Trolley Bus Lines
The TTC once operated trolley buses on 10 routes, mostly on downtown routes and a few in the northern limits of the City of Toronto. The first route began operation with four buses on June 19, 1922 from a shed on Merton St. This early trolley coach operation was replaced by a streetcar line. In later years, many of these routes replaced streetcar routes, using the old overhead power system which was adapted to dipole service. The buses consisted of a standard bus platform with electric motors with two trolley poles connected to electrical lines above. The whole system was scrapped abruptly, apparently due to high operating cost and the age of the vehicles used; this decision has been criticised by some, who note that the prices of gasoline and natural gas have increased dramatically in the subsequent years.
Routes served by trolley buses:
- 4 Annette
- 6 Bay
- 40 Junction
- 47 Lansdowne
- 61 Nortown/Nortown West
- 63 Ossington
- 74 Mount Pleasant
- 89 Weston Road
- 97 Yonge
- 103 Nortown East
Here is a list of Toronto trolley bus types:
| Make/Model | Fleet size | Year built | Year acquired | Year retired | Notes |
| Packard/Canadian Brill ED | 4 | 1922 | (new) | 1925 | Retired and sold as scrap 1928; # 23 survived and now at Halton County Railway Museum in Rockwood, Ontario |
| Canadian Car & Foundry–Brill T44-T1, T44-T2 and T44-T3 | 85 | 1947–48 | (new) | 1970–71 | Rebuilt as Western Flyer E700s (with completely new bodies). |
| CCF–Brill T48A | 40 new; 5 secondhand from Ottawa | 1953; ex-Ottawa units 1951 | 40 new; ex-Ottawa units 1959 | 1970–71 | Rebuilt as Western Flyer E700s (with completely new bodies). |
| Marmon-Herrington TC48-T5 | 15, all ex-Cincinnati | 1948 | (1953) | 1971 | |
| Marmon-Herrington TC44 | 8, all ex-Cleveland | 1947–48 | (1963) | 1971 | |
| Western Flyer Coach/Flyer Industries Ltd.* E700A | 151 | 1970–72 (prototype built 1968) | (new) | 1992 | Bodies built new, but fitted with electrical equipment and some other components from retired CCF-Brill trolley buses. Also, 23 CCF-Brill T44 and T44A were purchased in 1970 from Cornwall and Halifax and used for parts in this program to build the Flyer E700s. |
| Brown Boveri & Company (with GM New Look body) | 40 | 1981–82 | (1989–90) | 1993 | Leased from Edmonton Transit System |
* = Western Flyer Coach changed its name to Flyer Industries Limited in mid-1971.
Read more about this topic: Toronto Transportation Commission
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