HCR operated horse-drawn streetcars on rails embedded in Halifax streets for more than 10 years, but marginal revenues and plans to move the railway station to North Street, closer to downtown, brought a halt to operations in 1876.
Less than a year after the transit system became part of the Halifax Electric Tramway Company, an electric tram car made its first run on February 12, 1896; by April 1 of that year the conversion of the system to electric operation was complete.