Toronto streetcar system

Toronto streetcar system

Overview
Locale	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Transit type	Streetcar
Number of lines	11[1]
Number of stations	685 stops,[2] including 8 shared with the subway (all others but one are street-level stops)
Daily ridership	291,000 (avg. weekday, Q2 2014)[3]
Annual ridership	100,037,500 (2013)[4]
Operation
Began operation	1861 (electric lines since 1892)[1]
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Character	Street running
Technical
System length	82 km (51 mi)[1][2]
Track gauge	4 ft 10 7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) Toronto gauge
Minimum radius of curvature	36 ft 0 in (10,973 mm)[5]
Electrification	Overhead lines, 600 V DC

The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in proximity to the city's waterfront. Much of the streetcar route network dates back to the 19th century. Unlike newer light rail systems, most of Toronto's streetcar routes operate in the classic style on street trackage shared with car traffic, and streetcars stop on demand at frequent stops like buses. Some routes do operate wholly or partly within their own rights-of-way, but they still stop on demand at frequent stops.

There are underground connections between streetcars and the subway at St. Clair West, Spadina, and Union stations, and streetcars enter St. Clair, Dundas West, Bathurst, Broadview, and Main Street stations at street level. At these stations, no proof of payment is required to transfer to or from the subway, as the streetcars stop within the stations' fare-paid areas. At the eight downtown stations, excepting Union, from Queen's Park to College on the Yonge–University subway line, streetcars stop on the street outside the station entrances, and proof of payment is required to transfer to or from the subway.

Despite the use of techniques long absent from the streetcar networks of some other North American cities, Toronto’s streetcars are not heritage streetcars run for tourism or nostalgic purposes; they provide most of the downtown core’s surface transit service, and four of the TTC's five most heavily used surface routes are streetcar routes. In 2006, ridership on the streetcar system totalled more than 52 million.^[6]

History

Early history (1861–1945)

Streetcars at Bay and Queen in 1923

This Peter Witt streetcar, preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway, has been restored into the TTC’s original 1921 livery.

In 1861, the city of Toronto issued a thirty-year transit franchise (Resolution 14, By-law 353) for a horse-drawn street railway, after the Williams Omnibus Bus Line had become heavily loaded. Alexander Easton's Toronto Street Railway (TSR) opened the first street railway line in Canada on September 11, 1861, operating from Yorkville Town Hall to the St. Lawrence Market. At the end of the TSR franchise, the city ran the railway for eight months, but ended up granting a new thirty-year franchise to the Toronto Railway Company (TRC) in 1891. The TRC was the first operator of horseless streetcars in Toronto. The first electric car ran on August 15, 1892, and the last horse car ran on August 31, 1894, to meet franchise requirements.

There came to be problems with interpretation of the franchise terms, for the city. By 1912, the city limits had extended significantly, with the annexation of communities to the North (1912: North Toronto) and the East (1908: Town of East Toronto) and the West (1909: The City of West Toronto - The Junction). After many attempts to force the TRC to serve these areas, the city created its own street railway operation, the Toronto Civic Railways to do so, and built several routes. Repeated court battles did force the TRC to build new cars, but they were of old design. When the TRC franchise ended in 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) was created, combining the city-operated Toronto Civic Railways lines into its new network.

The TTC began in 1921 as solely a streetcar operation, with the bulk of the routes acquired from the private TRC and merged with the publicly operated Toronto Civic Railways. In 1925, routes were operated on behalf of the Township of York (as Township of York Railway), but the TTC was contracted to operate them.

Thoughts of abandonment (1945–1989)

Track and trolley coach overhead plan of Toronto in October, 1965. The map features detailed plans of Danforth, St.Clair, Lansdowne, Russell and Roncesvalles carhouses, Eglinton Garage and Hillcrest Complex.

After the Second World War, many cities across North America and Europe^[7] began to eliminate their streetcar systems in favour of buses . During the 1950s, the TTC continued to invest in streetcars and the TTC took advantage of other cities' streetcar removals by purchasing extra PCC cars from Cleveland, Birmingham, Kansas City, and Cincinnati.

PCC #4500 operating on the 509 Harbourfront Line.

In 1966, the TTC announced plans to eliminate all streetcar routes by 1980. Streetcars were considered out of date, and their elimination in almost all other cities made it hard to buy new vehicles and maintain the existing ones. Metro Toronto chair William Allen claimed in 1966 that "streetcars are as obsolete as the horse and buggy."^[8] A large number of streetcars were eliminated with the creation of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth that opened in February 1966.

