Title: Broad and Dewdney streetcar
Date: pre-1921
Retrieval Number: CORA-A-1827
Extent: 1
B&W print; 15 cm x 12 cm
Scope and Content Note: Head-on
view of Broad and Dewdney streetcar taken on west Dewdney Avenue
Access Restrictions: None
Photographer: Unknown
Parent fonds/collection: CORA Photograph Collection
Historical Note: The
Regina street railway was not a moneymaking opportunity when it first
opened. At the time, Regina had borrowed heavily in order to pay
for some much-needed public works programs, like the Boggy Creek
Waterworks and the sewer system. Some streets had been paved and
the city had purchased a power station. There was little money in
the coffers to pay for a street railway, and initially city council
tried to cut a deal with a private company for the street railway.
However, voters rejected the deal and insisted on establishing a
municipally-owned railway, so more borrowing took place to finance
the scheme. By 1913, the railway was over-expanded - the debt from
the Regina Municipal Railway Company represented nearly twenty percent
of the city's overall debt load. This was more than the waterworks
and power plant combined! |