This ad appeared in the Border Cities Star December 31, 1932.
Hard to imagine that 80 years ago, there were 10,000,000 public transit trips taken on the streetcars. It’s a shame that our efficient, regional public transportation system was dismantled.
I was 6 years old at this time and remember riding the street cars many many times.When I lived at Janisse’s Funeral Home we just had to cross the street to board and go out to Ford City bathing beach for the day. If we didn’t have a dime for the fare we
WALKED all the way there and back. We slept good that night!
I wonder is Transit Windsor has that ridership now? Sad that efficiency went out the window….
Transit Windsor wishes they had that kind of ridership maybe if they would better acomadate commuters ,and improve the service routes to outlying area’s, more frequent buses
I missed the train in NYC a few weeks ago, it was annoying having to wait the 3 minutes for the next one…. That’s why noone rides the bus here!
The reason Transit Windsor will never see that number is, Ford,General Moters,Crysler, and all the other car companies that helped build Windsor, and create urban sprawl.
Progess.
“…rode street cars in the Border Cities…” might indicate this refers to both Windsor and Detroit.
– if so, how much of that 10 million comprised DSR ridership?
John, none. The border cities were used to refer to Sandwich, Windsor, Walkerville, Ford City, Riverside & Ojibway prior to amalgamation in 1935. None of the figures quoted include Detroit ridership numbers.
There has to be a vehicle to every two people in this area these days anyways?
No where in the ad refers to the Sw&A Street railway, but the Hydro Electric Railway Employes. Was this ad to pointout the importance of street cars before the Province closed the Interurban line from Windsor, Essex. Kingsville, and Leamington?
IIRC there was an employee drive in the bitter end to save the interurban line, and I’m guessing this was part of that campaign. 1932 was the end of the line for WE&LS RR.
Ten million seems pretty high to me though?! I’ve seen ridership figures from the day in the “hundreds of thousands” but not this. You’d think any system that has that kind of ridership would be economically feasible instead of hemorrhaging as it was. Going to call Bernie and ask him to chime in.
Shane i’d rather wait 3 minutes for the next train than wait 40minutes to an hour for the next bus in Windsor it sucks only having one public transit system to rely on i lived in Toronto for 3years and never waited more than 15 minutes for public transit any day of the week
sorry gary… my sarcasm didn’t come though very wall. waiting 3 minutes is acceptable, perhaps even 10… not 40. you’re absolutely right.
No sweat Shane!!
In 1920 when the street car system was purchased from the DSR by Ontario Hydro Electric on behalf of the municipalitry at that time the name SW&A was removed from the cars and Hydro Electric was added as they managed the system. It wasn’t until 1932 that the name SW&A came back when the municipality took over operation of the system.
You can’t compare Transit Windsor to Toronto or New York city, it’s like comparing a apple to a orange. Transit Windsor can only operate within the budget that the Mayor and council give them each year. Each year the Mayor ask Transit Windsor to take less money then the year before, if you want better service then people have to tell the Mayor and Council to increase their budget not reduce it.
The DSR redership has never been included in the Windsor system. The DSR owned the SW&A but it was never part of the DSR.
The problem is that the expect the public transit system to sustain itself. People always complain when we try to put more subsidies into public transit, but what we forget is that automobile travel is the most heavily subsidised part of our transportation network.
Been on the bus lately? A large portion of the riders are junkie welfare cases that get a free pass. I would NEVER let my kids on them.