The plan to abolish the streetcar system was strongly opposed by many in the city, and a group named "Streetcars for Toronto" was formed to work against the plan. The group was led by professor Andrew Biemiller and transit advocate Steve Munro, and had the support of city councillors William Kilbourn and Paul Pickett, and urban advocate Jane Jacobs. Streetcars for Toronto presented the TTC board with a report that found retaining the streetcar fleet would in the long run be cheaper than converting to buses. This combined with a strong public preference for streetcars over buses changed the decision of the TTC board.^[9]

The TTC then maintained most of their existing network, purchasing new custom-designed Canadian light rail vehicle (CLRV) and articulated light rail vehicle (ALRV) streetcars. They also continued to rebuild and maintain the existing fleet of PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) streetcars until they were no longer roadworthy.

The previous policy of eliminating streetcars and using buses for new routes (added as the city developed northward) accounts for the concentration of streetcar lines within five kilometres of the waterfront. The busiest north-south and east-west routes were replaced respectively by the Yonge–University and Bloor–Danforth subway lines, and the northernmost streetcar lines, including the North Yonge and Oakwood routes, were replaced by trolley buses (and later by diesel buses).

Two other lines that operated north of St. Clair Avenue were abandoned for other reasons: the Rogers Road route was abandoned to free up streetcars for expanded service on other routes, and the Mount Pleasant route was removed because of complaints from drivers that streetcars slowed their cars down and because the track was aging and would have needed to be replaced anyway.

Scarborough RT (1985–present)

The Scarborough rapid-transit (RT) line was originally proposed to operate with streetcars on a private right-of-way, but the plans were changed when the Ontario government persuaded the TTC and the borough of Scarborough to buy its then-new Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) rapid transit trains instead. Another proposed streetcar/rapid transit line from Kipling station was abandoned, but the ghost platform at the bus level is a hint of a streetcar line.

Expansion period (1989–2000)

The TTC returned to building new streetcar routes in 1989. The first new line was route 604 Harbourfront, starting from Union Station, travelling underneath Bay Street and rising to a dedicated centre median on Queen's Quay (along the edge of Lake Ontario) to the foot of Spadina Avenue. This route was later lengthened northward along Spadina Avenue in 1997, continuing to travel in a dedicated right-of-way in the centre of the street, and ending in an underground terminal at Spadina Station. At this time, the route was renamed 510 Spadina to fit with the numbering scheme of the other streetcar routes. This new streetcar service replaced the former route 77 Spadina bus, and since 1997 has provided the main north-south transit service through Toronto's Chinatown and the western boundary of University of Toronto's main campus. The tracks along Queen's Quay were extended to Bathurst Street in 2000 to connect to the existing Bathurst route, providing for a new 509 Harbourfront route from Union Station to the then-newly refurbished Exhibition Loop at the Exhibition grounds, where the Canadian National Exhibition is held.

Recent proposals and developments (2007–present)

One of the new Flexity Outlook streetcars undergoing testing

Route 512 St. Clair was rebuilt to restore a separated right-of-way similar to that of the route 510 on Spadina Avenue, to increase service reliability and was completed on June 30, 2010.^[10]

On March 14, 2007, Toronto Mayor David Miller and the TTC announced Transit City, a major proposal for a 120-kilometre, $6.1-billion network of new European-style light rail transit (LRT) lines that would provide rail transit to underserved suburban areas of the city. Since 2008, environmental assessments were made for trams along Eglinton Avenue, Sheppard Avenue East, Finch Avenue West, Jane Street, Morningside Avenue, Don Mills Road, and the extension of the 509 Harbourfront route from Exhibition Place to Queen Street West at Roncesvalles Avenue. Eventually, construction of the Sheppard East LRT line along Sheppard Avenue began in December 2009.

The new Flexity Outlook low-floor streetcars began to enter service on August 31, 2014. Car 4400 is seen on route 510 Spadina in September.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who was elected as Miller's successor in 2010, announced the cancellation of Transit City on the day that he took office.^[11][12] The redesigned Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown line along with a Sheppard line extension was announced four months later, with the support of Metrolinx and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. The redesigned line would put the 19 km Eglinton portion completely underground, integrate the Scarborough RT portion, and run contiguously from Black Creek Drive to McCowan Road.^[13]

On December 16, 2010, the TTC suffered its worst accident since the Russell Hill subway crash in 1995. Up to 17 people, including four schoolchildren, were sent to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after a 505 Dundas streetcar heading eastbound collided with a Greyhound Canada bus at River Street.^[14]

On February 8, 2012, city council voted to restore the original LRT plans cancelled unilaterally without council approval by Mayor Ford. This basically restored funding for the original lines although under a different project name.

Routes

The current TTC streetcar network, in relation to the subway; all eleven regular routes appear red.

