Saylish Haas and Landon Schedler had a lot to be thankful for on Monday; namely, the Edmonton streetcar on which they were married years ago. It’s the couple’s anniversary weekend, and they took their two children to the last service of the season this Thanksgiving weekend. “It’s our favourite thing to do,” Haas told CTV News Edmonton. “In the fall, seeing all the colours and getting ourselves out and across the bridge is a good perspective of the city,” Schedler added. The love and pride in the novelty volunteer-run system is shared beyond the family, evidenced by what the Edmonton Radial Railway Society says was a strong summer turnout that began in May and will end now that the leaves have turned. “On this line here at the High Level Bridge, we’ve carried about 80,000 passengers over the course of the season,” volunteer operator Hugh McKay said. McKay was helping to run an original Edmonton car from 1912 on Monday. The line has been “kind of revamped” since it was first shut down in 1951, he says, but still glides over the city as it has done for more than a century. The High Level Bridge route runs its Edmonton car alongside one from Osaka, Japan circa 1921 and Melbourne, Australia that was taken out of commission in 1947. The system has a history of bringing two lives together, much like Haas and Schedler’s – the cars originally connected Edmonton on the north side to Strathcona in the south when the two cities were considered separate entities. They were amalgamated in 1912. All that information and more is available today at the High Level Bridge streetcar section, where clouds parted over crowds of families taking in some final fall scenery along the former Canadian Pacific Railway tracks from Whyte Avenue into the downtown core. “We figure it’s very important to preserve history of what the city used to have, and also we offer some very unique views of the city,” McKay said. “It’s always very nice, especially for visitors to the city that don’t know much about the city, they get to pick up a little of the history of the streetcar service and the city itself.” The Edmonton Christmas Streetcar will return for round trips on a seasonally decorated car along the High Level Bridge this winter, although specific times have not been solidified online. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug
