A Streetcar Named “Ouellette”
Guest Blogger Alert! Brendan is back, and with a vengeance! I must tell you, it is refreshing to have someone with the knack for creative writing that Brendan has, coupled with the passion for SD’s mission/vision, join us in expanding ScaleDown’s web presense. Another great article, Brendan. Thanks also goes out to John Stefani for stoking the streetcar flame within yet another SDer. You’re infecting us all and making us begin to believe that it may just be possible to reintroduce this superior mode of inner/intra-city transportation to the streets of our fair city!
by Brendan Houghton
I have always thought of myself as being born too late. I should have lived earlier, in a bygone age of streetcars and tree lined streets. I should have lived to hear the orchestra of the city’s sound punctuated by the clanging of a streetcar’s bell, and the crescendo of steel wheels carving their way across an endless ribbon of tracks. Trains and streetcars are romantic; they hearken back to a time when life didn’t brush past you like a stranger on a crowded street. It crept by you, looked into your eyes and waited for you to move first. Some of you may think this way of thinking is retrogressive, that I am a twenty-seven year old dinosaur. I’m here to tell you that time is cyclical, that what was here once before is bound to occur again. The streetcar shall return.
It has been seventy years since they left. They left penniless and mismanaged, the victims of that wonderful catch-all “progress”. Buses were the vanguard, and they ran on cheap, unlimited gasoline. During this era, oil was easier to come by than water in Texas. The lifeblood of the internal combustion engine had never seen better days, and perhaps the city leaders thought it a bit hypocritical for the “Automotive Capital of Canada” not to have buses. Therefore, the tracks were ripped from their moorings, the cars sold for scrap or converted into summer cottages and Windsor got on with being the car manufacturing Shangri-La it so desperately wanted to be.
The streetcars became another childhood memory, like your dad’s old Ford pickup, or your mom’s station wagon. You remembered the driver waiting for you if he saw you running a bit late. You remember going places, the smell of the leather seats, and the feel of the cold, foggy glass against your warm hands in the winter. Most of all, you remember the sound. The sound of the train clacking down the street, the buildings rolling past, life happening all around you as if you had a box seat to the theatre of life. You grew up and became an adult, and so did Windsor. You began to forget the memories and they became even foggier until you barely mentioned them at all.
As the price of oil rises with each passing day like a macabre time bomb, we may one day be forced to bring back the streetcar in order to fulfill our mass transit needs. Recently, South Eastern Michigan’s mass transit czar John Hertel called for a complete overhaul of their entire system. This system will incorporate both electric streetcars and commuter trains, along with a bus rapid transit system.
I was able to secure a map of our entire inter-urban streetcar lines from John Stefani, a local historian, and after studying this map I had many thoughts. My first thought was how comprehensive the system was. It stretched from Amherstburg to Tecumseh, south to Kingsville and north to Riverside Drive. It covered our entire urban area, and it had two lines right down the centre of Ouellette Avenue. It linked up with an inter-county railway service and one could easily go from Smith’s downtown to the shores of Lake Erie in Leamington without setting foot in a car. If only we had that kind of bus coverage. I then thought why can’t we rebuild this system?
Every long journey begins with a single step. We need to start somewhere. Perhaps running a line up Ouellette again, as a sort of tourist trap could convince our leaders to invest in the future by revisiting a venture from the past, a postcard come to life. They would begin to notice how people prefer to take the streetcar over the bus because of its roominess and its stylish feel. People will begin to see how well they work, and the city will install more lines, eventually regaining its size and scope. Perhaps we could even link up with the planned system in South Eastern Michigan, creating a huge network of light rail that is both convenient to the private citizen and friendly to the environment.
At this point in time we have no solid plan in place, no infrastructure, no safety net when oil becomes scarce and financially unattainable. We cannot afford to hope the eco-friendly engines and bio fuels can quench the unrelenting thirst that gasoline can only satisfy. We must rely on what worked before the internal combustion engine, and reach into the past to secure our own future. Now comes the beginning.
There is something about a streetcar, something intangible that cannot be measured by feasibility studies or focus groups. It cannot be filmed or recorded by any man made device. It is something we want to remember, something we ache to have again. We yearn to see the days when the streetcars clang their way down our thoroughfares once more. If perchance to have but a moment of sheer pride in our city, and pride in the fact that we made something good come out of the miles and miles of cold grey asphalt, one inch at a time.
Tags: Alternative Transportation, guest blogger, revitalization, sustainable development
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Now that’s what I’m talking about….great article Brendan!
A quick question…if you still have the inter-urban streetcar line map that you secured from John Stefani would it be possible to post a link to it or scan it and post it here on SD? I would be VERY interested in having a look at it (along with many others on here I would guess).
Didn’t see the link at first, sorry for that and thank you!
The last paragraph of Brendan’s article sums up how I feel about streetcars. While they may not look great on reports drawn up by bean counters - the infrastructure is expensive and the cost per mile is higher than buses - there is something about a streetcar that vitalizes a community. The powers that be think too clinically when it comes to streetcars. If the people pulling the strings thought with their heart instead and embraced …… no….. insisted Windsor re-implement streetcar lines in downtown and its urban areas, things would just come alive! People would go downtown JUST to ride the streetcar. The pulse of commerce would start to come back because someone showed tangible faith in downtown, and not with some hairbrain scheme that benefits the few, but a fully accessible public transit system for ALL of Windsorites. One that can’t be easily removed or taken away, thus encouraging businesses to set up shop on/near the routes.
“It can’t be done” and “It’s too expensive” didn’t stop anyone from making transit history right here in Windsor in 1886. We should be proud of that achievement, and at the same time ashamed we lost it all.
