Undated black and white photo shows a single electricty-powered Kitchener Public Utilities Commission trolley bus as it travels through a turn-around loop.
Also visible are a single-storey building and a billboard advertisement for household paints.
Undated black and white photo shows a single electricty-powered Kitchener Public Utilities Commission trolley bus as it travels through a turn-around loop.
Also visible are a single-storey building and a billboard advertisement for household paints.
The Kitchener Public Utilities Commission (PUC) operated a transit service in Kitchener and Waterloo from 1927 to 1973. It operated electric street railway cars along King Street in both cities from 1927 to 1946. Late in December of 1946 the streetcars were replaced with gasoline-powered buses and electric trolley buses. The Kitchener PUC barn was situated opposite the passenger terminal (later Rockway Seniors Centre) at the east end of the street car tracks. In 2018 the car barn property is occupied by the Eastwood Community apartments at 1414 King St. E. and the Rockway Gardens Village apartments at 1420 King St. E.
Trolley buses were discontinued in March 1973. The 20 remaining trolley buses were sold to B.C. Hydro in Vancouver and shipped west by CP Rail.
The location of this photo has not been confirmed, but it was likely taken at the north end of the trolley bus service route in Waterloo where a turn-around loop was located on the east side of King Street North, just south of Hickory Street.
The single-storey building, billboard signs and building on the far right of this photo appear to match features of two photos of Kitchener PUC trolley buses shown at the website www.trolleybusnet, one of which is identified as trolley bus Brill 103 "at the Waterloo loop."
The trolley bus number in our photo can't be identified. The bus has an advertisement on the front for the Bad Boy furniture and appliance retail store chain operated in Ontario by Mel Lastman of Toronto. The advertisement above the bus appears to match the ad visible in a photo found at the website www.trolleybus.net that says: "High heat costs? I'm installing gas heat."
This item is part of the "Public Transit in Waterloo Region" image group.
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Copright Date
1960
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