Edmonton Radial Railway

The Edmonton Radial Railway (ERR) (also known as the Street Railway Department) was a streetcar service that operated in Edmonton, Alberta, from 1908 to 1951. It was Edmonton's first public transit service, and later evolved into Edmonton Transit Service. Beginning as a small agency with of track and four streetcars, the ERR would eventually operate more than 70 streetcars on over of track, reaching most areas of the city. At its peak in 1929, the ERR served more than 14.1 million passengers.

The service suffered from under-investment during the Great Depression, as the city could not afford to replace old streetcars, tracks, or other infrastructure. Starting in 1932, streetcar lines were phased out in favour of trolley and gas bus routes, and by August 1949 only one core line was left. The last day of public streetcar service was September 1, 1951. Until Edmonton's Light Rail Transit service opened in 1978, all transit routes were delivered by buses.

History

In 1893, an ordinance permitting Edmonton to construct and operate a tramway was passed. The concept remained stagnant for the next decade, and Edmonton city council approved the borrowing of $224,000 for the creation of a streetcar system in 1907. Construction of the initial trackway and related infrastructure commenced soon after. The Alberta Legislature passed the ''Edmonton Radial Tramway Act'' in 1908, permitting the city to provide tramway service to communities located within of the city.

The ERR's name stemmed from its radial, or "out-and-back", model; all streetcar lines terminated at Jasper Avenue and 101 Street, and radiated outward to various areas of the city. Shortly prior to the start of service, Edmonton purchased the Strathcona Radial Tramway Company Ltd. for $135,000, thus gaining the ability to provide streetcar service to the City of Strathcona as well. Regular service commenced on November 9, 1908, with a fleet of four streetcars operating on of track.

On its first day of operations, the ERR served approximately 3000 riders. The service quickly grew in popularity as a mode of transportation, and it became known as "the pride of Edmonton". By 1911, daily ridership increased to around 4784 passengers. Motormen, conductors, and other streetcar workers unionized in 1911, under the banner of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America Local Division No. 569. The ERR served more than 10 million passengers in 1912, and Edmonton purchased 47 new streetcars. The original streetcar barn was replaced with a new barn in 1913, which would be in use until the system ceased operations in 1951. That same year, the High Level Bridge was completed, and provided an additional connection for streetcars between Edmonton and Strathcona; prior to its opening, the Low Level Bridge was the only river crossing with streetcar infrastructure.

A long-term expansion plan was presented to City Council by municipal staff in November 1912. The proposal called for 15 belt line routes, which would operate in circuits instead of straight (radial) lines. Council was told by city staff that the plan should provide adequate service for the next 50 years. Beginning in 1913, the plan was incorporated into expansion work that the ERR undertook. The plan never came fully to fruition; the ERR later reverted back to a radial network model, and it never reached 15 routes. A baby, Peter Budnyk, was born on Streetcar No. 42 (which is now operated by the Edmonton Radial Railway Society) on June 19, 1914. His mother was on her way home from work, and went into labour during the commute. She whispered something into the ear of the Conductor, and, blushing, he promised to try and hurry the streetcar to the doctor as quickly as he could. Despite the crew's best efforts, the woman gave birth while she was still on the streetcar. At Kirkness and Alberta Avenue, two women carried the mother and her baby into the nearby ERR waiting room, and an ambulance later took them to a hospital. Peter was healthy, and remained in the Edmonton area; he later rode Streetcar No. 1 during its ceremonial last run on September 1, 1951.

Early growth

The ERR was hard-pressed for employees during the First World War, because a number of its staff joined the military after war broke out; at least four of-whom died while overseas. Service was further hampered during this time by a major flood in 1915, an influx of European refugees, and the rise of jitneys (shared taxis). The ERR was forced to contend with a rising deficit, leading to the Edmonton Property Owners' Association demanding that the ERR be led by an independent board elected by residents, rather than unelected city staff.

In September 1915, H. Milton Martin chaired an investigation which found that the ERR had suffered from notable financial mismanagement which created its deficit. The Martin Report made several recommendations, including a reduction of assets, lowering its operating expenditures, and transferring the ERR to an independent commission. Several changes were made to accounting practices, but key recommendations, such as the standing of an independent commission, were not implemented.

The ERR was paralyzed by a severe blizzard on January 30, 1916; the poor conditions were exacerbated by reductions in track inspections due to budget cuts, and only one of the two snow sweeper cars working. All streetcar service was cancelled at noon that same day. The next day, a Monday, much of the streetcar system was still out of action, in what was called "the greatest winter crisis of the ERR to that point."

Calls to privatize the ERR peaked in late 1916, but Mayor William Henry countered that newer extensions had already recouped their costs. As a concession, the city delayed planned extensions to Elm Park, Calder, and West Edmonton. The ERR began to implement one-man car operations in that same year, which entailed removing the doors on one side of the streetcars, taking the driving vestibule out of one end, and replacing the conductor with a farebox at the front door. Since these streetcars could only be driven from one end, turning loops were required on lines that used single-ended streetcars so that they could turn around.

