Trolley buses in Hamilton

The Hamilton trolley bus system formed part of the public transport network of the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, from 1950 to 1992. For most of its history, it comprised three routes. Trolley buses, often known as trolley coaches when the system was in operation, were introduced in 1950 as part of a programme by the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) to replace its remaining streetcar lines. The first route was named Cannon, for Cannon Street, and was unnumbered. HSR closed the last streetcar line in April 1951 and opened a second trolley bus route in October 1951. The latter route, King/Barton, had two branches running east from downtown Hamilton, and in 1960 they were split into separate routes. The trolley bus system retained the same three routes – eventually given numbers as 1–King, 2–Barton, and 3–Cannon – for the remainder of its history, albeit with some routing revisions and extensions made to all three over the years. HSR was municipalized in 1960.

In the 1970s, the original fleet of 50 CanCar–Brill trolley buses built in 1950–1951 was replaced by 40 Flyer trolley buses built in 1972–1973 and 16 more in 1978–1979, but all 56 Flyer vehicles incorporated electrical equipment recycled from the Brill trolley buses. In the mid-1980s, when most of its trolley buses were over 10–12 years old and had electrical equipment more than 30 years old, HSR began to consider phasing-out trolley bus service.