On a freezing cold day 40 years ago, Toronto got its first glimpse of the next chapter in its streetcar history.

Cherry red, with a rounded snout, the first of the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) streetcars arrived in the city from Switzerland on Dec. 29, 1977. It was car number 4002.

"I'm still cold from being out trying to photograph it as they off-loaded from the railway flatcar," remembered columnist and history writer Mike Filey.

Now a symbol of Toronto that adorns everything from postcards to t-shirts, the CLRV streetcar — and the streetcar network as a whole — almost never made it into the 21st century.

Passengers crowd into a 505 CLRV streetcar in the 1980s. (Toronto Photo Archives)

By the mid-60s, the TTC's plan "was to get rid of its streetcars by 1980," said transit advocate Steve Munro.

Streetcars had been running in Toronto since the 1860s, when unheated horse-drawn cars with straw on the floor for freezing passengers to bury their feet in got Torontonians to work.

In 1921, when the TTC was created, the network was vast, with one line going as far as Woodbridge (and passengers able to count on small coal stoves to stay warm.)

A horse drawn streetcar in the 1890's. Horses would work short shifts of two or three hours before heading back to their stables. (Toronto Photo Archives)

Post-war plans to abandon streetcars

By the end of World War II, however, streetcars had fallen out of favour all over the world.

The city's extensive network was also pared back significantly following the opening of the subway — and Toronto had plans to build more.

"The Queen subway was going to open," said Munro, chuckling. "You've probably noticed there's no subway on Queen Street."

Munro, Filey, and a group of others calling themselves the Streetcars for Toronto Committee pushed to save streetcars by compiling a report that outlined their benefits, leading the TTC board to reconsider.

"The streetcar has always lived and was reborn in Toronto," said Filey of the victory.

The last dark red-and-tan PCC streetcar was removed from the system in 1995. (Toronto Photo Archives)

The next task was to replace the ageing Presidents' Conference Committee​ (PCC) streetcar, first introduced in 1938 and known as the "Red Rocket."

When the new CLRV streetcar finally went into service in 1979, two years after that first prototype arrived, the Toronto Star praised it as a "handsome creature," and local politicians called it "the best streetcar in the world."

CBC News, meanwhile, lambasted the TTC for rolling out the cars a year and a half late. (Sound familiar?)

"That delay caused the price to double," said a CBC news report. "And who will pay? You and me."

Nostalgic symbol for Torontonians

Late or not, the CLRV is now a beloved, nostalgic symbol — something Munro is admittedly somewhat perplexed by.

Munro grew up in Toronto with the PCC's as the "new cars" and Peter Witt cars — which date from 1921 — as the "old cars."

"There's an interesting generational thing in this," said Munro. "I kind of look at [CLRV's] and say, those cars don't have anywhere near the character! PCCs, what a warm car… it's all curves."

Metro Morning broadcasting live from a streetcar in the area known sometimes known as the "party seats," "social seven," or the "living room." (David Donnelly/CBC)

He says that the newest cars, Bombardier's Flexity, are borrowing a page from the PCC book by going back to a "more rounded design."

But for fans of the CLRV, some good news — Flexity production remains delayed, and the TTC is continuing to fund "life extension overhaul programs" to keep the older cars on the road.

And car 4002? It's still kicking, with a charter planned to take it around town on Saturday in recognition of its four decades of service.