The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. The TRC was also a manufacturer of streetcars and rail work vehicles, a few of which were built for other streetcar and radial operators.

On August 15, 1892, the TRC became the second operator of horse-drawn streetcars in the Toronto area to convert to electric trams, the first being the Metropolitan Street Railway which electrified its horsecar line along Yonge Street within the Town of North Toronto on September 1, 1890. (In 1912, the City of Toronto would annex North Toronto.)

History

In 1891, the 30-year franchise with the Toronto Street Railway (TSR) for horsecar service expired. At the end of the TSR franchise, the city ran the horsecar system for eight months, but ended up granting another 30-year franchise to a private operator, a group involving railway entrepreneur William Mackenzie. The franchise, which involved converting the horsecar system to electric operation, went into effect on September 21, 1891.

The TRC made a one-time payment to the city of $1,453,788 for the assets of the TSR, the same amount the city paid for TSR assets when it took over the horsecar system in 1891. Each year, the TRC was required to pay the city $800 per mile of track, plus a percentage of the gross earnings.

Fares were: five cents cash for adults, six tickets for twenty-five cents; three cents cash for children with school tickets at ten for twenty-five cents; ten cents cash for night streetcars. The fare entitled the rider to a free transfer between routes.

A key requirement of the franchise agreement was that the TRC had to electrify the first line within one year of the beginning of the franchise and the last line within three years. The TRC met this requirement. The first run of an electric car was on August 10, 1892. Car 270 ran from the Frederick Street stables at Front Street, up Church Street, along Bloor Street and Sherbourne Street to Rosedale. The first passenger was a half-sober gentleman who insisted he had the right to board the streetcar at the Metropolitan United Church and pay his fare.

The first electric car ran in scheduled service on Church Street starting August 15, 1892, and the last horse car ran on McCaul Street on August 31, 1894.

From 1893 to 1904, the TRC had suburban radial operations, often using vehicles resembling streetcars. In 1893, the TRC took control of the Toronto and Mimico Electric Railway and Light Company along Lake Shore Road, and in 1895, the Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company along Kingston Road. In 1904, both suburban operations were turned over to the Toronto and York Radial Railway, thus ending the TRC's suburban operations.

On May 23, 1897, Sunday streetcar service started after city voters gave approval in a referendum earlier that month. This was controversial at the time; churches feared Sunday streetcar service would lead to other activities inappropriate for a Sunday such as sporting events and the sale of alcoholic beverages. The referendum, which had been preceded by two prior unsuccessful attempts, was won by a narrow margin of 0.7 per cent out of 32,000 votes cast.

There came to be problems with interpretation of the franchise terms for the city. A series of annexations, especially in 1908–12, significantly extended the city limits to include such areas as Dovercourt, Earlscourt, East Toronto, Midway (formerly between Toronto and East Toronto), North Toronto, and West Toronto. After many attempts to force the TRC to serve these areas, the city created its own street railway operation, the Toronto Civic Railways to do so, and built several routes.

The TRC system deteriorated towards the end of the franchise. By 1915, there were complaints of overcrowding due to a shortage of streetcars. In December 1916, a fire destroyed the TRC's King carhouse and 163 motor cars and trailers within it. Repeated court battles did force the TRC to build new cars, but far less than what the city was requesting, and the new cars were of an old design dating from 1906, or 1908 for the newest cars. Streetcars and track were not well maintained, and carhouses and shops were obsolete or deteriorating. The TRC franchise ended on August 31, 1921, and the next day, the Toronto Transportation Commission started operating a system that combined the TRC system with the city-operated Toronto Civic Railways lines. In 1924, the city paid $11,483,500 for the assets of the TRC. The TRC ceased to exist when it was legally dissolved in 1930.

Track In 1891, the TRC inherited of horsecar track from its predecessor, the Toronto Street Railway. The TRC learned from the troubled experiences of the Metropolitan Street Railway in North Toronto, which had previously done a horse to electric conversion. Thus, between 1891 and 1894, the TRC replaced all the horsecar track, using heavier rail that could properly support the faster, heavier electric streetcars. The TRC used 69-pound rail on some lightly used lines, and 71-pound rail elsewhere, including all downtown track.

For parallel tracks on the horsecar system, the distance between the tracks (the devil strip) was ; the TRC widened the devil strip to . Until 1908, the city prohibited the TRC from making the devil strip wider. Because of the narrow devil strip, later cars were built with a taper to the roof on the passing side, and car bodies were offset to the right by four inches, sitting off-centre on the king pin. The offset allowed a wider car to safely pass another traveling in the opposite direction. From 1903, the TRC built all new track with a devil strip of . In 1921, there was still of double track with a narrow devil strip which the successor TTC widened as it replaced old TRC tracks to handle wider equipment.

Routes Routes marked to TTC were operating on September 21, 1921, when the Toronto Railway Company's operations were taken over by the Toronto Transportation Commission. Routes marked 1923 by TTC were TRC routes discontinued by the TTC as a result of a major reorganization of routes on July 1, 1923.

