From 1879 until 1950, St. Catharines, like most other cities in Ontario, was serviced by streetcars. With an increasingly urbanized economy, as well as radical ideas like “commuting” and “the weekend”, everyday St. Catharinites were suddenly finding themselves with a much greater need to travel. And the N.S.&T. was here to take them where they needed to go. Sean heads to the Grantham Rail Trail, formerly part of the Lakeshore Division of the N.S.&T. transit system. This is History from Here: a video series presented by the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. 

For the first two decades of St. Catharines’ streetcar era, a hodgepodge system of local enterprises competed to meet the city’s transit needs. The earliest trollies had been horsedrawn but, beginning in 1887, the process of electrification was begun. Most of these early railcars were made locally by Patterson & Corbin, who also had contracts with transit companies in Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, and other cities across Canada.  

The Niagara, St. Catharines, and Toronto Railway, or NS&T, incorporated in 1899 and began buying out the other local transit companies to establish a cohesive system. By the time NS&T stepped in there was already relatively sophisticated infrastructure in place. Electricity for the system was generated at Lock 12 of the old Second Welland Canal, and the final horsedrawn line was eliminated in 1900. The NS&T operated electric streetcar lines on St. Paul and Queenston Streets, and later Ontario, Geneva, Yates, and Louisa. What set this transit system apart from many others, however, was that it also included interurban lines. Passengers could take streetcars to Merritton and Port Dalhousie, which were separate municipalities at the time, but also to Thorold, Welland, Port Colborne, Niagara Falls, and, if you took the line I’m walking today, Port Weller and Niagara-on-the-Lake. We’ll cover the history of other divisions in upcoming videos. 

The NS&T’s Lakeshore Division opened on December 1, 1913. This line began at the terminal on Geneva Street. Streetcars headed across Welland Avenue and then up Niagara St. They crossed the then active Third Welland Canal via a swing bridge before turning onto Facer St., the city’s most northern neighbourhood at the time. The line carried on off-road past Grantham and then turned straight north cutting through what was then the countryside. It is that section that lives on as a suburban recreational trail today. Trains curved eastward again at the just established Port Weller, crossed the under-construction Fourth Welland Canal at Lock 1, and traveled to Niagara-on-the-Lake primarily via Lakeshore Road. There, the route terminated at the still-standing NS&T station at King and Market Streets. 

The Lakeshore Division was the NS&T’s last major rail expansion project. Extending service to Niagara-on-the-Lake had been talked about for some time but it was construction on the new Welland Ship Canal and Port Weller that finally got the project moving. The new streetcar line was able to service the worksite at Lock 1, bringing both passengers and supplies. When the First World War broke out the following year, the line carried a high amount of traffic to Camp Niagara. It was also used by local passengers, summer travellers, and even by farmers to transport produce, particularly during the fruit harvest. In total, the route to Niagara-on-the-Lake was about 20 km long and took around 45 minutes each way. 

The beginning of the end for the streetcar era came in 1929 when the NS&T introduced its first buses. Passenger service to Niagara-on-the-Lake was terminated in 1931. This move was part of a broader trend of cost-cutting due to the Great Depression, as well as decreased ridership resulting from the popularity of automobiles. Activity at the Lock 1 worksite was reaching its conclusion too. Local passenger service as far as Carlton Street was maintained. As was freight service along this stretch up to Port Weller, which proved useful with the establishment of the dry docks there in 1946. 

Elsewhere in St. Catharines, passenger streetcar service kept up a little longer. The Port Dalhousie line had been especially successful, with the lakeside village serving as a popular weekend destination for locals and out-of-town visitors alike. There, the NS&T also operated a steam ferry service to Toronto and, in 1902, established Lakeside Amusement Park – a common strategy to convince customers to buy more transit fares by giving them somewhere to go.  

In 1939, with car infrastructure improving more and more, streetcar service in St. Catharines was suspended, except for the interurban lines including Port Dalhousie. It was however, restored in 1942 due to wartime fuel rationing. Renewing passenger service up this line to Port Weller was briefly experimented with at this time too. Local service was ended a second and final time in 1950, with most of the interurban lines ending shortly after. The last surviving NS&T streetcar line ran from Thorold to Fonthill, Welland, and Port Colborne. When that route was discontinued in March 1959, it was the last interurban streetcar in Canada. 

This rail line continued to be used by CN until the early 1990s when the tracks were torn out and the city acquired the lands for a recreational trail, eventually paving it in 2022. Though no longer carrying streetcars or freight trains, this trail is indeed once again serving its original purpose – a people-moving express route across St. Catharines’ North End.