Talk:Saskatoon Transit

Untitled
Does anyone know anything more about the buses acquired from Edmonton? I've added a reference to them, as they ARE out there, but I'm not really aware of any specific facts.

70.64.14.13 (talk) 06:28, 28 November 2007 (UTC)phoenixenigma

That's the ticket
are in current use; should they be added? TREKphiler  any time you're ready, Uhura  04:23, 29 November 2009 (UTC)


 * 'pears I spoke too soon. The tickets, & cash, are scheduled to be phased out 1/2/10. Which leaves casual users the choice of paying over $6 for a day pass (triple what a single fare is now) or $71 for a "Go" pass, about $20-30 for a single trip...  TREKphiler   any time you're ready, Uhura  11:34, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Saskatoon Transit. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121104193705/http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=d32c3aa4-6e04-4250-98f0-d9f64c948af7 to http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=d32c3aa4-6e04-4250-98f0-d9f64c948af7

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 15:14, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Saskatoon Transit. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070205001023/http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/clerks_office/archives/ar-dates.asp to http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/clerks_office/archives/ar-dates.asp

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 21:44, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Saskatoon Municipal Railway
Saskatoon Transit The history of the Saskatoon Municipal Railway is glaringly missing. Peter Horn User talk 04:50, 21 April 2021 (UTC)
 * My apologies, there is a bit of history. Peter Horn User talk 15:00, 21 April 2021 (UTC)
 * You may have access to more info that would allow you to turn the redirect into an article. Peter Horn User talk 04:38, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree that it could do with a bit of improvement. I've conducted a brief literature review which I've added below as a separate sub-section so it is useful as a present and future reference. Please let me know any of your thoughts. I'll get started on incorporating material (primarily from Clegg) directly into the history section for now, and once it's grown to a more appropriate size we can explore splitting it off into a separate article, especially if we are able to access the Wayman source as well, as that would give a potential article two solid sources to rely on. Julius177 (talk) 04:42, 24 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Congratulations for your work. I guess I sort of started this by moving up that one paragraph. Peter Horn User talk 21:56, 26 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I think what is there now makes for a fairly well-rounded section, but hopefully at some point I will be able to access Wayman's work as that seems to also cover the trolleybus era, which I feel is the least comprehensively covered at this point. Julius177 (talk) 03:12, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

Preliminary literature review
In addition to Wyatt's summary, there are several other sources I've come across in my searches. For convenience I have pre-formatted them as citation entries.

Our best widely-available and also most specific source is likely the article below by the quite prolific Canadian rail historian Anthony Clegg in a 1964 issue of Canadian Rail. I believe it should be prioritized in citations above sources like Wyatt, which ideally I'd prefer to see in an external links section rather than being cited directly, since it is a self-published source. Clegg lists his own source as an employee of the Municipal Railway, and since his article was published in 1964 (earlier than most other sources), it seems likely that a number of them derive from his in some respect, especially if the information contained is similar. Clegg provides a short history along with a list of rolling stock which might be useful to reproduce at least in part. He also briefly covers the extent of the trackage/routes, but this isn't very intelligible to me as someone who isn't familiar with Saskatoon, and seems to only be contained in one paragraph. It would be good to have more information on routes than this, especially if there is some resemblance between these historic routes and later bus routes. There was also a supplemental to this article published in issue 163, which is available to download from Charles Cooper's website, but it doesn't add very much. Note that there was an earlier incarnation of this article published in 1952, which doesn't seem to include any information that the 1964 article doesn't, and is much shorter.

Our next-best source is likely Easten Wayman's 1988 history of transit in Saskatoon. It is clearly on-topic and at 96 pages and with a later publication date, it would likely be a much richer source of information. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been digitized by Google Books or anybody else, and it isn't locally accessible to me. However it does seem to be available at a number of Canadian and American university and institutional libraries including at Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Hamilton, and Saskatoon itself (as you would hope it would be). Especially given COVID-19 restrictions it may be quite challenging to access it at the moment from any of these locations, but nevertheless it seems like a very valuable resource and would help with improvement of the article overall. That one might have to wait for the future.

The following two sources are ones I came across in my search and decided to include for completeness. They are interesting and might help to tie in history of the municipal railway to Saskatoon and Canadian history in general. Makahonuk's article on Saskatoon labour history touches on the municipal railway several times. On page 104, he mentions that the Saskatoon Municipal Railway had a 1913 contract with the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electrical Railway Employees of America, Division Number 615, and they seem to have had a stable bargaining relationship. On page 113, he mentions a Trades and Labour Council protest against the city's attempt to raise streetcar fares to 5 cents in May 1914. On page 121, he mentions that streetcar services were interrupted by a strike in support of the Winnipeg General Strike. Unlike some other systems in that era, such as Hamilton or Saint John, NB, the Saskatoon system does not seem to have had a very turbulent labour history.

Kelly's mention is even more brief, but provides a bit of colour for the twilight of the streetcar system. Apparently, during the Second World War, there was anxiety that streetcars, as well as a Broadway Bridge, might be the target of German saboteurs given how many soldiers regularly rode the streetcar. This, of course, did not materialize.

That's all for now, I'll likely take a closer look sometime soon and see if a few more good on-topic sources can't be winkled out. Julius177 (talk) 04:42, 24 April 2021 (UTC)