On August 31, 1917, ERR employees voted to strike after the city offered only minor concessions in response to their demands for increased wages, in the wake of one-man streetcar service commencing. The city refused to recognize the transit union, and it ordered all employees to turn in their uniforms, while simultaneously hiring new staff. Streetcar service was gradually re-introduced during the strike, but strikers were reportedly halting operations by grounding wires. The strike ended on September 11, when most employees agreed to the city's terms and returned to work; Edmonton still refused to recognize the union, or to negotiate an agreement with it. The labour disputes were gradually addressed over the coming year, and by mid-1918 the ERR began to generate a profit.

The end of World War I brought another influx of complains about the ERR, as residents criticized overcrowding, dirty streetcars, routes perceived as inefficient, and the prevalence of one-man streetcars. The ERR's Superintendent argued that these issues were caused by a number of factors out of his control; it was hard to obtain parts during the war, service was slowed by the number of railway crossings streetcars had to stop at, and two-man streetcar service was too expensive. This was on top of an increase in the number of passengers, as veterans began returning from the war.

All streetcars were converted to allow for single-man operations by 1920. In 1917 or 1918, crossovers were installed at both ends of the High Level Bridge, so that streetcars could cross the bridge on the left-hand track. Single-ended streetcars only had doors on their right side, and in the event that people had to evacuate a streetcar while it was on the bridge, driving on the left-hand track allowed for the doors to open onto the middle of the bridge deck, instead of its edge. Some streetcars remained double-ended, but were only operated by one person.

The radial railway reached its greatest extent in 1920, with six full lines and two stub lines serving almost all sections of the city, and totaling in length. The railway's busiest confirmed year of service was in 1929, during-which it served approximately 14.1 million passengers; Edmonton had approximately 74,000 residents at the time. In subsequent years, transit officials did not distinguish between streetcar and bus passengers when tallying ridership figures. Three years later, in 1932, trolleybus service replaced streetcars on the 102 Avenue stub line.

Deterioration during the Great Depression

The Edmonton Radial Railway seldom turned a profit, despite its large ridership. This was largely because passengers tended to remain on the streetcars for long periods of time, and many routes went through sparsely populated parts of Edmonton, such as single-track portions that served meatpacking plants in the city's fringes. These factors limited the turnover rate of passengers, and thus capped the amount of fares that routes could generate. Edmonton could not afford to properly maintain the streetcar system during the Great Depression. Although maintenance crews did their best to keep the streetcars in good condition, old tracks and streetcars could not be replaced, and the system could not be expanded to keep up with the Edmonton's growth.

City Council received a report from City Commissioner R.J. Gibbs in 1937 that detailed the deteriorating state of the streetcar system due to neglect during the 1930s, as a result of the city's poor financial state during the Great Depression. According to Gibbs, the city would need to invest a significant amount of money into replacing old streetcars, repairing and replacing streetcar infrastructure across the city, and expanding the service to newer parts of Edmonton. The report recommended that Council instead raise fares by 20%, invest the increased transit revenue to transition from streetcars to trolleybuses, and all future investments into the streetcar network. Gibbs also recommended that Council hire transportation exports to review his report before making a final decision.

Engineering consultant Norman F. Wilson was hired later in 1937, and he confirmed Gibb's findings in a 1938 report to Council. The ERR had failed to break even during most of its existence, and Wilson found that an increase in the fare from five rides for 25 cents down to four rides for 25 cents could not only cover the ERR's operational costs, but also provide a surplus to fund future service expansions. However, Wilson warned that "streetcars everywhere are a declining industry," predicting that the rising number of privately-owned automobiles would slow the growth of transit usage. The report recommended that Edmonton begin its switch to trolleybuses by purchasing six of them to serve a route between Whyte Avenue and downtown. The city ordered six trolley buses in 1939, prior to the start of the Second World War.

Wilson also recommended that the streetcar tracks on the upper deck of the High Level Bridge be removed, and the deck repurposed for trolley buses. The city sent an engineer to Montreal and Toronto to discuss the idea with CPR and Canadian Bridge Company engineers, but nothing further happened immediately. In 1949, voters approved a plebiscite for the streetcar tracks to be replaced by four lanes of road for vehicles. Project delays caused the capital costs to increase, and the proposal went back to voters with a larger budget in a 1950 plebiscite. A majority of voters approved it once again, but the approval threshold fell below the two-thirds minimum needed for the plebiscite to pass, and the project was cancelled.

Opponents to the abandonment of streetcars argued that the trolley buses were less comfortable for riders, not more comfortable as Council had been told by experts, and that trolley buses only provided faster service than streetcars because the distance between stops was increased. Commissioner Gibbs and ERR Superintendent Thomas Ferrier opted for a gradual shift away from streetcars; both to make sure ridership was positively impacted by the change, and also to see how riders reacted to the trolley buses. The trolley buses proved highly successful when they began service, with the peak passenger load increasing by 100% instead of 50% as planners had anticipated. This unanticipated demand forced the ERR to order three additional trolley buses, and make the route shorter than planned to reduce the number of people using use it.

Final decade of streetcar service

During the Second World War, Edmonton became a key air hub for the Allied cause. Blatchford Field was chosen by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to host an observer school and an elementary flight training school, and Edmonton served as a key stopping point for Lend-Lease aircraft traveling from the United States to the Soviet Union; thousands of Edmontonians became employed in the aircraft repair sector. An influx of Americans called Edmonton home starting in 1942, when Edmonton became the southern hub of the Alaska Highway