As of 2013, the TTC operates 304.6 kilometres (189.3 mi)^[2] of routes on 82 kilometres (51 mi) streetcar network (double or single track) throughout Toronto.^[1][2] There are 11 regular streetcar routes:^[2]

Route numbers

The TTC has used route numbers in the 500 series for streetcar routes since 1980; before then, streetcar routes were not numbered, but the destination signs on the then-new CLRVs were not large enough to display both the route name and destination, according to the TTC. The only exceptions to this numbering scheme are the two streetcar-operated 300-series Blue Night Network routes.

The one other exception to the 500 series numbering was the Harbourfront LRT streetcar. When introduced in 1990, this route was numbered 604, which was intended to group it with the old numbering scheme for rapid transit routes. In 1996, the TTC overhauled its rapid transit route numbers and stopped trying to market the Harbourfront route as 'rapid transit' changing the number to 510; the tracks were later extended in two directions to form the 510 Spadina and 509 Harbourfront routes.^[15]

During times when streetcar service on all or a portion of a route has been replaced temporarily by buses (e.g., for track reconstruction, major fire, special event), the replacement bus service is typically identified by the same route number as the corresponding streetcar line.

Dedicated rights-of-way

Queens Quay streetcar station

The majority of streetcar routes operate in mixed traffic, generally reflecting the original track configurations dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, newer trackage has largely been established within dedicated rights-of-way, in order to allow streetcars to operate with fewer disruptions due to delays caused by automobile traffic. Most of the system's dedicated rights-of-way operate within the median of existing streets, separated from general traffic by raised curbs and controlled by specialized traffic signals at intersections. Queen streetcars have operated on such a right-of-way along the Queensway between Humber and Sunnyside loops since 1957. Since the 1990s, dedicated rights-of-way have been opened downtown along Queens Quay, Spadina Avenue, St. Clair Avenue West, and Fleet Street.

Short sections of track also operate in tunnel (to connect with Spadina, Union, and St. Clair West subway stations). The most significant section of underground streetcar trackage is a tunnel underneath Bay Street connecting Queens Quay with Union Station; this section, which is approximately 700 m (2,300 ft) long, includes one intermediate underground station at Bay Street and Queens Quay.

During the late 2000s, the TTC reinstated a separated right-of-way — removed between 1928 and 1935^[16] — on St. Clair Avenue, for the entire 512 St. Clair route. A court decision obtained by local merchants in October 2005 had brought construction to a halt and put the project in doubt; the judicial panel then recused themselves, and the delay for a new decision adversely affected the construction schedule. A new judicial panel decided in February 2006 in favour of the city, and construction resumed in summer 2006. One-third of the St. Clair right-of-way was completed by the end of 2006 and streetcars began using it on February 18, 2007. The portion finished was from St. Clair Station (Yonge Street) to Vaughan Road. The second phase started construction in the summer of 2007 from Dufferin Street to Caledonia Road. Service resumed utilizing the second and third phases on December 20, 2009 extending streetcar service from St. Clair to Earlscourt Loop located just south and west of Lansdowne Avenue. The fourth and final phase from Caledonia to Gunns Loop (just west of Keele Street) is completed and full streetcar service over the entire route was finally restored on June 30, 2010.^[17][18]

In 2008, the tracks on Fleet Street between Bathurst Street and the Exhibition Loop were converted to a dedicated right-of-way and opened for the 511 Bathurst and the 509 Harbourfront streetcars. Streetcar track and overhead power line were also installed at the Fleet loop, which is located at the Queen's Wharf Lighthouse.^[19]

Future expansion

The City of Toronto's and the TTC’s Transit City report^[20] released on March 16, 2007, proposed creating new light rail lines. These are mainly separate from the streetcar network as the track gauge and vehicle specifications are quite different. Much of the original proposal has since been canceled, and those that are proceeding are to be included in the rapid transit part of the network.

Some aspects of the plan would have augmented the streetcar network and used its vehicles, namely the Waterfront West LRT which would have run along Lake Shore Boulevard from Long Branch Loop to near the South Kingsway, continuing along the Queensway to King Street, and adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway to Exhibition Loop; from Exhibition it would continue to Union station in either its own as yet to be determined alignment, or in the Harbourfront West LRT alignment.

In April 2012, construction began on the 700-metre (2,300 ft) Cherry Street streetcar line, which will run in a dedicated right-of-way on Sumach and Cherry Streets from King Street to the railway corridor south of Mill Street, serving West Don Lands and the Distillery District.^[21][22][23]

Additional proposals include:

• Extending 512 St. Clair to Jane subway station
• A route westward from the Bay Street streetcar tunnel along Bremner Boulevard and Fort York Boulevard to Bathurst Street
• Queens Quay East light rail line to complement the Waterfront West LRT and the 509 Harbourfront line.

