Historical Photo of Downtown T

Bus Service During Wartime  

  • Ridership surged and peaked in 1945 with over 39 million passengers.
  • On June 2, 1940, the waiting room (main bus terminal) was again relocated to the new Greyhound terminal on London Street (today called University Avenue), and continued until 2007.  A new terminal was built and relocated in 2007.  
  • In February 1948, the SW&A moved from its cramped London Street car barns into spacious and more modern facilities on Kildare Road. Purchased from the War Assets Corporation, they had formerly housed Border Cities Industries Ltd., wartime manufacturers of machine guns.

 

Historical Photo of SW & A Hea

Facts

  1. With the onslaught of World War II came rationing of gasoline and restrictions on tires for private cars. 

  2. Factories were working twenty-four hours a day, and at each shift change there were lines of buses at the factory gates, waiting to carry the workers home.

  3. At the end of the war, Windsor was operating 177 Fords, the largest such fleet in Canada. Between 150 and 155 of them were in use on city and metropolitan routes daily.

  4. Women took on more duties until there were 28 on the payroll, in addition to office workers.

  5. In the re-modeled quarters on Kildare Road, SW&A could store under cover all 197 buses in its fleet. Repair and servicing areas were more than ample, and still left room for future expansion.
  6. bus drivers had to often sleep