From its inception as a horsecar line in 1874, the Niagara, St. Catharines, & Toronto Railway is one of the foremost examples in Canada of an intensively developed and closely integrated transportation system. It operated local street railways, interurban lines, carload and less-than-carload freight, lake steamers, a large motor coach system, and even a circle trolley line around the Niagara Gorge. The NS&T and predecessors include the first electric railway in Canada to have operated without interruption, and the last interurban passenger service. Each aspect of the companyís operations was coordinated with others to form a transportation system which, while comparatively small in area, was very active in operation, and several distinct types of passenger service (local, commuter, inter-city and excursion) were developed. Author John Mills tells the story of all of them, with details on where the routes ran, maps of the line, stations, and connections with the many major railways that served the Niagara Peninsula. There are 256 pages of text, containing nine detailed system maps, a roster of the railwayís rolling stock, and over 300 fascinating photographs, fifty in full colour.

John Mills was born in Toronto in 1931, and has lived there all his life. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1952. Shortly thereafter, John entered the business world, but found that a commercial career was not for him, and soon returned to the University of Toronto as an administrative staff member. Being a compulsive researcher, he found this to be an ideal workplace environment, as it provided him with unrestricted access to the university's enormous collection of information, books and artifacts.The author is a founding member of the Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association, and is an honourary life member. The OERHA operates the Halton County Radial Railway, featuring historic electric transit vehicles in action at their museum in Milton, Ontario.John has written several books on electric railway subjects, including Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto Railway, and Cataract Traction. Several others are in preparation. Besides being interested in railways, John is equally fascinated by steamboats, and is the author of The New Mills List. This is a listing, with statistics and other details, of over 6000 Canadian coastal and inland steamers from the beginning, covering the period from 1809 up to 1930. The definitive edition was published in 1999.In addition to his transportation hobby, John's great joy in life is travelling the world. He hopes you will enjoy your own travels back to a bygone era, through the fascinating transportation systems that comprised Ontario’s Grand River Valley Electric Railways.

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