Originally coil-bound and self-published by the authors in 2000,
this photo-heavy book shows how the growth of electricity’s delivery
and usage—the business of the grid—was entangled with public
transit for almost 100 years of this city’s history, from 1866 to
1949.
The authors offer more of an economic history than a social one.
They detail how companies were created and consolidated, championing
the financially connected people who always sat at the top calling the
shots. (By comparison, local government fares poorly in the authors’
view. In 1912, the city’s “onerous regulations” kept a company from
expanding in size and beyond the city’s control. A meddlesome
municipality? Sounds familiar.)
The two Dons also chart changes in streetcar models, lengths of
track, schedules and passenger loads. Too often, they’re descriptive
and not analytical in their approach. For example, the authors only
flick at social history, considering the impacts of the Halifax
Explosion, the two world wars and VE Day riots on the system. But they
don’t get into the everyday social and economic factors that influenced
ridership. Who could afford to use it? What communities were first and
principally served? What neighbourhoods were underserved, ignored? How
does the period covered in this book connect with the condition of
public transit today?
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.