Hamilton Street Railway

Hamilton Street Railway

New Flyer C40LF #510213 on the 5C route in downtown Hamilton.
Founded	1874
Headquarters	2200 Upper James St.
Locale	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Service area	Hamilton and Burlington.
Service type	Public Transit
Routes	34 + 2 seasonal
Fleet	190 buses
Fuel type	Diesel, CNG, Diesel-electric
Operator	City of Hamilton
Website	www.hamilton.ca/HSR/

The Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) is a public transport agency in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name is a legacy of the company's early period, when public transit in Hamilton was primarily served by streetcars. Although streetcars are no longer used in the city today, the HSR operates bus and paratransit services, with a ridership of 21 million passengers a year. The HSR uses the Presto card as its method of fare payment, joining itself with the other public trasport systems in the Greater Toronto region and the city of Ottawa.

From 1873 to 1889, the HSR was owned by Lyman Moore and operated as a private business. In 1889 HSR was sold to Hamilton Cataract Interests, later known as Dominion Power and Transmission Company. The HSR was later acquired by Ontario Hydro.

Provincial ownership ended in 1946 when HSR was bought by Canada Coach Lines. CCL was purchased by the city of Hamilton in 1960. Hamilton-Wentworth Region began ownership of CCL and HSR in 1977.

In the early 1990s the HSR eliminated many routes by expanding current routes. The following is a list of replaced and withdrawn routes:

The HSR operated horsecars from 1874 to 1892 and electric streetcars from 1892 to 1951. Trolley buses replaced streetcars in Hamilton in 1951.

Trolley buses were used by the HSR from 1951 to 1992 along the following routes:

Introduced in 1998 as a two-year pilot project, Trans-Cab is a shared-ride taxi service between HSR and specific local taxi providers, currently offered in portions of Glanbrook and Stoney Creek.

Accessible Transportation Services (ATS) is the section that administers a variety of accessible services on behalf of the City

In 1981, during Bill Davis's Progressive Conservative administration, the Province of Ontario offered to finance the construction of a light rail line in Hamilton, from Lloyd D. Jackson Square to the Lime Ridge Mall. The line would have used the same technology as the Scarborough RT in Toronto. The plans triggered a lot grass-roots opposition, and Hamilton-Wentworth Council turned the proposal down. The plan called for an elevated track -- one of the element that triggered opposition. Residents being concerned commuters would be invading their privacy, by looking down on their back-yards and in their second floor windows.