CTV News Edmonton has reported:

The High Level Bridge streetcar ended its regular season on Thanksgiving weekend, closing a season that drew about 80,000 passengers. The Edmonton Radial Railway Society said the service began in May and wound down as autumn leaves turned, with families riding the route for its fall views of the city.

Saylish Haas and Landon Schedler brought their two children aboard for the final service on Monday, during their anniversary weekend. The couple had married years earlier on the streetcar. “It’s our favourite thing to do,” Haas told CTV News Edmonton. Schedler said: “In the fall, seeing all the colours and getting ourselves out and across the bridge is a good perspective of the city.”

Volunteer operator Hugh McKay was helping operate an original Edmonton streetcar built in 1912. “On this line here at the High Level Bridge, we’ve carried about 80,000 passengers over the course of the season,” he said. McKay said the line has been “kind of revamped” since it first shut down in 1951, while continuing to travel over the city as it has for more than a century.

The route also operates an Edmonton car alongside a streetcar from Osaka, Japan, dating to about 1921, and one from Melbourne, Australia, taken out of commission in 1947. The original system linked Edmonton on the north side with Strathcona to the south, when they were considered separate cities. The two were amalgamated in 1912.

Visitors can learn about that history at the High Level Bridge streetcar section. On Monday, clouds parted over crowds of families taking in the last fall scenery as the cars travelled 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. He said visitors unfamiliar with Edmonton can learn about both the streetcar service and the city. “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 is set to return this winter for round trips on a seasonally decorated car along the High Level Bridge. Specific times had not been finalized online. CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug contributed to the report.