The next generation of Grovenor residents may be able to ride the rails to work, as the City contemplates building a west LRT line. It would be a journey back to the future.
In the old days, Grovenor’s rail connection to the rest of Edmonton was Streetcar Route No. 5, Athabasca to Syndicate via Downtown. If you wanted to trace this path on a modern map, you’d point your finger to the intersection of 142nd Street and Stony Plain Road and follow 102nd Avenue east to 124th Street, take the jog south on 124th to Jasper Avenue, and continue east all the way to 95th Street. The route finished with a loop north into the McCauley district.
Route No. 5 was one of six lines operated by the Edmonton Radial Railway in 1914. Grovenor (then called Westgrove) was the western terminus of the system. Service extended north to Calder, east to the Highlands and south as far as McKernan’s Lake. Although few people actually lived that far from the centre of town, city council recognized that good planning required the development of useful transportation corridors as a prequel to building homes in outlying areas.
Several cute stories about the old No. 5 can be found in essays written by Tony Chapman, Edmonton’s foremost social historian. On 102nd Avenue, near the current location of the High Street mall, the streetcar tracks intersected with the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway. The trains had the legal right to block traffic, but it made little sense to disrupt trolley service so a bunch of boxcars could rumble toward CN’s Strathcona Yards. Often a standoff resulted, lasting five minutes or longer, as the engineer and motorman competed to see who could be the most courteous. It became a tradition: the drivers magnanimously waving at each other to proceed, while the passengers laughed at their grand gestures.
In winter, Glenora boys created mischief by building snow forts on the trolley tracks. Usually the streetcar stopped – but not so the motorman could grab a shovel and clear the line, which would have been the responsible action. Instead, he would back up his vehicle, creating enough space to take on the obstacle at full speed. Even parents had to agree: what could be more entertaining on a January afternoon than watching a streetcar explode through a mountain of snow?
There is a temptation to view new technologies as superior to whatever they are designed to replace. Perhaps that’s the best explanation of what happened to the Edmonton Radial Railway. Streetcars are quiet, comfortable, safe and efficient. Buses are noisy, bumpy, awkward and smelly. However, they are also newer, and for city council, that was enough to decommission, over a period of 20 years, one of North America’s best urban transit systems.
The line along 102nd Avenue was the first to go, abandoned on Jan. 24th, 1932.
In 1914, the city had a population of just over 72,000 people. Between January and April, they combined to take – get this – 4,897,008 trips on the streetcar. Staggering.
Strange – sometimes going forwards means going backward.
In the old days, Grovenor’s rail connection to the rest of Edmonton was Streetcar Route No. 5, Athabasca to Syndicate via Downtown. If you wanted to trace this path on a modern map, you’d point your finger to the intersection of 142nd Street and Stony Plain Road and follow 102nd Avenue east to 124th Street, take the jog south on 124th to Jasper Avenue, and continue east all the way to 95th Street. The route finished with a loop north into the McCauley district.
Route No. 5 was one of six lines operated by the Edmonton Radial Railway in 1914. Grovenor (then called Westgrove) was the western terminus of the system. Service extended north to Calder, east to the Highlands and south as far as McKernan’s Lake. Although few people actually lived that far from the centre of town, city council recognized that good planning required the development of useful transportation corridors as a prequel to building homes in outlying areas.
Several cute stories about the old No. 5 can be found in essays written by Tony Chapman, Edmonton’s foremost social historian. On 102nd Avenue, near the current location of the High Street mall, the streetcar tracks intersected with the Edmonton, Yukon and Pacific Railway. The trains had the legal right to block traffic, but it made little sense to disrupt trolley service so a bunch of boxcars could rumble toward CN’s Strathcona Yards. Often a standoff resulted, lasting five minutes or longer, as the engineer and motorman competed to see who could be the most courteous. It became a tradition: the drivers magnanimously waving at each other to proceed, while the passengers laughed at their grand gestures.
In winter, Glenora boys created mischief by building snow forts on the trolley tracks. Usually the streetcar stopped – but not so the motorman could grab a shovel and clear the line, which would have been the responsible action. Instead, he would back up his vehicle, creating enough space to take on the obstacle at full speed. Even parents had to agree: what could be more entertaining on a January afternoon than watching a streetcar explode through a mountain of snow?
There is a temptation to view new technologies as superior to whatever they are designed to replace. Perhaps that’s the best explanation of what happened to the Edmonton Radial Railway. Streetcars are quiet, comfortable, safe and efficient. Buses are noisy, bumpy, awkward and smelly. However, they are also newer, and for city council, that was enough to decommission, over a period of 20 years, one of North America’s best urban transit systems.
The line along 102nd Avenue was the first to go, abandoned on Jan. 24th, 1932.
In 1914, the city had a population of just over 72,000 people. Between January and April, they combined to take – get this – 4,897,008 trips on the streetcar. Staggering.
Strange – sometimes going forwards means going backward.