Ottawa History: Streetcar ‘696,’ restoration project in limbo

For more than a century, Ottawa residents hopped on streetcars for work or play. One of the last remaining – number “696,” – is facing a bumpy ride to restoration.

The made-in-Ottawa Streetcar is stored inside of an OC Transpo bus garage on Colonnade Road where volunteers have been restoring it for more than 20 years.

“It’s part of Ottawa History,” said Rheume Laplante, the project’s co-ordinator.

Laplante says the project is nearly finished but its future is unknown. Volunteers have been told the streetcar has to move by the end of the month “otherwise they’re going to drag it out.”

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa Robert Lafontaine, the city’s program manager of transit facilities maintenance says the space is needed.

“The City has been working with the volunteers of the Streetcar 696 Project for many years and has supported the project through in kind donations of space, minor use of hydro and water and the temporary use of some tools and equipment where such use would not impact operations,” Lafontaine said. “Due to operational needs, however, including renovations as part of the ongoing transition to zero-emission buses, OC Transpo is no longer able to donate space to host this project.”

He adds the city is looking to see if another temporary location can be found until the group finds a permanent home.

“Now, the whole project is up in the air, we have no idea what’s going to happen,” says Larry McNally, another volunteer with the project.

Historic image of streetcar 696. (Courtesy: Rheume Laplante)

Volunteers say they have spent around 150,000 hours working on the streetcar and about $250,000 in materials and services has been donated through sponsorships.

“It’s not our streetcar, it’s the city of Ottawa street car,” says another volunteer, Gerald Gaugl.

Michael Kostiuk is with Canada’s Capital Streetcar, a group that would like to see heritage-style streetcars downtown. “It’d be nice if they can finish the restoration to make it a fully operational streetcar, so the public can see what our streetcars used to look like.”