The Rogers Road streetcar line was a streetcar line that operated mainly within the Township of York (later the Borough of York, today a district within the

City of 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 ...

) from 1924 to 1974. The line was owned by the Township of York Railways, which in turn was owned by its namesake municipality. The Township of York Railways contracted with the

Toronto Transportation Commission Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) was the public transit operator in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, beginning in 1921. It operated buses, streetcars and the island ferries. The system was renamed the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in 1954. H ...

, later the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and larges ...

(TTC), to operate the line. The Rogers Road line opened on the same day in 1924 as the Oakwood streetcar line which shared the same tracks between St. Clair Avenue and Rogers Road along Oakwood Avenue. As with the Rogers Road line, the Oakwood line was owned by the Township of York Railways and operated by the TTC; it operated north from St. Clair Avenue to Eglinton Avenue where it turned west to Gilbert Loop at Gilbert Avenue. The Oakwood line closed in 1960.

Timeline

The Rogers streetcar began operating on November 19, 1924. The initial route ran north from

St. Clair Avenue St. Clair Avenue is a major east-west street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was laid out in the late 18th century by the British as a concession road (the Third Concession), north of Bloor Street and north of Queen Street. St. Clair Avenue ...

( Oakwood Loop), along Oakwood Avenue and turned west at Rogers Road, continuing to

Dufferin Street Dufferin Street is a major north–south street in Toronto, Vaughan and King, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, two concessions (4 km) west of Yonge Street. The street starts at Exhibition Place, continues north to Toronto's northe ...

. The TTC used bidirectional Birney streetcars inherited from the

Toronto Civic Railways Toronto Civic Railways (TCR) was a streetcar operator created and owned by the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to serve newly annexed areas of the city that the private operator Toronto Railway Company refused to serve. When the Toronto Railwa ...

, which used a crossover at Dufferin Street to change direction. Service excluded Sundays and holidays. On January 4, 1925, the TTC inaugurated Sunday and holiday service on the line. On August 29, 1925, the Rogers Road line was extended to Bicknell Loop, located just east of Weston Road on Bicknell Avenue. On November 4, 1926, the TTC introduced one-man, unidirectional streetcars inherited from the Toronto Street Railway during rush hours. This supplemented the Birney streetcars in base service. On May 24, 1927, former TRC streetcars fully replaced the Birneys. On August 1, 1947, small Peter Witt streetcars replaced the TRC streetcars. On September 7, 1952,

PCC streetcars The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...

replaced the Peter Witts. On July 1, 1954, the Rogers line became part of the TTC's one-fare system eliminating the separate York Township fare. On May 16, 1955, after the opening of the Yonge Subway in 1954, Rogers streetcars were extended eastward from Oakwood to St. Clair Station during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: o ...

. The final Rogers Road streetcar travelled east to the

St. Clair Carhouse The St. Clair Carhouse (also known informally as the Wychwood Carhouse) was a streetcar facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was located south of St. Clair Avenue on a parcel of land bounded by Wychwood Avenue on the east, Benson Avenue on i ...

on July 19, 1974. Beginning on July 21, 1974, the route was replaced by the 63F Ossington trolley bus line which ran from King Street to the Bicknell Loop. In the brief interim, diesel buses were temporarily operated. The 48 Humber Blvd route provided service west of Bicknell Loop to Jane Street.

Demise

Several reasons are given for the demise of the Rogers Road streetcar. The Borough of York (formerly the Township of York) wanted to extend Rogers Road service across Weston Road to Humber Boulevard and Jane Street, but the TTC said this was not possible using streetcars. (Buses would not provide such a route until 1994.) The Borough also wanted to repair Rogers Road but was unwilling to pay the cost of repairing the streetcar tracks. In 1972, Toronto City council decided to retain all streetcar service within the then-City of Toronto; however, this excluded the Rogers Road streetcar line as it was in the Borough of York. Terminating the streetcar line would free up streetcars to act as spares while the TTC was rebuilding its aging PCC fleet. The TTC considered the conversion of the Rogers streetcar to trolley bus operation to be ideal; the streetcar already followed a trolley bus line on Oakwood Avenue between Oakwood Loop and Rogers Road. At its peak, the Rogers streetcar had a frequency of every 3 Minutes. Towards its end, the frequency fell to every 5 minutes as the north-south 29 Dufferin and 41 Keele bus routes were funneling riders south to the Bloor-Danforth subway.