Discontinued streetcar routes

Toronto Street Railway

Routes marked to City were operating on May 20, 1891, when the Toronto Street Railway Company's franchise expired and operations were taken over by the City of Toronto.^[24]

Toronto Railway Company

Routes marked to TTC were operating on September 21, 1921, when the Toronto Railway Company's operations were taken over by the Toronto Transportation Commission.^[25]

Toronto Civic Railways

All routes transferred to the Toronto Transportation Commission.^[27]

Toronto Transportation Commission/Toronto Transit Commission

Rolling stock

Hundreds of cars were acquired from the TTCs predecessor companies, including the Toronto Railway Company, Toronto Civic Railways, Toronto & York Radial Railway and Toronto Suburban Railway. The current fleet is composed of 248 vehicles.

Streetcars purchased by the TTC

Note that not all numbers within a series were used.

Winter operational issues

The fleet of CLRV and ALRV has experienced operational issues during extreme cold temperatures in early 2015 as doors and brakes fail as the air in the pneumatic lines freeze.^[28] As a result the TTC will often substitute buses during extreme cold conditions to prevent cars from blocking roads or getting into accidents when brakes fail to deploy. The problem will be resolved with the new Flexity cars which use electronic braking and door operations.^[28]

Track gauge

Track gauge

By transport mode
Tram · Rapid transit Miniature · Scale model
By size (list)
Minimum   Fifteen inch 381 mm (15 in) Narrow   Two foot and 600 mm 597 mm 600 mm 603 mm 610 mm (1 ft 11 1⁄2 in) (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) (1 ft 11 3⁄4 in) (2 ft)   750 mm, Bosnian, Two foot six inch, 800 mm 750 mm 760 mm 762 mm 800 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) (2 ft 5 15⁄16 in) (2 ft 6 in) (2 ft 7 1⁄2 in)   Swedish three foot, 900 mm, Three foot 891 mm 900 mm 914 mm (2 ft11 3⁄32 in) (2 ft 11 7⁄16) (3 ft)   Metre 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)   Three foot six inch, Cape, CAP, Kyōki 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)   Four foot six inch 1,372 mm (4 ft 6 in)   Standard 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) Broad   Russian, Five foot (Finnish) 1,520 mm 1,524 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in) (5 ft)   Irish 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)   Iberian 1,668 mm (5 ft 5 21⁄32 in)   Indian 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)   Brunel 2,140 mm (7 ft 1⁄4 in)
Change of gauge
Break-of-gauge · Dual gauge · Conversion (list) · Bogie exchange · Variable gauge
By location
North America · South America · Europe

Grand union at Spadina Avenue and Queen Street West

Streetcar track reconstruction at Bathurst Street and Queen Street in 2007.

The tracks of Toronto's streetcars and subways are built to the unique track gauge of 4 ft 10 ⁷⁄₈ in (1,495 mm), 2 ³⁄₈ in (60 mm) wider than the usual standard gauge of 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm), which Line 3 Scarborough uses.^[29] According to Steve Munro, an expert on the history of Toronto area transit, TTC gauge is "English carriage gauge".

That the gauge of the said railways shall be such that the ordinary vehicles now in use may travel on the said tracks, and that it shall and may be lawful to and for all and every person and persons whatsoever to travel upon and use the said tracks with their vehicles loaded or empty, when and so often as they may please, provided they do not impede or interfere with the cars of the party of the second part (Toronto Street Railway), running thereon, and subject at all times to the right of the said party of the second part, his executors, and administrators and assigns to keep the said tracks with his and their cars, when meeting or overtaking any other vehicle thereon.^[30]

As wagons were normally built at standard gauge, the streetcar rails were selected to be slightly wider, allowing the wagons to ride on the inside sections of the rail, and the streetcars on the outside. The Williams Omnibus Bus Line changed the gauge of their buses in 1861 to fit this gauge. At the time, track for horsecars was not our modern 'T' rail, but wide and flat, with a raised section on the outside of the rail.

According to the TTC, the City of Toronto feared that the street railway franchise operator, first in 1861, the Toronto Street Railway, then in 1891, the Toronto Railway Company, and in 1921, the TTC, would allow the operation of steam locomotives and freight trains through city streets, as was common practice in Hamilton, Ontario (until the 1950s) and in many US cities, such as New York City and Syracuse, New York.^[29]

Standard gauge rails in the streets would have allowed this, but steam railway equipment could not follow the abrupt curves in the streetcar network. Opposition to freight operation in city streets precluded interchange even with adjacent radial lines even after the lines changed to TTC gauge. Electric railway freight cars could negotiate street curves, but freight operations to downtown were still not allowed until the final few years of radial operation by the TTC.

