Hawker Siddeley Canada proposed their version of a streetcar in 1972 known as the Municipal Service Car, which had a bus-like chassis and a semi-low floor design with front and rear doors similar to that of the CLRV fleet.

[9][2] CLRV car 4000 had a pantograph when being tested by SIG on the Orbe-Chavornay railway and was converted to trolley pole before being delivered to Toronto.

[12] Prototype 4900 ran trials in Toronto from August 10, 1982, until February 25, 1983, with a break when it was displayed at the 1982 Canadian National Exhibition.

After completion of the trial runs, car 4900 was stored at the St. Clair Carhouse until March 7, 1987, when it was shipped to the UTDC testing facility in Kingston, Ontario.

[13] These cars were double-ended, articulated, and used pantograph collection, all of which were configurable options offered for the CLRV by the UTDC, as was high-platform boarding, which neither city used.

[9] In 1980, cars 4027, 4029 and 4031 were leased and tested by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), in Boston, to run on the Green Line.

[2] The US Standard Light Rail Vehicle program was largely unsuccessful, with the resulting cars proving unreliable and troublesome to both transit systems that had purchased them.

While the CLRV gave relatively more reliable performance for the TTC and SCVTA, their large amount of components that became proprietary as a result would make the cars increasingly more difficult and costly to maintain as they aged.

In 2004, the Santa Clara VTA replaced their UTDC cars with low-floor LRVs and sold the former fleet to SacRT light rail in Sacramento and TRAX in Salt Lake City.

[15] The design and operation of the CLRVs and ALRVs carried over features from the highly successful PCCs that they replaced, having a similar interior layout, and the same two green bull's-eye lights in the upper corners of the front, above the destination sign, which uses back-lit roller boards.

"[17] However, after a ride on 4041, transit advocate Steve Munro described the air conditioning as "nowhere near as aggressive as it is on some buses or on the T1 subway cars.

"[18] Starting in 2006, the TTC installed a closed-circuit television (CCTV) security camera system on all surface vehicles including the CLRV/ALRV fleet as well as buses.

The POP system allows riders with proof of payment—such as a paper transfer, TTC pass or Presto card—to board at any door of the vehicle.

In 2014, the CLRV and ALRV streetcars began being retired and replaced by low-floor Flexity Outlook vehicles, the first of which were put into service on the 510 Spadina route.

[25] The replacements were initiated on the basis of the older vehicles being inaccessible to those with disabilities as well as the age and declining reliability of the CLRV and ALRV fleets.

The CLRV/ALRV cars, like the PCCs, had high floors and steps at every doorway, and were therefore not wheelchair accessible, severely limiting their use by people with physical disabilities.

TTC staff explored a number of possible means to make the old fleet wheelchair-accessible, including constructing level boarding platforms, lowering the track level, installing wheelchair lifts, and attaching wheelchair-accessible trailers, but concluded that none of these options were practical,[26][27] and replacing the cars was the best option.

In 2008, the TTC installed automatic stop announcements on all surface vehicles, including the CLRVs and ALRVs, to satisfy the requirements of the AODA.

[29] A TTC report in 2015 proposed that it may have continued to use some high-floor inaccessible CLRV/ALRV vehicles to supplement the low-floor Flexity Outlook streetcars during peak hours on selected routes either until approximately 2024, when projections indicated it would have enough of the Flexity vehicles available to provide accessible service on all streetcar routes or if they become impractical to maintain.

[6] During the polar vortex winter seasons of 2013/2014, 2014/2015, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, many of the CLRV and ALRV streetcars broke down due to their age when operating in temperatures below −20 °C (−4 °F).

[33] The older streetcars use pressurized air passing through tubes and valves to operate such things as suspension, braking, windshield wipers, doors and the rail sander (for traction under icy conditions).

If a CLRV or ALRV was damaged in a breakdown, collision or derailment, parts needed to be replaced or be bent back into shape.

The TTC Harvey Shops had to manufacture some of the replacements sections, such as the chevrons which attach bogies to the car body.

[17][11] In June 2015, the TTC started a program to rebuild and extend the life of 30 CLRVs and 30 ALRVs because of delays in delivery of the new Flexity streetcars.

The refurbishments included repairing corrosion, repainting, installing new energy-efficient LED lights, upgrading the floors, refreshing the seats, and overhauling the pneumatic, brake and traction systems.

[4] In September 2019, an artist group repainted CLRV 4178 at the Hillcrest Complex in bright colours, replacing its regular red and white livery.

The repainted streetcar ran until the end of the year on regular routes as well as for special events such as Nuit Blanche.

[8] At 3 pm, three CLRVs made a last commemorative run carrying invited guests from the Wolseley Loop to the Russell Carhouse.

[52] The TTC sold CLRV 4187 at auction to a private individual[b] for static display at Glista Family Farms in Priceville, Ontario.

The new owner plans to preserve the streetcar's interior, and has constructed a short strip of track to mount the vehicle.