Виндзор қалалық көлік жүйесінің тарихы мен қазіргі жағдайы

Public transit operator in Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Transit Windsor provides public transportation in the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada as well as LaSalle, Essex, Kingsville, Amherstburg and Leamington and serves more than 6 million passengers each year (6.72 million in 2017), covering an area of and a population of 235,000. They operate a cross border service between the downtown areas of Windsor and Detroit, Michigan via the Tunnel Bus, and service to events at Detroit's Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, Huntington Place, and Ford Field. The Windsor International Transit Terminal neighbours with the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre.

Transit Windsor was started on November 1, 1977 with 90 transit buses, one double decker bus from England, three highway coaches, and two suburban buses. Before 1977, the company was called the Sandwich, Windsor & Amherstburg Railway Company or the "SW&A".

The earliest ancestor of the SW&A (and thus, Transit Windsor) is the Sandwich and Windsor Passenger Railway Company, which was officially incorporated on March 2, 1872 and operated from July 20, 1874 onwards. On March 3, 1880, it was operated under foreclosure by Mr. A. J. Kennedy, who re incorporated it as the SW&A on June 25, 1887. During this period, the SW&A was using horse drawn streetcars. In Autumn of 1877 to May 1878, the SW&A experimented with using steam dummy railway propulsion for its streetcar and interurban services, before switching to electric power on a full time basis, from August 15, 1891, until May 6, 1939. From August 31, 1901 to March 31, 1920, the SW&A was under ownership of the Detroit United Railway, when the local municipalities (the cities of Windsor and East Windsor, the towns of La Salle, Riverside, Tecumseh, Amherstburg, Ojibway, Sandwich, and Walkerville, and the townships Sandwich East and Sandwich West) purchased it back from them to retain it as a municipal operation. Remains of the streetcar network can be found at the intersection of Sandwich and Mill streets, where the crosswalks of Sandwich Street still retain their original streetcar rails from 1939. Keen eyed motorists and pedestrians can still see the paved over rails along Elm Avenue between Riverside Drive and University Avenue as two long, exceptionally straight grooves or cracks in the pavement. A business on University Avenue (formerly London Street) called "the Junction" is one of the original streetcar barns that was used by SW&A before it ended use of the streetcars.

The Windsor Electric Street Railway was the first public electric street railway in Canada, having begun service on June 6, 1886 with official opening ceremonies on June 9. Electricity was replaced with steam dummy operations in April 1888 until the fall of that year, when it was replaced with horse drawn carriages afterwards. It was reorganized on April 18, 1893 as the City Railway Company of Windsor, and was leased to the SW&A on March 21, 1894. The SW&A would completely absorb it on June 4, 1904 turning the Windsor Essex Street Railway into its trolley line to Walkerville, Ontario.

March 31, 1902 saw the purchase of the South Essex Electric Railway (incorporated on April 7, 1896) by the SW&A, which held a charter to construct an interurban line to Amherstburg. This purchase would allow the SW&A to construct the yet unbuilt line to Amherstburg from Windsor. The line was completed by the SW&A on July 4, 1903 and operated until May 15, 1938, when it was the first of the lines to be replaced with buses. Bus service to Amherstburg was sold to an independent operator, Sun Parlour Coach Lines in 1958, and would be absorbed into Charterways in 1960.

The Windsor and Tecumseh Electric Railway Company was incorporated in 1904 and acquired the charter and assets of the Ontario Traction Company, Limited's yet unbuilt interurban line to Tecumseh from Windsor, on May 25, 1905. The line began interurban trolley service from May 1, 1907, and was purchased by the SW&A on March 31, 1920. It, and the "Erie Streetcar" along Ottawa Street in Windsor, were the two last trolleys/interurbans to be discontinued, surviving until May 15, 1938. Bus service would continue to Tecumseh until 1956. The original interurban trolley line ran along Wyandotte Street, then Clairmont Street (later Clairview Street, today's Clairview Trail) and Ganatchio Trail before turning south along the west side of Lesperance Road in Tecumseh, terminating at a loop next to the CN Rail/VIA Rail tracks.

The Windsor, Essex and Lake Shore Rapid Railway Company was incorporated in 1901 and was controlled by the Dominion Traction and Lighting Company. This Interurban line became active on September 19, 1907 and introduced a regional bus service by 1925 as "Highway Motor Coach Line". It would be acquired by local municipalities (City of Windsor, towns of Kingsville, Leamington and Essex and the townships of Sandwich West, Sandwich East, Sandwich South, Gosfield North and Gosfield South) as the Windsor, Essex and Lake Shore Electric Railway Association on September 8, 1929, coming under common ownership with the SW&A and its interurban lines. Under its new ownership, the line received substantial upgrades to its rails, as well as brand new rolling stock. Its interurban cars and buses were branded as "The Sunshine County Route". Due to a severe drop in riders, service was suspended in 1932. Attempts to sell the line to a steam railroad was unsuccessful and all infrastructure was dismantled and sold in 1935 Interurban service was along city streets in Leamington and Windsor, and either on its own right of way or parallel to the public highway in the county.

Between 2007 and 2017, ridership steadily grew while Transit Windsor's service area stayed stagnant at around 210,000 to 220,000 people.