Route Started Ended Notes Arthur 1902-02-12 February 12, 1902 1909-00-00 1909 Merged with Dundas route Ashbridge 1917-11-05 November 5, 1917 Transferred to TTC Replaced by bus service in the 1920s. Avenue Road 1895-19-02 September 2, 1895 Transferred to TTC Bathurst 1885-07-27 July 27, 1885 Transferred to TTC Belt Line 1891-11-16 November 16, 1891 1923 by TTC Bloor 1889-00-00 1889 Transferred to TTC Broadview 1892-10-00 October 1892 1923 by TTC Brockton 1882-00-00 1882 1893-10-09 October 9, 1893 Renamed Dundas Carlton 1886-08-00 August 1886 Transferred to TTC Church 1881-00-00 1881 Transferred to TTC College 1893-11-00 November 1893 Transferred to TTC Danforth 1889-05-00 May 1889 1892-10-00 October 1892 Renamed Broadview Davenport 1892-12-00 December 1892 1891-11-00 November 1891 Replaced by Bathurst, Parliament and Winchester routes Dovercourt 1888-11-00 November 1888 Transferred to TTC Dufferin 1889-00-00 1889 1891-09-30 September 30, 1891 Merged with Danforth route Dundas 1893-10-09 October 9, 1893 Transferred to TTC Dupont 1906-08-29 August 29, 1906 Transferred to TTC Harbord 1911-08-29 August 29, 1911 Transferred to TTC High Park 1886-00-00 1886 1905-00-00 1905 King 1874-00-00 1874 Transferred to TTC Lee Avenue 1889-0—00 1889 1893-05-15 May 15, 1893 Merged into King route McCaul 1883-10-00 October 1883 1896-01-01 January 1, 1896 Replaced by Bloor route Parkdale 1880-00-00 1880 1886-00-00 1886 Renamed High Park Parliament 1881-00-00 1881 1918-03-04 March 4, 1918 Merged into Queen route Queen 1861-12-02 December 2, 1861 Transferred to TTC Queen East 1882-00-00 1882 1891-10-16 October 16, 1891 Merged with Danforth route Roncesvalles 1909-00-00 1909 1911-12-20 December 20, 1911 Replaced by Queen route Seaton Village 1885-07-27 July 27, 1885 1891-10-23 October 23, 1891 Replaced by Davenport, Parliament and Winchester routes Sherbourne 1874-11-00 November 1874 1891-11-16 November 16, 1891 Merged into Belt Line route Spadina 1878-00-00 1878 1891-11-16 November 16, 1891 Merged into Belt Line route Winchester 1874-11-00 November 1874 Transferred to TTC Woodbine 1887-05-00 May 1887 1893-04-04 April 4, 1893 Replaced by King route Yonge 1861-09-11 September 11, 1861 Transferred to TTC York 1891-10-00 1891-12-31 In operation in October 1891 and discontinued prior to December 31, 1891

City-owned tracks The city built and owned some of the streetcar trackage operated by the TRC. The city-owned, TRC-operated tracks were: Queen Street East between Maclean Avenue and Neville Park Boulevard. The portion of the Yonge streetcar line between the CPR line and Woodlawn Avenue built in 1916, to replace Metropolitan radial tracks that the city ripped up over a franchise dispute. A private right-of-way from Bathurst and Front streets through Fort York to the Exhibition Place, built in 1916. The Ashbridge line in 1917, running south from Queen Street via Don Roadway, then west on Commissioners Street to Charry Street, to serve workers at munitions factories: Unlike other routes at the time, the Ashbridge line had no loops or wyes, and required double-ended streetcars. Tracks over the Prince Edward Viaduct between Sherbourne Street and Broadview Avenue, in 1918.

Subway

By 1909, there were proposals to build subways in competition to the TRC's surface streetcar lines. At this time the city was unhappy with the quality of TRC service and with the TRC's refusal to serve newly annexed areas. The TRC had an exclusive franchise for surface streetcars but competing subways would not violate the franchise.

In 1909, a British syndicate proposed two lines, one under Yonge Street and a second from East Toronto via Queen Street East, Dufferin Street and Dundas Street West to West Toronto. Voters supported this proposal in a referendum during the 1910 election, but also elected a mayor who opposed it. Thus, this proposal died.

By 1912, there was a second city proposal to build three underground routes: streetcar tunnels under Queen and Bloor Streets, and a rapid transit subway along Yonge Street. These routes would have connected with surface streetcar routes and radial railways. The idea died after voters rejected the proposal out of fear of higher taxes.

Roster

As part of the franchise agreement, the TRC was to build all its streetcars locally. Thus, almost all TRC cars were built in-house at their car shops at Front and Frederick Streets. However, the TRC felt it lacked the capacity to build enough streetcars to convert the horsecar system it inherited to electrical operation by the city-imposed deadline. Thus, the city granted the TRC an exception to purchase ten single-ended, single-truck streetcars from James Crossen-Cobourg Car Works in Cobourg, Ontario in 1893.

The TRC streetcars were made of wood over a steel underframe. Cars had a clerestory roof with a destination sign fixed near the front edge of the roof. Seats were wood slat but the TRC provided each with a seating cushion. There was a stove at the front of the car for winter heating. Early streetcars had open platforms; later cars had enclosed vestibules. The rear vestibule could have a single or double rear door. Cars with a double rear door could haul a trailer and had a two-man crew. One-man cars had a treadle-operated single rear door. There was a hook at the rear of each car to hang a baby carriage.

At first, TRC streetcars had hand brakes, but in 1905, a Torontonian developed an air brake for streetcars. Initially, streetcars did not carry an air compressor; thus, air recharging stations were required along streetcar routes. Later, on-board air compressors were installed.