toronto streetcar system

Overview

The TTC operates 11 streetcar routes which are altogether 305.8 km long. Because the TTC has maintained a large portion of its pre-World War II streetcar system, the streetcars operate in pre-war style, spending most of their time in mixed traffic, and stopping at frequent request stops like buses rather than having established stations. On the Queensway, Spadina Avenue and Queen's Quay, however, the streetcars have a separated right-of-way in the road median, and on Bay Street between Front Street and Queen's Quay streetcars operate underground. Despite objections from local merchants, the TTC plans to construct a separated right-of-way on St. Clair Avenue West, from Yonge Street to just past Keele Street, to be completed by 2007. There are underground connections to the subway at Union, Spadina, and St. Clair West stations. After a long period in which its policy was to eliminate all streetcar routes, in part because subway development was thought to eliminate the need for them, the TTC returned to building new streetcar routes in the 1990s with the Spadina route, which opened in 1997. In 2000 it extended the Harbourfront route, and further extensions of the Harbourfront and St. Clair routes are being considered. The previous policy of eliminating streetcars accounts for the concentration of streetcar lines within 5 km of the waterfront. As the city developed northward, transit service was provided by extension of bus routes rather than of streetcar routes. Later the subway was extended north with bus routes feeding it. The Oakwood route, which operated north of St. Clair, was eliminated in accordance with this policy and replaced by an extension of a trolley bus line (since converted to diesel). Two other lines which operated north of St. Clair were abandoned for other reasons: the Rogers Road route to free up streetcars for expanded service on other routes, and the Mount Pleasant route ostensibly because of traffic problems it created. Retention of streetcars was in large part due to resistance by citizens' groups who succeeded in persuading the TTC of the advantages of streetcars over buses (which carry fewer passengers, and because of their lack of permanence don't have as much of an effect on land use) on heavily-travelled main routes.

Roster

The two models of streetcars the TTC uses for revenue service are unique to the city. The CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) and the double-length ALRV (Articulated Light Rail Vehicle) were designed by the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC, an Ontario Crown corporation) and a Swiss private company and built in Thunder Bay. This was because most North American cities were phasing out its streetcar fleets, while Toronto (as well a few notable American cities, such as Boston and Philadelphia) stubbornly clung on. The CLRVs and ALRVs retain many features of traditional streetcar design; they collect their power by trolley pole rather than pantograph, and are unidirectional, with a cab at only one end and doors on only one side, and so require track loops in order to turn around. Plans to sell the CLRV to other cities which retained streetcar services proved unsuccessful. Until the mid-1990s, the TTC also operated PCC streetcars in regular service; it retains two such cars for private charters. The tracks of the streetcars and subways (though not the Scarborough RT) are of a unique gauge, slightly wider than the usual standard. There are arguments over the reason why this is. One popular belief is that the City of Toronto feared that the Toronto Railway Company, which held the franchise to run streetcars before the TTC was created, would allow Canadian Pacific Railway to operate steam locomotives through city streets. The more practical reason is that early tracks were used to pull wagons smoothly in the days before paved roads, and that they fit a different gauge. Due to the cost of converting all the tracks and vehicles (and the lack of any real benefit in doing so), the unique gauge has remained to this day. When the first subway lines were built, the idea of using streetcars in the tunnels was floated (but never realized), so the unique gauge was used. The use of standard-gauge tracks on the Scarborough RT makes it impossible for there to be any connection between it and the other lines, and when RT vehicles need anything more than basic service (which can be carried out in the RT's own McCowan Yard), they are carried by truck to the Greenwood subway yards. A proposed streetcar RT line from Kipling station was abandoned, but the ghost platform at the bus level is a hint of a streetcar line. Here is a list of street cars of past and present:

Birney Car - ex-TRC
Canadian Car and Foundry/Brill Peter Witts - Large with trailers
Canadian Car and Foundry/Ottawa Car Company Peter Witts - Small Witts
St. Louis Car Company and CCF President Conference Committee Car A1
St. Louis Car Company PCC A2-8
St. Louis Car Company PCC A9-10 - ex-Cincinnati
St. Louis Car Company PCC A11 - ex-Cleveland
St. Louis Car Company PCC A12 - ex-Louisville
St. Louis Car Company PCC A13 - ex-Brimingham
St. Louis Car Company PCC A14 - ex-Kansas City
St. Louis Car Company PCC A15 - A8 rebuilds
SIG/Urban Transportation Development Corp. Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) L1 and L2
Urban Transportation Development Corp. Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV) L3
W30-W31 Rail Grinder - ex-PCC streetcar (retired)
W28 Rail Grinder - ex-TRC Preton car (retired)

Routes

The following are streetcar routes still in operation:

501 - Queen
502 - Downtowner
503 - Kingston Road Tripper
504 - King
505 - Dundas
506 - Carlton
508 - Lake Shore
509 - Harbourfront
510 - Spadina
511 - Bathurst/Exhibition
512 - St Clair

Here is a list of abandoned streetcar routes:

507 - Long Branch
512L - Earlscourt
521 - King Exhibition
522 - Dundas Exhibition
604 - Harbourfront
Belt Line (original and Tour Tram)
Bloor (including Danforth Tripper)
Coxwell
Dupont (including Bay)
Fort (see 511 Bathurst)
Harbord
Oakwood
Parliament
Mount Pleasant
Rogers Road

Loops

A list of loops used by the TTC (some are no longer used or have been disposed of):

Avon Loop (Weston Road and Rogers Road)
Bathurst Station Loop
Bicknell Loop (Rogers Road and Bicknell Avenue) - now belongs to the City of Toronto
Bingham Loop
Broadview Station Loop
Dundas St West Station Loop
Dufferin Loop
Earlscourt Loop
Exhibition Loop
Fleet Loop
Gunn's Loop
High Park Loop
Humber Loop
Hillcrest Loop
Kipling Loop
Long Branch Loop
Main Station Loop
McCaul Loop
Neville Park Loop
Oakwood Loop
Queen-Coxwell Loop
Roncesvalle Carhouse
Russell Carhouse Loop
Spadina Loop
St Clair Carhouse Loop
St Clair Station Loop
St Clair West Station Loop
Sunnyside Loop
Townsley Loop
Wolseley Loop
Woodbine Loop