In this history of electric trolley buses in Canada, Tom Schwarzkopf documents the development, operation, and eventual decline of trolley coach systems across sixteen Canadian cities. The book opens with an overview of the major manufacturers that supplied trolley buses to the Canadian market, providing valuable context for the vehicles themselves.
Each subsequent chapter focuses on one of the cities that operated trolley coaches—Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Cornwall, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, Windsor, Port Arthur–Fort William, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver. For each city, Schwarzkopf traces the origins of the trolley system, its operational history, technical aspects of its infrastructure, and the factors leading to its discontinuation (or continuation, in the case of Vancouver).
A route map accompany each city's profile, illustrating the configuration of the trolley bus network.
