Hamilton Street Railway

{{External media|title=External maps Ownership On March 29, 1873, the HSR was established after Ontario passed An Act to incorporate "The Hamilton Street Railway Company." It was owned by Lyman Moore and operated as a private business under a city franchise. In 1977, the Hamilton-Wentworth Region assumed ownership of HSR. In 2001, regional amalgamation placed ownership back with the city of Hamilton. Former streetcar system . The HSR operated horsecars from 1874 to 1892. In May 1874, the first horsecar ran south on James Street, then east on King Street to Wellington Street, a distance of . of track, 45 horsecars, 9 sleighs and 160 horses. Fifteen of the horsecars would be converted into electric streetcars. In 1895, York Street was mostly double-tracked. In 1896, the first streetcar loop was constructed at Guise Street at the north end of James Street. In 1904, HSR provided rush-hour service north from Barton Street over the tracks of the Hamilton Radial Electric Railway (HRER) along Birch Avenue. In 1907, the , single-track, side-of-road Bartonville line was built east from Sherman Avenue along King Street East to Strongman Road. Barton Street was double-tracked in 1911. Tracks were extended east along Burlington Street from James Street (1910 and 1913), linking to the double-track HRER line at Birch Avenue. By 1916, tracks had been extended east on Barton Street, north and south on Kennilworth Avenue and west on Main Street; an enlarged Belt Line was created in October 1916 using the new double track and became the city's busiest streetcar line. By 1923, the tracks had been extended west along King Street to Cline Avenue in Westdale. After the Hamilton and Dundas Street Railway ceased operation in 1923, HSR took over a portion of its line along Aberdeen Avenue to Longwood Road. Former trolley bus system on Wilson Street in 1987 Trolley buses were used by the HSR from 1950 to 1992. The trolley bus system opened on December 10, 1950, and the last day of trolley bus service was December 30, 1992. On December 10, 1950, the first Hamilton trolley buses went into service on the Cannon route, replacing a busy bus route. In October 1951, several months after the termination of streetcar service, a second trolley bus route went into service as the King-Barton route. In 1956, the city introduced one-way streets in downtown Hamilton; as a result, the King-Barton route was split into the separate King and Barton routes. Trolley bus operation was eventually extended as far east as Stoney Creek, almost to Donn Avenue. Trolley buses operated out of the Sanford facility which used to handle streetcars. Originally designated only by names, as in streetcar days, the three routes were later given numbers, 1 for the King route, 2 for Barton, and 3 for the Cannon route. The fleet originally consisted of 50 Canadian Car–Brill vehicles, which by 1973 were replaced by 40 Flyer E700 trolley buses built in 1972–73. and small investments in new infrastructure were still being made, such as the construction of a new turnaround loop for trolley buses at Eastgate Square mall, which came into use in September 1986. However, temporary substitutions of diesel buses for trolley buses became increasingly common in the late 1980s. Diesel buses temporarily replaced trolley buses on routes 1–King and 3-Cannon in May 1989 because of road construction projects, with trolley buses returning to both routes in November 1989. However, both routes were again dieselized in early January 1990 for what would ultimately be the last time. Only route 2–Barton then remained in operation with trolley buses. At the time the King and Cannon routes were dieselized, the city moved trolley bus operations to a new bus garage at 330 Wentworth Street North which did not have trolley wires. This was possible because all but one of HSR's 16 newer trolley buses (model E800A) had been retrofitted in 1989–90 with a small auxiliary diesel engine for off-wire movements. The last day for trolley bus operation on the Barton route was December 30, 1992, when only a single trolley bus (No. 7815) was in service. At the time, the regional council was still planning to purchase new trolleybuses for routes 1 and 2, and subsequently, considered purchasing or leasing 40 trolley buses from the Edmonton trolley bus system that had been on loan to the Toronto Transit Commission since 1989–90 and were in storage in Toronto after the 1993 closure of the trolley bus system there. However, after HSR concluded that the Edmonton vehicles would require costly modifications for Hamilton, the regional council voted on March 1, 1994 to make the system's closure permanent. Barns/garages HSR is building a new garage at the site of the former Wentworth Street Transit Centre, with the official address being changed to 281 Birch Avenue. The garage will hold 200 natural-gas buses and have 30 repair bays, a bus wash facility and offices. In January 2023, HSR posted bid documents; it hoped to open the new facility in 2024 to supplement the overcrowded Mountain Transit Centre. , this timeline had shifted to late 2026 completion. == Services ==