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While the City of Calgary mulls over a short-list of exorbitantly expensive options for crossing The Bow with its proposed Green Line LRT, local transit historians have been quick to point out that Calgary once sported no less than six such light rail river crossings during the city's short-lived Streetcar Era between 1909 and 1950. With an electrified network comprised of a dozen distinct routes and service to all corners of the city and its inner suburbs — including numerous neighbourhoods on both sides of The Bow — the Calgary Municipal Railway (CMR) was once the pride of Calgary, and its short-sighted removal in 1950 sealed the fate of public transit for generations to come. This edition of Once Upon a Tram will take an in-depth look at the fascinating history of the Calgary Municipal Railway, along with the complex transit legacy it left behind.
Late to the streetcar game, as Calgary itself only crossed the 10,000 mark as of the 1901 Census, the frontier boom town did not lay tracks until 1909, or more than a quarter century later than most other Canadian cities from Halifax to Vancouver. Below, an early photograph of the CMR in action from about 1910, with a view up Eighth Avenue, reveals the young city as it appeared at the turn of the last century.
Begun as the the Calgary Municipal Railway, Calgary's streetcar network was built to meet the demands of a quickly growing city, with a population that ballooned from 400 to 40,000 between its founding in 1875 and the arrival of the first electric streetcars in 1909. Compared to the image above, the postcard view below highlights the rapid rate of change, as a similar view a decade later reveals a much more vibrant street scene complete with the addition of automobiles.
Before long, the Canadian Municipal Railway had expanded to include a dozen discrete routes that covered a total of 26 kilometres, an impressive network for a city of its size. Reaching nearly every corner of the city, both downtown and across The Bow into Calgary's early streetcar suburbs and beyond, the CMR was readily able to ferry Calgary's 40,000 citizens to virtually every point of interest the city had to offer; the very first line terminated at the newly built grounds of the Calgary Stampede.
While the legibility of the system map above is not ideal, it is clear enough to note the impressive extent to which the former streetcar system served the city. With a comprehensive grid of corridors present downtown, supported by a broad suburban network across The Bow via six separate crossings, the CMR's electrified streetcar network was superior to any subsequent network to date, from trolley buses, to diesel buses, to the CTrain LRT of today.
By any metric, the Calgary Municipal Railway was a runaway success, with an abundant, steadily increasing ridership, and a comprehensive efficient network that was more than able to support the needs of the growing city during the entirety of its 41-year run. The early addition of a small fleet of special open-air tourist cars, known as the 'Seeing Calgary' fleet, which would take passengers to all of the most scenic spots in town for just 25 cents for a day's worth of travel, was a testament to the city's exuberant adoption of the technology as a clear indicator of modernity and progress.
Viewed above and below, the Seeing Calgary cars were an instant hit among tourists and locals alike, as indicated by the fact that the cars are full to the brim with happy travellers. A sign of the times as well as the locale, observers will undoubtedly note the abundance of cowboy hats for the men, and more high-fashion feathered hats for the ladies.
Despite its success, the Calgary Municipal Railway befell the fate of nearly every other streetcar network in North America, with its entire fleet retired from service on December 29, 1950. Its tracks were ripped out and paved over and its fleet was sent to the scrapyard, and it would be more than 30 years until the opening of the comparatively limited-service CTrain that began operation in 1981. In the interim, the City experimented first with electric trolleybuses, which operated between 1947 and 1975, until their eventual replacement with a fleet of solely motorized diesel-powered buses from 1975 to the present (with the exception of the CTrain).
Though larger in scope with just shy of 60 kilometres of track, the current CTrain runs on just two distinct lines — running roughly east-west and north-south with a common section running through the heart of downtown — and is geographically limited in its reach. Used primarily as a commuter train bringing suburban users in and out of the the Central Business District, the CTrain leaves all other forms of travel in and around the city to buses, or more commonly, private vehicles.
Today wending its way through City Hall, a recent proposal to add a $5 billion, 46-kilometre Green Line LRT into the network has been making local headlines over the course of the last few years. Set to run north-south through the heart of the city, the new line would necessitate a handful of river crossings, especially across The Bow just north of downtown. 40 percent, or almost $2 billion of the overall budget, has been earmarked for tunnelling under the river, an option which critics suggest is far and away too much to spend, especially given the city's history of running its streetcars over existing bridges.
While the ongoing debate over the proposed Green Line LRT will be a topic for another day, the future of the project is very much tied to the development of Calgary as a modern 21st-century metropolis, its fate to be forever linked to the transit legacy left behind by the Calgary Municipal Railway.
SkyriseCities will return soon with a new edition of Once Upon a Tram, which will take an in-depth look at the transit legacy of a city near you. In the meantime, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below. Got an idea for this series? Let us know!
