| Transit-oriented development is nothing new. In fact, it’s as old as Calgary Transit itself. The old electric streetcar was a magnet for developers. And even though the streetcar was often less than efficient (it often suffered from derailment and broken axles), people rode it every day.
"Streetcars weren’t the warmest in the winter," says Larry Clayden, a long-time Bowness resident who started riding the streetcar when his family moved to Bowness in 1944. "They only had single-pane windows in them, and they didn’t fit that tight. Some of them were pretty old, too."
Clayden recalls being somewhat less than confident in the streetcar’s safety. He vividly remembers that when the streetcar would pass what is now 37 Street N.W. headed downtown, the streetcar operator would often turn around and stoke the firebox behind him, leaving the car to stay the course on its own.
"That thing would just be swaying back and forth from one side to the other full tilt," Clayden recalls. "There was a turn at the end, and you always expected that the driver wasn’t going to get back in time to slow it down. We were scared that we’d end up in the river."
The streetcar ran until 1950, when it was replaced by electric trolley buses. At its peak, the streetcar system had over 115 kilometres of rail. (The present LRT system only has 42 kilometres.) The intricate system was dismantled and one of the old cars now stands as a relic in Heritage Park. Clayden says the streetcar is a big piece of the city’s history.
"It’s very important," he says. "When it first started, most people didn’t have cars. It was their only way of getting around." |
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