The PCC streetcar was designed by the Presidents' Conference Committee, a group of transit operators in the United States and Canada.

[3] The TTC had only a maximum of 744 PCCs in service because car 4063 was scrapped after it derailed and crashed into Lansdowne Carhouse wall on 20 January 1947.

[4][5] Today, only two PCCs remain in Toronto, bearing the original 1951 fleet numbers of 4500 and 4549, for charters and special events.

A major visual difference was that the all-electrics (except the former Kansas City PCCs, A-14-class) had standee windows, which none of the air-electrics had.

[8][9] The theory was that a two-car train could load/unload at a stop and pass through an intersection as fast as a single car.

These class A-4 cars were assigned to the St. Clair Carhouse, and boosted service on existing lines.

Because of war-time shortages, both class A-4 and A-5 cars had lower quality components for passenger fixtures, that were replaced after the war.

[10] The next order (to become the A-7 class) were for 100 multiple-unit PCCs to be assigned to the busy Bloor streetcar line.

Each class had roof housing for fan equipment, a feature which the TTC chose to disable.

[17] In Birmingham, Alabama, these PCCs had the notoriety of having racially-segregated seating, a practice that ceased with their shipment to Toronto.

[17] These are the only all-electric PCCs not to have standee windows as the president of Kansas City Public Service wanted "none of those little apertures".

[23] The "Kansas City" PCCs became the TTC's final purchase of second-hand PCC streetcars.

[17] In the late 1980s, as CLRVs (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) were replacing the aging PCC fleet, the TTC started to create a new class of PCC cars, the A-15 class, by rebuilding A-8-class cars for use on the then-new Harbourfront streetcar line (part of today's 509 Harbourfront route).

The refurbishment program was cancelled in 1991 following an edict by the Metropolitan Toronto government that all future vehicle purchases must be accessible; all 19 PCCs were rebuilt, with the last car outshopped in 1992.

However, in 1995, the A-15 class PCCs were retired because the new CLRV fleet could handle the ridership, which had declined by that time.

[6] The TTC constructed two rail grinder trains from two pairs of PCC cars retired from passenger service.

In 1970, the TTC converted two class A-7 PCCs (4446 and 4410) into a subway rail grinder train (renumbering the cars as RT-14 and RT-15).

[24] About 1974,[25] the TTC converted two class A-11 PCCs (4631 and 4668) into a streetcar system rail grinder train (renumbering the cars as W-30 and W-31).

The train's last rail grinding job was in 1999; in 2002, the two cars were donated to the Halton County Radial Railway.

A pair of enamel murals by Gerald Zeldin entitled Summertime Streetcar are displayed at platform level at Eglinton West station.

However, this car never operated in Toronto: it was originally built for Minneapolis' Twin City Rapid Transit and ultimately bought by MUNI.