No worries RY. I can’t take credit for the links, you can thank Chris Holt for hooking that up.
i’m not sure why my last comment didn’t go thru…or maybe it did and it’s just not up yet BUT:
FANTASTIC JOB Brendan if i havn’t already said it!!! i’m a 27 yr old dino just like you.
and Chris - great job on the site!
looks like i found your article you were asking for a map for on IM lol
FANTASTIC job Brendan! i too am a 27 yr old dinosour. i’ve been told by many people that i’m living in the wrong time. after aqquiring those maps from john myself a little while ago, i just stared at them for long periods, and i went so far as to draw the lines out on my maps of windsor.
when looking for a new place to live i found a place on Elm st, and was so excited to see the tracks poking out of the pavement!! for nights afterwards i would imagine sitting in the 2nd floor window of that house in the 20’s / 30’s, middle of the night….a light snow with big fat flakes (kinda like the christmas eve scene in”a christmas story” )then to hear the “clang,clang” to look out, down on the street while the streetcar started on it’s way, with a spark from the overhead line and a grind from the wheels, to another stop. it all had a sepia kind of feeling lol i know it was a long winded pointless story, but those are the kinds of feelings i get from the idea of a streetcar service here.
i’m not sure if i’d have the “same” feelings for a modern looking streamlined car though. if replicas of our larger car models could be rolled out!!!!
and to Chris - my first time really plying though your blog and you have done an amazing job with this site! my hat is off to you, sir.
Thanks for the kudos, Aaron! I couldn’t even think of taking all of the credit, though. Scaledown is truly a team effort, contributors and commentors alike!
I hope you stick around and play in the sandbox with us a little more!
As the Mayor of Hamilton put it recently: Light Rail is sexy! Riding the bus, is well you know ….. a low status image!
Checking out the map on your blog, I found out something of a place I’ve never of in Windsor and county; Pelton between Windsor and Maidstone!
Here’s a link to Pelton with map:
http://travelingluck.com/North%20America/Canada/Ontario/_6100791_Pelton.html#local_map
What I can’t understand is that every major regional government in Ontario is looking at or in the stages of planning to build light rail, can’t our mayors in this area see what is happening not just in Ontario but all over North America! They can’t even agree on bus services!
Keep dreaming Brendan! It won’t be in my life time!
Pelton would be what I guess you’d call a former “whistlestop”. It’s still acknowledged by the MTO on its 401 road condition reports. “Pelton Tower” existed next to the tracks there until about 1990 on this, the CASO subdivision. Area railfans would be able to explain the history of that junction better. I did some photography around there with a couple other guys from this circle a couple years ago, can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=51092903%40N00&q=pelton&m=text
Pelton was the junction between the Canada Southern (CASO) and the Lake Erie and Detroit Railway (LE&DR). The LE&DR was the railway built by Hirem Walker, which started in Walkerville, and paralleled Walker Road all the way out to Harrow, curved sharply, and went out to Kingsville, Leamington, Wheatley, Blenheim, and eventually ended in St. Thomas. Over the years it was owned by several railways that all were absorbed by various mergers/buyouts (Pere Marquette, C&O, CSX). This railway was torn up around 1994, but 2 small segments of it still exist. (From approximately EC Row to Pelton), as well as a small segment in Blenheim that serves as an industrial spur.
The CASO also had numerous owners over the years as a result of mergers/buyouts — Michigan Central, New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail, who finally sold the line to CN and CP. This line ran from Detroit to Buffalo (via Ontario) and was an extremely busy double track line in its heyday.
http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/images/pelton.jpg
Good article. I tried to sum up what streetcars mean to Toronto here:
http://spacing.ca/wire/2008/09/14/red-rockets-i-love-to-love-you-but-sometimes-it-aint-easy/
good article brendan-
we need to integrate good land use planning to compliment the light rail push to make it feasible. Transit oriented development will make it possible to have our homes within walking distance to the local grocer, coffee joints, work, schools, and light rail systems for trips beyond 2 miles from home. Only then will our congested sprawling thoroughfares and highway systems with cars competing against huge transport trucks be able to handle the traffic volumes. Without transit oriented development, we will continue our on-going wasteful spending of public money in adding lanes to deal with the problem. Does the comprehensive plan include alternative modes of transportation such as light rail, Im wondering?
Thanks Jay and Shawn
People always bark down my throat at the fact that cars are a huge part of our heritage, so it’s almost anti-car to be such a proponent of light rail. However it seems to get lost in the rhetoric that we were the 1st city in North America to have electric streetcars, even before San Francisco or Toronto, et al, so to me, streetcars are an older part of our heritage and therefore this could be a selling point to everyone who wants to preserve our heritage… Plus, they create jobs, are good for our environment, etc…
If you turn east on 46 from Walker and head towards the 401, look to your right, and you’ll see a huge grey metal box on the side of the road at the tracks. There is a big CN (I think) sticker on it that says “PELTON” on it. Other than that, Pelton is still just a dot on the map that isn’t really much to write home about. Much like Oliver and Fairplay. There are a few spots marked on the map that make you wonder what they once were…
well i came back today didn’t i chris? lol
andrew, i know what you mean about places like fairplay and oliver. you pass through these places and there either just an intersection, or NOTHING for miles. makes me want to jump out with a shovel and start looking for foundations!
Good stuff Brendan!! I would say streetcars are just as much our heritage if not moreso than cars! …Hamilton already has a grassroots effort going to get transit back onto rails… Is it possible that there is enough groundswell to see something like this in Windsor? What would it take to get a small group started?