The 'Toronto streetcar system' comprises eleven streetcar (
tram) routes in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada operated by the
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the municipal
public transit operator. Totalling 305.8
kilometres in length, the network is generally concentrated
downtown and in proximity to the city's
waterfront. Some of the TTC's streetcar routes date back to the
19th century. Unlike newer light rail transit (LRT) systems, therefore, 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 rather than having fixed stations. However, some routes operate (totally or partially) within their own
rights-of-way.
Before the TTC came into operation in 1921, there were seven distinct transit systems in the city. There were no transfers allowed between them, and so the free transfer has always been a sensitive issue for the TTC. The goal of ease in changing routes has affected the design of the system.
There are underground connections between streetcars and the
subway at
Union,
Spadina, and
St. Clair West stations, and streetcars pass by the entrances of
St. Andrew,
King,
Osgoode,
Queen,
St. Patrick,
Dundas,
Queen's Park, and
College - other downtown stations. Streetcars also enter
St. Clair,
Bathurst,
Broadview,
Dundas West, and
Main Street stations at street level.
Despite the use of techniques long-removed in other
North American cities with LRT systems, 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-travelled surface routes are streetcar routes.
History
Streetcars at Bay and Queen in 1923
From 1921 as the 'Toronto Transportation Commission', the TTC was solely a streetcar operator, with the bulk of the routes acquired from the private
Toronto Railway Company 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 they were essentially TTC routes.
After
World War II, the TTC began plans to eliminate all streetcar routes, in part because subway development was thought to eliminate the need for them. At the time of major curtailments in 1966 coinciding with the opening of the
Bloor-Danforth subway, the TTC foresaw the end of streetcars by 1980. This policy was dropped in 1972 in the face of widespread community opposition by citizens' groups who succeeded in persuading the TTC of the advantages of streetcars over buses on heavily-travelled main routes.
The TTC then maintained most of their existing network, purchased new custom-designed
CLRV streetcars, and then returned to building new streetcar routes in the 1990s, building first a short line along the edge of
Lake Ontario (originally numbered 604, it is now operated as the
509 Harbourfront route) and then replacing the
Spadina Avenue 77 bus route with the
510 Spadina streetcar, running in reserved lanes at the centre of the street. They now plan to similarly rebuild much of the
512 St. Clair line with a similarly separated right-of-way to increase service reliability.
The previous policy of eliminating streetcars and using buses for extensions built as the city developed northward account for the concentration of streetcar lines within 5 kilometres of the waterfront. The busiest north-south and east-west routes were replaced respectively by the
Yonge-University-Spadina 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 due to complaints from drivers that streetcars slowed their cars down, and due to the fact that the track was aging and needed to be replaced.
The
Scarborough RT line was originally proposed to operate with streetcars on a private right-of-way, but the plans were changed when the Ontario government convinced the TTC and the borough of
Scarborough to use its then-new
Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS)
metro 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.
On
March 16,
2007,
David Miller (the
Mayor of Toronto) and the TTC announced
Transit City, a major proposal for a 120 kilometres,
C$6.1 billion network of new LRT lines that would provide rapid transit to underserved suburban areas of the city.
Vehicles
Note: Hundreds of cars were acquired from the TTCs predecessor companies, the
Toronto Railway Company, and
Toronto Civic Railways, among others.
PCC streetcars
The TTC were among the first to buy the then state-of-the-art
PCC streetcar when it was designed by a committee of public transport operators in the 1930s. These cars were bought to replace the
Peter Witt cars and also older vehicles inherited from the
Toronto Railway Company. The TTC's first purchase was in the late 1930s, and by the end of the 1970s they had operated a larger fleet of PCCs than any other agency in the world. The early cars were retired and sent to
Egypt, and some newer cars were acquired from U.S. operators abandoning streetcar service, including
Kansas City,
Birmingham, and
Cleveland. By the 1970s, the TTC sought to abandon the service as well, but supporters persuaded them to reconsider, and so a new streetcar model was needed to replace some of the aging PCCs.
Two of the TTC's PCC streetcars, which operated in regular service until the mid-1990s, are retained for special events such as parades, private charters
[1] and special revenue runs, such as holidays in the summer
[2].
The CLRVs and ALRVs
Toronto streetcars stored in Russell Depot.
