Compiled by Pete Coulman
Based on an article originally published on Alan Gryfe’s Route History Pages
Other Text by James Bow and Chad King; Photos by Glenn Kapasky, map by James Bow

With Mississauga so built up and suburban, and Mississauga Transit now more than 30 years old, it’s hard to imagine Toronto transit vehicles operating deep into the city, with the exception of 58 MALTON. But that’s precisely what happened up to 1976, and thanks to Glenn Kapasky, we have the photographs to prove it.

The Town of Port Credit was an old port established late in the 19th century, some distance from the City of Toronto. By the turn of the century, rails from the Toronto & Mimico railway arrived, connecting the town to the villages of Long Branch, New Toronto and Mimico.

When the Toronto Transportation Commission bought out the line in the mid 20s and converted the section east of Long Branch to city standards, the radial service between Long Branch and Port Credit remained, shuttling passengers back and forth until February 10th, 1935, when the tracks were abandoned due to the widening of Lake Shore Road.

February 10, 1935

Due to highway widening, the PORT CREDIT radial car line was discontinued after the last trip on February 9. New PORT CREDIT bus route starts operating between Long Branch Loop via Lakeshore Road to Mississauga Road, wyeing and returning. Soon after, buses started looping in the west end via Mississauga, High and Wesley Street.

February 1, 1948

Service extended west on Lakeshore Road to Pine Street, wyeing and return.

May 15, 1950

Wye at Pine and Lakeshore replaced by a new loop near the intersection.

July 1, 1954

New zone fare system inaugurated throughout Metropolitan Toronto and into the suburbs. Port Credit operated with two zones on the line: one from Long Branch loop to Beechwood Avenue and the other from Beechwood to Pine. Transfers were accepted between LONG BRANCH streetcars and QUEENSWAY buses, where proper inter-zone fares were paid. Passengers travelling from Pine to the downtown in 1954 paid four suburban fares plus the city fare to complete their trip. Pine Street was in zone 4, with the zone 3 boundary at Beechwood and the zone 2 boundary at Long Branch loop. Even when the two suburban zone fares within Metropolitan Toronto were converted to one, the two fare system outside of Metro continued until 1972, when only one extra fare was required to transfer from the Long Branch streetcar to the Port Credit bus.

From 4:30 a.m. October 16, 1954 to 3:40 p.m. October 19, 1954

Heavy rains from Hurricane Hazel wash out Lake Shore Road and the bridge over Mississauga Creek. Service diverted both ways via Stavebank, the Queen Elizabeth Way and Mississauga Road back to the regular route.

September 2, 1956

Route assigned number 74.

12:15 p.m. August 16, 1965 to September 29, 1965

Storm sewer installation on Lakeshore Road diverts eastbound service diverted to Port between Stavebank and Hurontario.

January 23, 1966

Operations changed from the Parkdale Garage to the new Queensway Garage.

9:30 a.m. July 22, 1966 to August 31, 1966

Storm sewer work on Pine Avenue, right at the entrance of Pine Loop forces a diversion of service via north on Benson, west on High Street and south on Pine.

5:10 a.m. May 28, 1968 to May 31, 1968

Road paving at the east end of Pine Loop forces the same diversion described above.

TTC operations continued even after the provincial government amalgamated the communities within Toronto Township (with the exception of Port Credit and Streetsville) into the Town of Mississauga in 1968, and the amalgamation of the new town with Port Credit and Streetsville into the City of Mississauga in 1974. As the new city developed, however, it launched its own public transportation network and it was decided that the TTC service should be incorporated into the new network.

