Exhibit, fare days to commemorate Hamilton Street Railway’s 150th birthday

A free curated exhibit with artifacts, retro-wrapped buses, and $1.50 fare days are just some ways Hamilton’s transit service will celebrate its 150th year of existence.

Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) will be rolling out the first of its celebratory offerings Sunday as it looks to round out 2024 with attractions through the summer and fall.

Director of Transit Maureen Cosyn Heath says the retro-wrapped vehicles will roll out May 19 with free fares on some routes during customer appreciation week.

“We’re also going to do … a price rollback and offer $1.50 Fare Days, scattered throughout the year, with the first one of those being on the holiday Monday,” Cosyn Heath said.

Sales of commemorative HSR 150 PRESTO cards begin Tuesday at the HSR Customer Service Centre on Hunter Street.

A free curated exhibit at the visitor center down in Lister Block will also begin on the 21st offering a walk-through of artifacts, old photographs and wayfinding signs from as far back as the late 1800s.

The transit agency started with horse and buggy rides south on James Street in May of 1874 before transitioning to six electric street cars in the summer of 1892.

“Now we are almost a fully compressed natural gas fleet and will be retiring all of our diesel busses within the next 18 months,” says Cosyn Heath.

Details of the HSR’s anniversary campaign can be seen on the City of Hamilton’s website.

The HSR has a ridership of 21 million passengers a year on all its vehicles, with an estimated 50,000 a day using city buses.

Cosyn Heath says a new growth plan is expected before city politicians later this year re-envisioning new routes and building of an upgraded network.

“We’ll be presenting that to council by the end of 2024, and that’s our roadmap for the next five to 10 years on how we’re going to grow transit in the city,” according to Cosyn Heath.