Edmonton historian Ken Tingley has spent the better part of 2008 researching and writing the history of the first 100 years of public transit in the city. The resulting book, Journey of the Century, a history of the Edmonton Transit System, is to be released in early November.

The launch will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Edmonton Radial Railway, the venture that became today's Edmonton Transit. “The depth of information was enormous,” Tingley reports. “There’s a lot of great material at the City Archives, and a lot of great images, and fantastic stories from the people. The Edmonton Transit System has been successful, I think, because of the way services have been delivered. For most of the 20th century, it has been multi-faceted, and that has been its strength.”

One of the most fascinating parts of the book tells the story of the arrival and early runs of the electric trolleys in the late 1930s and 1940s. It’s sadly ironic that, just as Tingley was completing his manuscript, city council voted at the urging of Edmonton Transit to pull the plug on the trolley system. The last trolleys are to be decommissioned from service over the next two years. Back at the beginning, the trolleys were envisioned as a way to address mounting costs to rehabilitate the rail and running stock for the streetcar system, launched in 1908. Feasibility reports presented to city council in 1938 recommended trolleys for their efficiency and safety.

In the book Edmonton's Electric Transit, Colin Hatcher and Tom Schwarzkopf explain that the decision to launch a trolley bus service in Edmonton was made on a warm summer day in 1938. Thomas Ferrier, superintendent of the Edmonton Radial Railway and City Commissioner Robert Gibb hesitantly agreed to implement a recommendation by Toronto consultants that the street railway system be gradually replaced by "trackless trolley coaches."

Canada was just climbing out of the Great Depression and war was brewing in Europe at the time. The two men opted to go slowly, deciding to erect an experimental route, aimed at relieving a troublesome situation on Scona Hill, where the streetcar track on the unpaved roadway shifted during every rain. The first line would also retire some of the most tired city centre track on 95th Street.

The cost to implement six 40-passenger trolley buses was $263,826, including spare parts, erection of overhead electrical lines and street paving. The move made Edmonton the third Canadian city to use the modern trolley bus, after Toronto and Montreal.

The British manufacturers English Equipment Company/Associated Equipment Company and Leyland were the successful bidders, contracted to build three twin-axel trolleys apiece. Britain's preparation for war delayed shipment of the six trolleys, pushing the arrival date from July to September. The Leyland buses were to have been loaded on the RMS Athenia, Montreal-bound from Great Britain, But there was room on the Beaverford, leaving a week earlier, and so that's how the trolleys went.

It's a good thing, too, because of the historical chapter yet to come. On September 4, 1939, a German submarine torpedoed the Athenia, killing six and sending 1,400 persons into the lifeboats.

On September 12, 1939 the first two trolleys – buses 101 and 102 – arrived in Edmonton and two more were in Montreal being unloaded. A third pair was expected to dock soon unless, as the Edmonton Bulletin wryly observed, "the boat carrying them has been torpedoed."

Trial runs with the new trolleys commenced September 22 on newly completed wiring downtown and along 95 Street and 115 Avenue to the bus barns on 80th Street. The public got its first chance to ride the trolleys on Sunday, September 24. Fares were ten cents cash or five tickets for a quarter.

But those who rode the buses at the launch weren’t the first passengers. A story in the September 21, 1939 edition of the Edmonton Journal reported that two hoboes named Hughie and Walter had taken a ride in Bus 103 as it was being shipped in early September from Toronto to Edmonton.

When their free ride reached its destination, they apparently were compelled to a speedy evacuation, leaving behind half a loaf of bread and a pound of bologna. They had the temerity or perhaps the good manners to write to Edmonton Radial Railway Superintendent Thomas Ferrier to thank him for the shelter and ask for the return of their food.

The first route started on 111 Avenue, ran south on 95 Street, west on Jasper Avenue to 100 Street, then north to 102 Avenue, west to 102 Street and finally south to Jasper where it turned east for its return to 95 Street.

Tingley writes that the Edmonton Journal reassured that the new coaches, while unfamiliar to most of its readers, were equipped with auxiliary batteries in case of a power failure. After decades of power shortages on the city’s streetcar lines, it was an eventuality that Edmontonians understood was likely.

“As with virtually every significant change to the public transit fleet, the plan to replace streetcars with trolleys was not without controversy,” Tingley writes. “Ride comfort, speed of service and the opinion of experts from other cities were all challenged by those seeking to preserve the original system.”

Even so, Edmontonians took to the new service in large numbers, and before long a considerable petition was received requesting improved trolley service from 99 Street and Whyte Avenue to Connor's Road and 99 Street via 91 Street, then downtown via McDougall Hill.

Tingley observes that the introduction of trolleys happened at the end of two decades of financial restraint and on the cusp of another global conflict, the Second World War. “The number of passengers riding the Edmonton Radial Railway (ERR) would soar during the Second World War continuing the trend of relentless stress on a system reacting as best it could to global forces shaping the local scene.”

Over the next 70 years, trolleys would become as much an integral part of Edmonton’s fabric as the streetcars has been during the Edmonton Radial Railway’s earliest years starting in 1908.

Next week: The end of the line for the streetcars.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary, Edmonton Transit begins “Transit Centenary Week,” on Friday, September 12th. The event will include rides on historic buses, multimedia displays, family entertainment, cool artifacts and transit memorabilia dating back to 1908. Headquarters for all the activities will be Sir Winston Churchill Square, right in front of City Hall.

For more information, visit www.takeets.com