Bryan Laprise
Not only was Sherbrooke home to Canada's first gas car, but another part of the city's less known history is that Sherbrooke once had a tramway! The project was started by a group of local businessmen, who had a vision of Sherbrooke having a tram, like other cities in Quebec at the time. They started the Sherbrooke Street Railway in 1895, which was sold to Americans the following year. However, the population had to wait until 1897 before the tramway opened up. At the time of its opening, Sherbrooke was the smallest city in Canada to have such a system in place, which helped it achieve the image it wanted: Sherbrooke was a modern city.
The transit line connected Le Vieux-Nord, downtown and Lennoxville. They were operated between 6:30 in the morning to 11 at night, for the cost of five cents per passage during the day, and ten cents at night. The tramway allowed for workers to work in areas further from home, and at a quicker speed—24 kilometers per hour! Sherbrooke East profited from the tramway and its Park line all the way to Victoria Park. The heart of the tramways was near the train station on Rue Dépot, downtown.
Image credits: Société d'Histoire de Sherbrooke
An interesting story involving the tramway takes place in 1902. A few years earlier, in 1890, a bridge was built to replace the artisanal one that connected the Island and Montreal streets to the other side of the Magog River, and consequently, the new Canadian Pacific railway station that had been built. When the tram was inaugurated in 1897, rails were built on the bridge to form a connection between the two sides of the river. Over time, the weight and vibration caused by the vehicle weakened the bridge, which led to one of the tramways derailing into the Magog River. Only the conductor was on board, and he made it out alive. The following year, a new steel bridge was built in its place.
Photo credits: Musée d'Histoire de Sherbrooke
The company became Sherbrooke Railway & Power in 1910, and the same year, they built their own hydroelectric power dam, which is currently the Centrale Abenaquis. This allowed them to produce their own electricity, which was used for illuminating and heating.
Photo credits (Left): Musée d'Histoire de Sherbrooke
Photo credits (Right): Musée d'Histoire de Sherbrooke, Taken April 19th, 1919
In its peak in the 1920s, the "Roaring Twenties" the company transported between 1.3 and 1.8 million passengers a year with their 18.5 kilometers of rail, 17 tramways and 35 compartments. Almost everyone in Sherbrooke was at a 6-minute's walk away from a tramway station.
The economic depression that started in 1929 affected the Sherbrooke Railway & Power, ranking up its debts. In December of 1931, the company asked the city of Sherbrooke to supply the power it used for free, totalling up to 50,000 dollars a year. The council refused, which led to the closing of the tramways on December 31st, 1931. Additionally, a new mode of transportation, the bus, was starting to be seen as an easier, cheaper alternative, and that the streets would be "more enjoyable" without its rails.
In recent news, in the provincial election this autumn 2022, the Québec Solidaire party promised to build a tramway in Sherbrooke. It had planned to improve transportation systems in the city, with a "Transportation Revolution".
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References
Ville de Sherbrooke. (2022, September 1). L'époque du tramway sherbrookois. Ville de Sherbrooke. https://www.sherbrooke.ca/fr/vie-municipale/actualites/284/l-epoque-du-tramway-sherbrookois
Tous à vos machines. (n.d.). Les transports. La Société d'histoire de Sherbrooke. https://www.tousavosmachines.org/themes/transports/#1490369086676-7e5496fa-4073
Ville de Sherbrooke. (2022, September 22). La construction de la centrale Abénaquis sur la rivière Magog en 1911. Ville de Sherbrooke. https://www.sherbrooke.ca/fr/vie-municipale/actualites/285/la-construction-de-la-centrale-abenaquis-sur-la-riviere-magog-en-1911
Musée d'Histoire de Sherbrooke. (2022, September 25). Au fil de la gorge de la rivière Magog : d’un barrage à l’autre. MHIST. https://mhist.org/actualites/au-fil-de-la-gorge-de-la-riviere-magog-dun-barrage-a lautre/#:~:text=Le%20barrage%20no%204,du%20r%C3%A9seau%20de%20tramways%20sherbrookois.
Ville de Sherbrooke. (2022, August 11). Un tramway dans la rivière Magog. Ville de Sherbrooke. https://www.sherbrooke.ca/fr/vie-municipale/actualites/282/un-tramway-dans-la-riviere-magog
Messier, R. (2022, September 17). Québec Solidaire amène la révolution transport à Sherbrooke. https://quebecsolidaire.net/nouvelle/quebec-solidaire-amene-la-revolution-transport-a-sherbrooke
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