(March 27, 1954 - March 31, 1973)

See Also: A Chronological History of the 97 Yonge Trolley Bus and Bus Route

When the Yonge subway opened, its first casualty was the Yonge streetcar, operating from the city limits at Glen Echo Loop to Union Station. However, with the Yonge Subway only operating between Eglinton and Union, the portion north of Yonge still had to be serviced by a surface vehicle. The TTC considered maintaining streetcar service on this portion of the route, perhaps using PCCs as a ‘high tech’ feeder to the subway, but they dismissed this idea, likely because the route was almost completely isolated from the rest of the streetcar system, with the removal of streetcars on Yonge Street south of Eglinton. Instead, the northern portion of the streetcar line was converted to trolley bus operation, and the 97 Yonge trolley bus was born. Ironically, save for connections with the Nortown trolley bus, the Yonge route ended up being separated from the rest of the trolley bus system after an Eglinton West trolley bus route failed to materialize.

One of the interesting features of this route was switches leading onto Lawrence Avenue, connecting this route to Mount Pleasant Avenue and the 61 Nortown trolley bus for emergency diversions. This stretch saw no regular service. The extensive facilities at Glen Echo loop were maintained, connecting the Wilson and York Mills Avenue buses to Eglinton station via the trolley bus route. The 59 North Yonge bus ran alongside 97 Yonge between Eglinton station and Glen Echo on its way to Richmond Hill, but it operated express south of Glen Echo (which was a zone boundary until January 1, 1973), leaving 97 Yonge to handle all local traffic on this busy street.

After the 1920s Mount Pleasant experiment, 97 Yonge was the first trolley bus in Toronto to be abandoned. On March 31, 1973, the TTC’s subway extension from Eglinton to York Mills opened. Although the TTC decided to save money by spacing the stations twice as far apart as was normal before (eliminating potential stations at Glencairn and Yonge Boulevard/Glen Echo), the TTC also decided to extend the 97 Yonge bus north, initially to Sheppard and then, in 1974, to Steeles Avenue. They did not feel that this extension could be handled by trolley buses. The trolley wires on Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue East were taken down soon thereafter. Glen Echo Loop was another casualty; this terminal serving North Toronto since the 1920s was eventually demolished and redeveloped, and bus connections moved to York Mills Station.

The abandonment of the Yonge trolley bus left the TTC with a number of operable but surplus trolley coaches, as well as reusable overhead wire. Rather than scrap or sell off this equipment, the TTC used it to convert the 6 Bay bus to trolley coach operation in 1976.

Yonge Coach Images

	A pre-rebuild trolley coach pauses at Glen Echo loop before making its run back to Eglinton, late on a June evening in 1970. Less than three years later, the trolley bus would be gone, and the loop would soon follow. Photo by Mike Harrington.
	Here’s another shot of a Yonge trolley coach in operation. This photo was donated from the Brad O’Brien collection.
	A pre-rebuilt trolley coach operates southbound on Yonge at Fairlawn. Photo by R. Hill, donated from the Rob Hutch collection.
	A northbound Western Flyer rebuild approaches Ranleigh, just north of Lawrence Avenue. Note the decking indicating construction on the North Yonge extension. Photo by R. Hill, donated from the Rob Hutch collection.

References

• Bromley, John F., and Jack May Fifty Years of Progressive Transit, Electric Railroaders’ Association, New York (New York), 1978.
• Corley, Ray F, Trolley Coach CC&F and Flyer Coaches, The Toronto Transit Commission, Toronto (Ontario), January 1987.
• Filey, Mike, The TTC Story: The First Seventy-Five Years, Dundurn Press, Toronto (Ontario) 1996.