This is a list of trolley bus systems in Canada by province. It includes all trolley bus systems, past and present. Use of boldface for a city name and color highlighting indicates systems that still exist; in the case of Canada, there is only one such system, that of Vancouver.
| Name of System (current or last) | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary Transit System | Calgary | 1 June 1947 [1] | 8 March 1975 [1] | |
| Edmonton Transit System [fn 1] | Edmonton | 24 September 1939 [1] | 2 May 2009 [2] | See also Trolley buses in Edmonton. |
| Name of System (current or last) | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TransLink [fn 2] | Vancouver | 16 August 1948 [1] | Also a demonstration, 5–14 December 1945. See also Trolley buses in Vancouver. | |
Note: There was also a demonstration trolley bus line in Victoria in 1945, [3] operated by the British Columbia Electric Railway, from 19 to 30 November 1945.[ citation needed ]
| Name of System (current or last) | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metro Transit [fn 3] | Winnipeg | 21 November 1938 [1] | 30 October 1970 [1] | |
| Name of System | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, Limited | Halifax | 27 March 1949 [1] | 31 December 1969 [1] | |
| Name of System | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornwall Street Railway, Light and Power Company, Limited | Cornwall | 8 June 1949 [1] | 31 May 1970 [1] | |
| Fort William Transit Company | Fort William | 15 December 1947 [1] | 1970 | see Thunder Bay. |
| Hamilton Street Railway | Hamilton | 10 December 1950 [1] | 30 December 1992 [1] | |
| Kitchener Public Utilities Commission | Kitchener | 1 January 1947 [1] | 26 March 1973 [1] | |
| Ottawa Transportation Commission | Ottawa | 15 December 1951 [1] | 27 June 1959 | |
| Port Arthur Transit | Port Arthur | 15 December 1947 [1] | 1970 | see Thunder Bay. |
| Thunder Bay Transit | Thunder Bay | 15 December 1947 [1] | 16 July 1972 [1] | Fort William and Port Arthur merged to form Thunder Bay from 31 December 1969. |
| Toronto Transit Commission bus system Toronto Transit Commission [fn 4] | Toronto | 18 June 1922 [1] 19 June 1947 [1] | 31 August 1925 [1] 16 July 1993 [4] | Service suspended 19 Jan. to 4 Sep. 1992. [5] Final closure on 16 July 1993 (the very early hours of 17 July). [4] |
| Sandwich, Windsor & Amherstburg Railway Company | Windsor | 5 May 1922 [1] | November 1926 (?) [6] | |
| Name of System | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montreal Tramways Company | Montreal | 29 March 1937 [1] | 18 June 1966 [1] | Montreal Tramways Company succeeded by the Montreal Transit Commission, 1951 |
| Name of System | Location | Date (From) | Date (To) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regina Municipal Railway Regina Transit System | Regina | 4 September 1947 [1] | 28 February 1966 [1] | |
| Saskatoon Transit System | Saskatoon | 22 November 1948 [1] | 13 May 1974 [1] | |
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws power from dual overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires, and two trolley poles, are required to complete the electrical circuit. This differs from a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as the return path, needing only one wire and one pole. They are also distinct from other kinds of electric buses, which usually rely on batteries. Power is most commonly supplied as 600-volt direct current, but there are exceptions.
Canadian Car and Foundry (CC&F), also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry" or more familiarly as "Can Car", was a manufacturer of buses, railway rolling stock, forestry equipment, and later aircraft for the Canadian market. CC&F history goes back to 1897, but the main company was established in 1909 from an amalgamation of several companies and later became part of Hawker Siddeley Canada through the purchase by A.V. Roe Canada in 1957. Today the remaining factories are part of Bombardier Transportation Canada.
The Preston Car Company was a Canadian manufacturer of streetcars and other railway equipment, founded in 1908. The company was located in the town of Preston, Ontario. Preston sold streetcars to local transport operators including the Grand River Railway, the Toronto Railway Company and Toronto Civic Railways, and the Hamilton Street Railway. The company also sold a number of its distinctive ‘Prairie-style’ cars to operators in Alberta and Saskatchewan; one of these cars is being restored by the Saskatchewan Railway Museum. The Edmonton Radial Railway received 8 "Prairie" Prestons in 1909 and 1911 and 35 "Big" Prestons in 1913–14. Only a few Preston-built cars now remain, some of them in the collection of the Halton County Radial Railway museum. The Edmonton Radial Railway Society has in its collection "Prairie" Preston car 31 and "Big" Prestons numbers 53, 65 and 73.
The Boston-area trolleybussystem forms part of the public transportation network serving Greater Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It opened on April 11, 1936, and since 1964 has been operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). The current system consists of the Silver Line (Waterfront), located in the city of Boston. Prior to 1964, several additional trolleybus lines were in operation in Greater Boston, including a group of routes in and around Cambridge, outside Boston proper, that comprised the metropolitan area's only trolleybus service during the period 1964–2004. Measured by fleet size, the system was the third-largest trolleybus system in the United States at its peak, with only the Chicago and Atlanta systems having more trolleybuses than Boston's 463.
The Transit Museum Society of British Columbia (TMS) is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of decommissioned transit vehicles in Vancouver and the adjoining areas. Based in Burnaby, the Society currently has a fleet of seventeen vehicles: fifteen operational and two non-operational. These vehicles were previously in use by both public and private operating companies between 1937 and 2021.