When the TTC reversed their decision to eliminate streetcars in the 1970s, they were faced with the problem of how to replace their ageing fleet of
PCC streetcars given that most cities in North America were switching entirely to buses, and so there were no new mass-market streetcar designs already being built that Toronto could purchase as it had before. While
Edmonton and
Calgary chose to adapt
German stadtbahn (i.e. ''city rail'' or
light rail) trains for the new systems they were installing around the same time, the TTC instead had a new streetcar designed in the traditional style, and so the two models of streetcars the TTC uses for revenue service today remain unique to the city. It was hoped that the new models could also be sold to the few other cities that continued streetcar service, such as
Boston and
Philadelphia, but this strategy proved unsuccessful as the German designs became widely used for
light rail in North America.
The 'CLRV' (
Canadian Light Rail Vehicle, ordered 1977 - version L1 and L2) and the one-and-a-half-length 'ALRV' (
Articulated Light Rail Vehicle, ordered 1987 - version L3) were designed by the Ontario
Crown corporation Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC). The first six cars were built by the Swiss Industrial Company (''
Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft'', or SIG) and the rest by
Hawker Siddeley Canada Limited in
Thunder Bay, with a propulsion system by Brush of England and
bogies by
MAN of Germany.
The CLRVs and ALRVs retain many features of traditional streetcar design: they collect their electric power by
trolley pole rather than
pantograph, and are unidirectional, with a driving position at only one end and doors on only one side, requiring track loops in order to turn around. Even the ALRVs, which have two body sections connected by an articulation, are not very long compared to some other modern trams, which may have as many as four articulations.
According to the TTC
[3], one CLRV replaces 60 cars in the morning rush period or 72 passengers, whereas one ALRV can carry the equivalent of 90 cars or 108 passengers.
Both models of streetcar have high floors, accessed by stairs at each door. TTC staff have explored a number of possible means to make them
wheelchair-accessible, including constructing level boarding platforms, lowering the track level, installing wheelchair lifts, and attach wheelchair-accessible trailers, but have concluded that none of these options is practical.
Unlike the TTC's earlier
PCC and
Peter Witt streetcars, the current models are never run in two-unit trains, or with trailers; the replacement of the two highest-volume routes with subway lines has decreased the number of passengers streetcars must cope with, and a single ALRV is long enough to provide sufficient capacity on today's busiest routes.
The future
The TTC are considering Portland's Czech-built streetcars as possible replacements for Toronto's current fleet.
As the original CLRVs will reach the end of their thirty-year service life in 2007, the TTC must soon either rebuild or replace them. Until recently, their official plan was to rebuild the CLRVs to extend their useful life by about ten to fifteen years and add new features such as
air conditioning, and not purchase any new streetcars until the ALRVs reached the end of their lives. On
July 26,
2006 the first streetcar (# 4041) with A/C entered revenue service. With new funding from senior governments, however, they now intend to refurbish only one hundred CLRVs to meet Toronto's immediate requirements, and buy new
low-floor, higher-capacity trams to replace the current fleet and run planned routes along the waterfront and in the inner suburbs. The remaining 96 streetcars will be rebuilt only if the introduction of new models is delayed and work to be done at
Bombardier Transportation's facilities in
Thunder Bay, Ontario.
It has been said that no 'off-the-shelf' design will work for Toronto; in addition to the city's unique track gauge (see below), the streetcar network contains much tighter curves and steeper slopes than most new tramways, so the TTC believe that they will have to find a model that meets seventy to seventy-five percent of their needs, and then customize its design significantly. Fortunately streetcar manufacturers claim to have designed their cars so as to allow easy manufacture of vehicles that handle the often differing requirements of their customers. Gauge variations and width variations are not uncommon in the industry.
Although the
Bombardier Flexity Swift trams used by the
Hiawatha Line in
Minneapolis and the
Siemens S70 Avanto vehicles of
Houston's
METRORail were among the first examined by councillors, the TTC have recently reported that so far the most
suitable vehicles they have seen are those of
Portland's recent streetcar network. These
Astra streetcars, manufactured by
Škoda in the
Czech Republic, are narrower and shorter than most modern trams, and operate in a mixed-traffic environment similar to much of Toronto's network.
TTC commissioners hope that the first new streetcars could be in service as soon as 2010, but a TTC report suggests that it is unlikely they could be introduced before 2011 or 2012 because of the amount of design work necessary to produce a vehicle that meets Toronto's requirements.
The report also notes that current projections for population increases and new lines indicate that by 2026, the TTC will need to extend its fleet to between 350 and 480 streetcars, suggesting that the replacements for the CLRVs and ALRVs will be merely the first of a large fleet. They can also take a survey about the new LRVs at
www.mynewstreetcar.ca. In late June the TTC displayed samples about the new LRVs taking place at the following TTC Subway Stations:
★
Finch Subway Station
★
Scarborough Centre RT Station
★
The Albion Centre
★
Yonge-Dundas Square
Both Astra and Flexity cars were on display at the
Canadian National Exhibition in
2007 in front of the
Direct Energy Centre.
