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A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRIC TRANSIT IN WATERLOO REGION
While Waterloo Region’s ION LRT may be an ambitious project, the region has had a long history with electric public transit. Even before Waterloo County was established in 1857, the area was known for its industry. Served by the Grand River and associated tributaries like the Nith and the Conestogo, the county was the site of many mills, and the settlement of a significant community of Mennonites. The Grand Trunk Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railways came through the area in the middle of the 19th century, and industries soon set up in the growing towns of Berlin (today’s Kitchener) and Galt (located in today’s southern Cambridge).
Streetcar service in Waterloo County dates to 1886 with the incorporation of the Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway. Horsecar service was operating between the two towns along King Street by 1888 and, by 1889, the line boasted a bustling operation of eight open cars, eight closed cars and three large covered sleighs. The service initially ran from Cedar Street in Waterloo (today known as Bridgeport Road) to Scott Street in Kitchener. A branch line was also built from King Street to the Grand Trunk Railway station (later CN) at the intersection of Victoria and Weber Streets.
Electric streetcar operation arrived in Waterloo County on July 26, 1894 in the form of the Galt and Preston Street Railway, operating along King Street in what is today Cambridge. This was followed by an extension from Preston to Hespeler, and the launch of the Preston and Berlin Railway on October 6, 1904. The latter brought tracks into the City of Berlin (today known as Kitchener). These railways were amalgamated on January 1, 1908 into the Berlin, Waterloo, Wellesley and Lake Huron Railway. In 1914, the company was leased to Canadian Pacific Railway, who changed the name to the Grand River Railway Company.
The Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway, meanwhile, upgraded its tracks and launched electric service on May 18, 1895. It soon laid double tracks on King Street from Water Street to Albert Street. Further streetcar expansion occurred in the form of the Berlin and Bridgeport Electric Street Railway. Incorporated on January 7, 1901, it launched the construction of a five-mile line from downtown Kitchener towards the village of Bridgeport, opening to a sugar beet factory on July 14, 1902, and finally reaching Bridgeport on August 1, the same year. The company had plans to build to Elora and Fergus, and changed its name to the Berlin and Northern Railway in 1912, but the extension never took place. This was the poorest performing street railway in the county and, in 1923, it was taken over by the City of Kitchener and merged with the former Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway (known as the Kitchener and Waterloo Street Railway after Berlin was renamed Kitchener in 1916).
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