Postscript

Soon after closure, the streetcar tracks east of Old Weston Road were removed, but streetcar tracks remained visible in the street between Bicknell Loop and Old Weston Road until 2000. In 1992, the trolley buses on Rogers Road were replaced by diesel buses. In October 2020, all remaining bus services using Bicknell Loop were extended to Avon Loop at Weston Road. Bicknell Loop was sold off and was replaced by a housing development on its site in 2017.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = http://www.blogto.com/city/2015/01/5_lost_streetcar_routes_in_toronto/ , title = 5 lost streetcar routes in Toronto , work = Blog TO , author = Chris Bateman , date = January 5, 2015 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150111085617/http://www.blogto.com/city/2015/01/5_lost_streetcar_routes_in_toronto/ , archivedate = January 11, 2015 , accessdate = December 3, 2017 , url-status = live , quote = Rogers Road was seen as a prime candidate for conversion to trolley buses in the 1970s. {{cite news , url = http://swanboatsteve.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/july-19-1974-the-end-of-the-line-on-rogers-road , title = July 19, 1974: The End of the Line on Rogers Road , author = Steve Munro , author-link = Steve Munro , date = July 19, 2014 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140722073037/http://stevemunro.ca/?p=10033 , archivedate = July 22, 2014 , url-status = live , quote = The Rogers Road car, the last remnant of the York Township Railways, was not saved with the rest of the streetcar system in 1972 because York (then a separate municipality) did not want to spend the extra money required to repave their street with streetcar tracks in it. {{cite news , url = http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4158.shtml , title = A History of the Rogers/Weston Streetcar Loops (Northlands, Avon and Bicknell) , publisher = Transit Toronto , author = James Bow , date = February 17, 2013 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055553/http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4158.shtml , archivedate = September 21, 2013 , accessdate = July 20, 2014 , url-status = live , quote = In 1972, the TTC decided to retain its streetcar operations within the City of Toronto, but needed to rebuild its fleet of PCCs to keep the system going until a replacement vehicle could be found. In order to have enough spares to maintain service while the rebuilds were continuing, it was decided to end streetcar service on Rogers Road. {{cite news , url = http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4119.shtml , title = The Township of York Railways (Deceased) , publisher = Transit Toronto , author = James Bow , date = July 8, 2014 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20131207080100/http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4119.shtml , archivedate = December 7, 2013 , accessdate = July 20, 2014 , url-status = live , quote = The Rogers Road streetcar started at an off-street loop at Bicknell and Rogers Road, just a stone’s throw from Weston Road. There, it travelled east along Rogers Road, until it got to Oakwood Avenue. There, it turned south and ran to St. Clair, where it looped at Oakwood Loop. {{cite news , url = http://transit.toronto.on.ca/spare/0017.shtml , title = Searching for Toronto's Transit Ghosts , publisher = Transit Toronto , author = Sean Marshall, James Bow , date = March 10, 2013 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130527205404/http://transit.toronto.on.ca/spare/0017.shtml , archivedate = May 27, 2013 , accessdate = July 20, 2014 , url-status = live , quote = As for Rogers Road, the tracks from Old Weston Road east were removed soon after trolley buses took over service. However, rail remained along Rogers from the intersection with Old Weston Road up to, but not including Bicknell Loop. The track was not even covered over and remains plainly visible and in quite good condition. {{cite news , url = http://spacing.ca/toronto/2014/07/19/remembering-rogers-road-streetcar/ , title = Remembering the Rogers Road streetcar , publisher = Spacing.ca , author = Sean Marshall , date = July 19, 2014 , accessdate = July 20, 2014 , url-status = live , quote = At the end of rush hour, on Friday, July 19, 1974, the Rogers Road streetcar rattled its way east on Rogers Road, Oakwood Avenue, and St. Clair Avenue into St. Clair Carhouse on Wychwood Avenue for the last time. {{cite news , url = http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2010/gm/bgrd/backgroundfile-29620.pdf , title = 2 Bicknell Avenue and the Bicknell Loop , publisher =

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its structure and powers are set out in the '' City of Tor ...

, date = 2010 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130615152649/http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2010/gm/bgrd/backgroundfile-29620.pdf , archivedate = June 15, 2013 , accessdate = July 21, 2014 , url-status = live , quote = Part 2 on the Sketch was used by the Toronto Transit Commission (“TTC”) for an end of the line loop (“Bicknell Loop”) until it declared the Property surplus to TTC’s operational requirements on January 21, 2004. {{cite book , title = The Toronto Trolley Car Story 1921–1961 , author = Louis H. Pursley , publisher = Interurbans: electric railway publications , pages = 79 , year = 1961 , isbn = Toronto streetcar system Railway lines opened in 1924 Railway lines closed in 1974