Johnstown Traction Company (JTC) was a public transit system in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States. For most of its existence it was primarily a street-railway system, but in later years also operated rubber-tired vehicles. JTC operated trolley (tram) service in Johnstown from February 23, 1910 to June 11, 1960. Johnstown was one of the last small cities to abandon trolley service in the United States. It was also the smallest city to acquire a fleet of PCC cars and acquired trackless trolleys at a late date compared to larger transit properties. Many of the 1920s-era cars went directly to museums; however, none of the 17 PCC streetcars were saved. Efforts to sell the 16 then-surviving PCC cars intact were unsuccessful, and in 1962 they were scrapped, but many of their components were salvaged and sold to the Brussels, Belgium tram system, reused in the last series of single PCC trams (7156–7171), which ran from 1970 until February 2010.
The Marmon-Herrington Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of axles and transfer cases for trucks and other vehicles. Earlier, the company built military vehicles and some tanks during World War II, and until the late 1950s or early 1960s was a manufacturer of trucks and trolley buses. Marmon-Herrington had a partnership with Ford Motor Company, producing trucks and other commercial vehicles, such as buses. The company may be best known for its all-wheel-drive conversions to other truck maker's units, especially to Ford truck models. Founded in 1931, Marmon-Herrington was based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a plant in Windsor, Ontario, and remained in Indianapolis until 1963. It is now based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Electric Transit, Inc. (ETI) was a joint venture between the Škoda group in the Czech Republic and AAI Corporation in the United States which made trolleybuses for the Dayton and San Francisco trolleybus systems, constructing a total of 330 trolleybuses. ETI was formed in 1994, and ownership was divided as 65% by Škoda and 35% by AAI. The latter was a wholly owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation. Up to that time, Škoda had built more than 12,000 trolleybuses since 1935, but none for cities outside Europe and Asia. The ETI joint venture was dissolved in 2004, shortly after an unsuccessful bid to supply trolleybuses to Vancouver.
Route 75 is a trackless trolley route operated by SEPTA in North and Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It connects to the Market–Frankford Line at Arrott Transportation Center Station, and runs primarily along Wyoming Avenue. Route 75 connects to the Wyoming local line and goes to Wayne Junction in Nicetown.
Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos de la Ciudad de México (STE) is a public transport agency responsible for the operation of all trolleybus and light rail services in Mexico City. As its name implies, its routes use only electrically powered vehicles. It was created on 31 December 1946 and is owned by the Mexico City government. STE is overseen by a broader Federal District authority, Secretaría de Transportes y Vialidad, which also regulates the city's other public transport authorities, including Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, Red de Transporte de Pasajeros del Distrito Federal and Metrobús, as well as other forms of transportation in the district. STE's passenger vehicle fleet consists exclusively of trolleybuses, light rail, and aerial lift vehicles, and in 2007 its network carried 88 million passengers, of which 67 million were on trolleybus services and 21 million on light rail.
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses, generally called trackless trolleys there, were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit riders during the period when the system was at its maximum size. At the end of 1949 Atlanta had a fleet of 453 trolleybuses, the largest in the United States, and it retained this distinction until 1952, when it was surpassed by Chicago.
George McClelland Sebree III, better known as Mac Sebree, was an American journalist, writer and publisher whose area of expertise was urban mass transit, particularly urban rail transit. He was also a businessman, being owner and president of the publishing company, Interurban Press, from 1975 until 1993. In addition to writing and publishing historical material, he also followed – and regularly reported on – contemporary developments concerning rail transit, and by the 1990s he had become an expert on light rail in North America.
The Vancouver trolley bus system forms part of the TransLink public transport network serving Metro Vancouver in the Canadian province of British Columbia. In operation since 1948, the system presently comprises 13 routes and is managed by the Coast Mountain Bus Company, a subsidiary of TransLink. It uses a fleet of 262 trolley buses, of which 74 are articulated vehicles.
The San Francisco trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving San Francisco, in the state of California, United States. Opened on October 6, 1935, it presently comprises 15 lines, and is operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway, commonly known as Muni, with around 300 trolleybuses. In San Francisco, these vehicles are also known as "trolley coaches", a term that was the most common name for trolleybuses in the United States in the middle decades of the 20th century.
The Dayton trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving Dayton, in the state of Ohio, United States. Opened on April 23, 1933, it presently comprises five lines, and is operated by the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, with a fleet of 45 trolleybuses.
The Philadelphia trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network serving Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, United States. It opened on October 14, 1923, and is now the second-longest-lived trolleybus system in the world. One of only five such systems currently operating in the U.S., it presently comprises three lines, and is operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), with a fleet of 38 trolleybuses, or trackless trolleys as SEPTA calls them. The three surviving routes serve North and Northeast Philadelphia and connect with SEPTA's Market–Frankford rapid transit line.
The Edmonton trolley bus system formed part of the public transport network in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 1939 and 2009. Operated by Edmonton Transit System (ETS), the system had, at its peak, a fleet of 137 trolley buses, and a total route length of 127 km (79 mi).
The Flyer 700/800/900 series was a group of bus model series built by Western Flyer and its successors Flyer Industries and New Flyer, of Canada, between 1967 and 1987. They were three generations within a model grouping and, except for brief overlap during transition from one generation to the next, were not in production concurrently. All individual model designations included a prefix of either D, for diesel propulsion, or E, for electrically powered trolleybuses. The introductory model was the D700, originally released in 1967 for the Canadian transit market, and the last series group to be produced, D900, was discontinued in 1987. Flyer had become New Flyer only the year before, in 1986.
33 Ashbury/18th Street is a trolleybus line operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. The route is descendant from the first trolleybus service to open in San Francisco.
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