The unique gauge has remained to this day since converting all tracks and vehicles would be expensive and would lack any real benefit anyway. Some proposals for the city's subway system involved using streetcars in the tunnels, possibly having some routes run partially in tunnels and partially on city streets, so the same gauge was used, but the idea was ultimately dropped in the case of dedicated rapid-transit trains. The use of standard-gauge tracks on the Scarborough RT makes it impossible for there to be any track connection between it and the other lines, and so when RT vehicles need anything more than basic service (which is carried out in the RT's own McCowan Yard), they are carried by truck to the Greenwood subway yards.^[31]

The proposed Eglinton Crosstown LRT line will be constructed to standard gauge. As the project is receiving a large part of its funding from Metrolinx, the Ontario provincial transit authority, it wants to ensure a degree of commonality with any other proposed tram/LRT projects within Ontario to ensure a better price for purchasing vehicles.^[31]

Properties

Track map of TTC network containing loops, stops, subway and GO Transit stations

Dedicated station

Queens Quay is the one standalone underground station that exclusively serves streetcars. It is located in the tunnel, shared by the 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina routes, between Queens Quay West and Union subway station.

Loops

A Peter Witt car on tour service, decorated for Dominion Day, at McCaul Loop in 1975

Since all of Toronto's current streetcars are single-ended, turning loops are provided at the normal endpoints of each route and at likely intermediate turnback locations. A routing on-street around one or more city blocks may serve as a loop, but most loops on the system are wholly or partly off-street. Many of these are also interchange points with subway or bus services.

Carhouses

Streetcars inside Roncesvalles Carhouse

Toronto's streetcars are housed and maintained at various carhouses or "streetcar barns":

Inactive carhouses once part of the TTC's streetcar operations:

Source: The TTC's Active Carhouses

A new carhouse is to be constructed for housing and maintaining the new Bombardier Flexity Outlook vehicles; the existing facilities will not accommodate the differences in length and configuration of the different generations of vehicle. A preliminary report recommends a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Leslie Street and Lake Shore Boulevard.^[32]

Operator training

The TTC's LRV training simulator, located at the Hillcrest Complex.

A mockup of a CLRV used to train new streetcar operators is located at Hillcrest.^[34] The training simulator consists of an operator cab, front steps and part of the front of a streetcar.

In September 2014, Chris Bateman, writing in the Toronto Life magazine, described being allowed to try out the new simulator designed for the Flexity vehicles.^[34] It provides an accurate mockup of the driver's cab of the Flexity vehicle, with a wrap-around computer screen that provides a convincing simulcra of Toronto streets. Like an aircraft cockpit simulator, this Flexity simulator provides realistic tactile feedback to the driver-trainee. The trainer can alter the simulated weather, the track friction, and can introduce more simulated vehicles on the simulated roadway, and even have badly behaved pedestrians and vehicles unpredictably block the Flexity's path.

Bateman wrote that the analogue simulator for the CLRVs was being retired.^[34]

Operators also train with a real streetcar. Front and rear rollsigns on the vehicle identify it as a training car.

Blacksmith

Given that the TTC's streetcar rolling stock has been ageing, many parts used by the rolling stock are no longer available. The system has a blacksmith who crafts parts and tools used to maintain the fleet.^[35] With the introduction of the new Flexity LRVs, this job may become obsolete.

See also

References

Inline citations

Other references

• Jeff Gray (June 23, 2005). "TTC to shop for new streetcars". The Globe and Mail. 
• "Future Streetcar Fleet Requirements and Plans". Toronto Transit Commission. June 22, 2005. 
• Livett, Christopher. "Toronto's Streetcar System (schematic track map)". Transit Toronto. 
• Tess Kalinowski (April 28, 2009). "A streetcar named Inspire?". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2014-10-04.  – includes a timeline of the history of the Toronto streetcar system
• "Opportunities for New Streetcar Routes" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. January 21, 1997. 
• "North America - Canada - Ontario - Toronto Streetcar (Tram)". UrbanRail.Net. 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-26. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trams in Toronto.

• Toronto Transit Commission
• TTC Transit City - LRT expansion proposals
• TTC's web site for its new vehicle procurement program
• Siemens's proposal for Toronto's new streetcar fleet
• Transit Toronto Streetcar Pages
• The Toronto LRT Information Page
• TTC Schedules by Route Name
• Geographically accurate map on Google Maps

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