Windsor, Ontario was the first

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

city with an electric street car 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 most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

in 1887 and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1889. By

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

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 Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

, Walkerville and

Ojibway The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

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 List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

from

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

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 using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

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 is an List of international river borders, international river in North America. The river, which forms part of the border between the U.S. state of Michigan and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ont ...

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 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 us ...

, while simultaneously encouraging

population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The World population, global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to aroun ...

south of the Detroit River where

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

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

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

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 an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

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

Amherstburg Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town ...

and

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; (March 9, 1768October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the Territorial evolution of the United States, expansion of the United States onto Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

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 Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, 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 was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

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.

Bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es 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 transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

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, 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 the 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 ...

'', Windsor, asked Pat Delmore, Transit Windsor'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's 2019 reinstatement of Light Rail in Kitchener-Waterloo, 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 ''Bor ...

, 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