where vehicles were produced, stored and maintained, was to be converted into a restaurant as of 2015. One of the original Windsor streetcars, No. 351, had been located and the restaurant's owners planned to have the vehicle restored. Streetcar No. 351 was instead donated to the City of Windsor and restored at RM Auto Restorations in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. It is to be displayed at the Celestial Beacon pavilion on Windsor’s riverfront, as part of the Central Riverfront Implementation Plan.

Reinstatement consideration

On November 29, 2019, ''

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

'', Windsor, asked Pat Delmore,

Transit Windsor Transit Windsor provides public transportation in the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada as well as LaSalle, Essex, Kingsville, Amherstburg and Leamington and serves more than 6 million passengers each year (6.72 million in 2017), covering an area ...

's executive director to answer a viewer's question as to when the agency would re-instate streetcars or Light Rail, in Windsor. Delmore pointed to

Grand River Transit Grand River Transit (GRT) is the public transport operator for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It operates daily bus services in the region, primarily in the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, alongside the I ...

's 2019 reinstatement of Light Rail in

Kitchener-Waterloo The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumf ...

, pointing out that at 22 million rides per year it had almost three times Transit Windsor's 8 million rides per year. He said current ridership didn't justify the expense of reinstatement.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ask-cbc-windsor-transit-1.5376465 , title = There's no light rail service in Windsor. Why is that? , work =

, date = 2019-11-29 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20191130003739/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ask-cbc-windsor-transit-1.5376465 , archivedate = 2019-11-30 , accessdate = 2019-11-29 , url-status = live , quote = {{cite news , url = https://windsorstar.com/news/rare-windsor-streetcar-to-be-restored , title = Rare Windsor streetcar to be restored , publisher =

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bo ...

, author = Sharon Hill , date = 2015-08-10 , accessdate = 2017-03-16 , url-status = live , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20171027085625/http://windsorstar.com/news/rare-windsor-streetcar-to-be-restored , archivedate = 2017-10-27 , quote = For years, Niforos and George Sofos wanted to capitalize on Windsor's streetcar heritage by developing the University Avenue West site to include another Penalty Box restaurant in the 124-year-old brick car barn, where streetcars were repaired but not made. The first electric streetcars in Canada were running in Windsor in 1886. {{cite news , url = http://www.sootoday.com/content/editorials/details.asp?c=99128 , publisher = Soo Today , title = Remember This? Heading to Bellevue Park? Why not take a street car? , date = 2015-10-18 , archivedate = 2015-11-05 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20151105173346/http://www.sootoday.com/content/editorials/details.asp?c=99128 , url-status = live , quote = Windsor, Ontario was the first Canadian city with an electric streetcar system, which was introduced in 1886. Other Canadian cities soon followed, with St. Catharines in 1887 and Toronto in 1889. {{cite news , url = https://windsorstar.com/opinion/editorials/henderson-when-windsor-ruled-public-transit , title = When Windsor ruled public transit , publisher =

, author = Gord Henderson , date = 2014-12-13 , accessdate = 2017-03-16 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20170318084838/http://windsorstar.com/opinion/editorials/henderson-when-windsor-ruled-public-transit , archivedate = 2017-03-18 , url-status = live , quote = The big blow, said Dr. Trevor Price, U of W professor emeritus in political science and urban politics expert, came in 1929 when a change in American immigration rules ended cross-border commuting for huge numbers of Essex County residents. Many opted to move to the U.S. Those who stayed here had to find new jobs. History of rail transport in Essex County, Ontario Passenger rail transport in Essex County, Ontario Rail transport in Windsor, Ontario Electric railways in Canada Street railways in Ontario