Ice, Snow, and a Temporary Thaw, 1893-99

• Author: C. Ian Kyer
• Pages: 47-62



Chapter

IC ESNOWAND

ATEMPORARYTHAW



   bales involving the performa nceof t he TorontoRailway

Company (TRC) were fought directly between the City and the Company.

Attimesa nissuewit htheCit yledtoaprivateac tionbyan aectedc itizen 

That was the case with two of the ea rly operational issues t hat arose between

the City and its transit provider — transfers a nd snow removal. Ironically,

these arose at a period of relative peace between the City and the TRC and

contributed in each instance to t he TRC and the City reach ing agreement on

issues without themselves resorting to t he courts.

Oneofthe keyconditionsimposed bytheCitywasthattran situsersbe

permiedtotravelthroughoutthesystemforasinglefare Payment of that

fareentitledpassengerstoacontinuousridefromanypointonsaidrailway

toanyot herpointToenableth istransfer arrangementsweretobe made

by the Company that met with the approval of the City engineer and c ity

council.

Aswith manyoperationalmaers theprecise formth attheset ransfers

wouldtake wasnots etouti nthe agreement this wasto be seled

between the parties over ti me. In the beginni ng, the TRC relied on a per

son stationed at each transfer point. This agent would segregate tran sfer

ring passengers from new passengers as best he cou ld. When the streetcar

on the second line arrived the agent would identify transferring passengers

to the conductor of that streetcar so that when the conductor went around

collecting fares he would know not to collect a fare from t hese passengers.

AThirtyYearsWar

Att imes howeverthe conductor wouldget bus y with other maers and

not collect fares until someti me after the transfer. In these ca ses there was

always the chance that he would not remember who had transferred. If the

person being asked for a ticket said that he or she had paid on an intersec ting

line, the conductor had to decide if they were being truthf ul. If the conductor

thought that the person was lying and th at person did not produce a ticket

or pay the fare, the conductor could ask the person to leave the car. If asking

provedineectivephysicalforcewasused

This is exactly what happened to Albert Gri nsted on the bierlycold

nightofJanuaryGrinstedtooktheQueenstreetcartoSpadinaAv

enuewhere he notiedt heconductor that heintended to transfer toa car

going south along Spadina to King Street West. The conductor on the Queen

carensuredthatGrinstedwasputinthechargeoftheTRCagentstationedat

Spadina to look after transferri ng passengers. When the Spadina car arrived,

Grinsted boardedbut the conductoroft heSpadina car wasbusyand did

notcollec tfaresfortwobloc ksWh enhen allywentaroundh easkedGr in

stedfora fareatwh ichtime Grinsted informed theconductorth athehad

transferred at Queen. The conductor did not believe him, and even though

Grinsted hadat leastth reerai lwaytickets in hispockethe refused to use

oneBoththeconductorandGrinstedbeca mebelligerentandtheconductor

physicallythrew him othe carGri nstednow sweatyand upsetwal ked

back to the transfer point at the corner of Queen a nd Spadina. The agent

wassympathetic andlet him waitforanot hercarO necame abouttwenty

minuteslaterUpsetand standingi nthe frigidnight airGrinsted caughta

severecoldwhichcausedhischronicbronchitisandrheumatismtoareup

As a result, he missed work for several weeks.

InnomoodtoletthemaerdropGrinstedbroughtalegalactionagainst

theTRCforbreachofcontractAtt rialGrinstedscounselca lledthedoctor

whotreated him duringh isil lnessT hedoctor testied thatin ammation

or severe cold might have ensued upon his exposure to the frigid conditions

ofthatn ightHecould notbe certain becausethe eectwould bedierent

ondierentpersons buttheexposure experiencedbyGri nstedmighthave

beensucienttobringonhi schron icbronchitis andrheumati smHenoted

that a person going out into the cold air who was excited, and thereby over

heatedwouldbeapttosuerfromsomeinammatorytrouble

The judgeinst ructed the jury that to awardda magesto Grin stedt hey

wouldhavetondthatGrinstedhadbeen wronglydeniedhistransferand

thatGrinstedsillnesswasthenaturalandprobableresultofhishavingbeen