Hole Season is in Winnipeg, but some holes have gone so deep that they have revealed an interesting part of Winnipeg’s history.
Decades of old rails were uncovered from a section of potholes on Osborne Street this week.
“What you’re looking at are remnants of the tram system that served Winnipeg,” said Fred Hadden, a retired professor who has written two books on the Winnipeg Railroad and is working on a third volume.
“The rails were laid on the main roads, and cars, buses and everything else shared the roads with the trams.
The last of the trams passed through Winnipeg on September 19, 1955. The city subsequently pulled a lot of rails, Hedden said, but not all. In many cases, he says, it was cheaper to leave the railways on the ground.
The last of the trams passed through Winnipeg on September 19, 1955 (Source: Manitoba Archives)
“The quickest and easiest way was just to pave the top of everything, and when that asphalt thins, the rails reappear,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Winnipeg’s story has broken through cracks in concrete. CTV News previously reported that the section on Osborne Street revealed old railway tracks back in 2014.
READ MORE: Extreme winter affects roads, reveals old tram tracks buried under Osborne
Hedon said the rails would appear periodically in Winnipeg; sometimes during construction projects and sometimes during a bad season of holes.
The tram became a historic symbol in Winnipeg – a reminder of many of the general strike of 1919. A permanent art installation at the Pantages Theater Plaza shows the iconic image of an overturned tram on June 21, 1919 – a day known as Bloody Saturday of Winnipeg.
READ MORE: Bloody Saturday art installation to keep the history of strikes “alive for the next 100 years”
Hayden said the tram system also had a huge impact on Winnipeg’s development – acting as a canal for people downtown as the city began to expand.
A city spokesman told CTV News that when a street is completely reconstructed at the end of its service life, all tram rails will be removed. But while the rails remain, Heden said Winnipegars who see them peering through a gaping hole in the road should be grateful for the role the rails have played in the city’s history.
“They have to admit that this is an element of the city’s history,” he said. “People need to recognize the historical significance of these tracks in the development of Winnipeg during its evolution.
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