February 8, 1976

74 PORT CREDIT route discontinued, replaced with Mississauga Transit route 23.

74 Port Credit Image Archive

	TTC GM "New Look" bus #7183 heads out from Long Branch loop westbound in 74 PORT CREDIT service in this shot taken by Jerry Squier circa 1970. This image is courtesy Wayne Doran and the Motor Bus Society.
	TTC GM New Look bus #3594 meets TTC A13-class ex-Birmingham all-electric PCC #4729 at Long Branch loop on February 22, 1969. The photographer is unknown and the image is courtesy the Pete Coulman collection.
	Mississauga Transit 30-foot Orion I bus #2048, bearing a PORT CREDIT exposure, poses as part of an Ontario government public transportation display at the Canadian National Exhibition in this September 1978 shot. The photographer is unknown and the image is courtesy the Brad O'Brien collection.
	An official timetable of PORT CREDIT operations, effective February 1, 1948. Item courtesy Rob Pineault.
	A scan of the front of a TTC timetable showing 74 PORT CREDIT operations, effective March 20, 1966. Item donated by Pete Coulman.
	A scan of the inside of the TTC's timetable of 74 PORT CREDIT operations, effective March 20, 1966. Item donated by Pete Coulman.
	A scan of the front of the TTC's timetable for 74 PORT CREDIT operations, effective February 16, 1975. Item donated by Luke Usher.
	The back of the TTC's timetable for 74 PORT CREDIT operations, effective February 16, 1975. Item donated by Luke Usher.
	Evidence of the TTC's incursion deep into Mississauga can be found on Ann Street, just north of High Street, near the Port Credit GO station. There, one of the old wooden poles bears the remnants of "TTC Stop" paint. However, this produces a mystery, since the wooden pole is not found anywhere on the listed 74 PORT CREDIT route. This photo of Ann Street, just north of High Street, looking south towards Lakeshore Road, has the pole in question circled.
	A close-up of the pole, showing the distinctive TTC colours that can still be found throughout the City of Toronto.
	Newly-delivered TTC Ford 19-B bus #782 poses at an unknown location bearing a PORT CREDIT rollsign on March 18, 1941. Photo courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	Freshly bought and painted in TTC colours, Ford 19-B class bus #782 poses for photographs while bearing a PORT CREDIT rollsign exposure on March 18, 1941. This photo is courtesy the TTC.
	TTC GM New Look bus #3949 boards passengers at Pine Loop at the west end of the 74 PORT CREDIT route on October 16, 1971. Photo by J. Boros, donated by Pete Coulman.
	This TTC Ghost Stop is located on the south side of Lakeshore just east of Dixie between Cherriebell and Deta before the Mississauga/Toronto border across from the Canadian Tire Gas Bar. Other than the other TTC Ghost Stop on Ann St. in Port Credit this is the only remaining Route 74 TTC stop on Lakeshore. Ten years ago there were others but those hydro poles have since been replaced.

Ghosts of the TTC in Mississauga

The first and second photographs in the archive above provide something of a mystery that transit historians have not yet solved. The pole on Ann Street is on the wrong side of the street as all MT buses currently serve only the other side, but MT driver Chad King explains:

(This suggests that) way back in the 1967 when GO Trains first arrived on the scene and the current Port Credit Go Station opened, the Port Credit TTC bus serviced it. Queen Street that runs beside the current PC GO bus area was a two way street back then instead of today’s one way street. The eastbound TTC service once used the lay by on the south side in front of the apartment building by the Elizabeth Street corner as the GO station stop. That is why the lay by on Queen and the TTC bus stop on Ann Street are on the opposite side of the street.

Transit historian Pete Coulman can find no specific evidence for this diversion, and supplies these scans from the TTC which make no mention of the diversion, while noting minor diversions for sewer work: (Page 1) (Page 2).

This is why the research is always on-going and there doesn’t seem to be definitive answers a lot of the time.

One other painted TTC sign can be found on Lakeshore Road as well:

As well just east of Dixie Road there is a painted TTC stop on the wooden pole there as well for that very same TTC service in the 60’s. Only a few years ago did the city replace some of those wooden poles but you may be able to see a few others along Lakeshore between Ogden and the Long Branch Loop.

The square hole in the ground at the loop by the newspaper boxes where our buses stop was once a wooden TTC post painted green at the base like other older TTC stops that read “Port Credit Bus Stop”. It was removed about 10 years ago. The original TTC service ran from Long Branch Loop thru Port Credit and ended at Pine Loop. It was located at the corner of Pine Avenue and Lakeshore on the south side where the current Briarwood dealership has their trucks for sale.

References

• Kay, Jeffrey and Alan Gryfe, Route 74 Port Credit Route History
• Bromley, John F., TTC ‘28, The Upper Canada Railway Society, Toronto (Ontario), 1979.
• Bromley, John F., and Jack May Fifty Years of Progressive Transit, Electric Railroaders’ Association, New York (New York), 1978.
• Stamp, Robert M., Riding the Radials: Toronto’s Suburban Electric Streetcar Lines, The Boston Mills Press, Erin (Ontario), 1989.