Start of service: 1913?
End of service: January 31, 1948.
Route: King & Sanford to Burlington & Sherman via Sanford, Wilson, Birch and Burlington
Antecessor route: King East & Barton-Deering Branch
In October of 1913, The HSR discontinued the King East & Barton route, replacing it with the Belt Line. As the Belt Line was a two-way loop line, it is assumed that at this point the Deering Branch was also discontinued, and replaced with the Crosstown route, which ran from King & Sanford to Burlington & Sherman via Sanford, Wilson, Birch and Burlington during rush hours only. Oddly, a Crosstown route sign was never made up for the route. Streetcars instead displayed the Sanford route sign, which was usually used for cars running out of service bound for the Sanford Shops.
On May 23, 1924 the tracks on Wilson and Birch were replaced with double-track on Wilson, and a private right-of-way that paralleled Birch from Wilson to Burlington. During its final years, service on the Crosstown route was operated using the last single-truck cars on the HSR roster, the Preston ST cars. These cars were scrapped after the Crosstown route was abandoned on January 31, 1948.
Mills, John M. Cataract Traction; The Railways of Hamilton. Toronto: Upper Canada Railway Society/Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association, 1971
Westland, S. I. "Steel City Traction" Upper Canada Railway Society Newsletter May 1971: pg 69-74