List of past Toronto streetcars
'Traffic Cars'
'Product list and details'| ' Make/Model ' | ' Description ' | ' # of vehicles ' | ' Year acquired ' | ' Year retired ' | ' Notes ' |
| Canadian Car and Foundry/Brill Peter Witt streetcar - Large with trailers | streetcars | 392 | 1921-1923 | 1963 | retired |
| Canadian Car and Foundry/Ottawa Car Company Peter Witts - Small Witts | streetcars | 196 | 1921-1923 | 1965 | retired; 1 refurbished for tours |
| St. Louis Car Company and Canadian Car and Foundry PCC streetcars | streetcars | total of 745 with 205 second-hand and 540 brand-new; some PCCs became work cars for the streetcar service and some to the subway | 1938 | 1996 | retired; 2 refurbished for tours |
'Work Cars'
'Product list and details'| ' Make/Model ' | ' Description ' | ' Fleet size; ' | ' Year acquired ' | ' Year retired ' | ' Notes ' |
| Birney Car - ex-Toronto Railway Company (retired) | rail grinder | 1 | 1931 | 1976 | retired |
| St. Louis Car Company W30-W31 | rail grinder | 2 | 1976 | 1999 | ex-PCC streetcar - retired |
| St. Louis Car Company W28 | rail grinder | 1 | 1931 | 1976 | ex-TRC Preston car - retired |
| Toronto Railway Company C1 | crane | 1 | 1921 | ? | sold to Halton Radial Railway |
| W5 | snow plow | 1 | ? | ? | ? |
| W16 | dump car | 1 | 1920s | ? | |
| W26 | sand car | 1 | 1950 | 1967 | |
| S-30 | snow sweeper | 1 | 1947 | 1970 | New York City's Third Avenue Railway System |
| Russell Car Company / S-31 | snow sweeper | 1 | 1947 | 1973 | Built in 1920 as Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway P-601; to Third Avenue Railway System as 86 in 1935; to TTC as S-31 in 1947; preserved at Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, Maine |
| S-33 | snow sweeper | 1 | 1947 | 1960s | New York City's Third Avenue Railway System |
| Russell Car Company / S-36 | snow sweeper | 1 | 1947 | 1973 | Built in 1920 as Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway P-607; to Third Avenue Railway System as 89 in 1935; to TTC as S-36 in 1947; preserved at Shore Line Trolley Museum, East Haven, Connecticut |
| Russell Car Company / S-37 | snow sweeper | 1 | 1948 | 1973 | Built in 1920 for the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway; to Third Avenue Railway System 1935; to TTC as S-37 in 1947; preserved at Halton County Railway Museum |
| Russell Car Company / S-39 | snow sweeper | 1 | 1948 | 1973 | Built in 1920 as Trenton & Mercer County 31; to Third Avenue Railway System as 82 in 1935; to TTC as S-39 in 1948; to Public Service of New Jersey as 5246 in 1973; now at Transport of New Jersey in Newark as 5246, semiactive in stub tracks at Newark terminal |
Track gauge
The tracks of Toronto's streetcars and subways (apart from the
Scarborough RT) are built to the unique
track gauge of 1,495
millimetres (4
ft 10 7/8
in), 60 millimetres (2 3/8 in) wider than the usual
standard gauge of 1,435 millimetres (4 ft 8 1/2 in). There are arguments over the reason for this. One popular (some say false) belief, sometimes quoted by the TTC themselves, is that the City of Toronto feared that the street railway franchise operator, first in 1861 the
Toronto Street Railways, 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 U.S. cities, such as New York, New York (New York Central), and in Syracuse, NY (Erie Railroad).
Standard gauge rails in the streets would have allowed this, but of course 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 still freight operations to downtown were not allowed until the final few years of radial operation by the TTC.
Some suggest 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. The
Williams Omnibus Bus Line did change the gauge of their buses in 1861 so as to do this.
The unique gauge has remained to this day, since converting all tracks and vehicles would be expensive and would lack any real benefit. Some proposals for the city's subway system involved using streetcars in the tunnels, and possibly having some routes run partially in tunnels and partially on city streets, so the same gauge was used, though the idea was ultimately dropped in favour 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.
Routes
The current TTC
streetcar network, in relation to the
subway; all eleven regular routes appear red.
The TTC operates 305.8 kilometres or 190 miles of streetcar tracks throughout
Toronto.
Route numbers
The TTC has used route numbers in the 500 series for streetcar routes since the late
1970s; prior to then, streetcar routes were not numbered, but the destination signs on the new CLRVs were not large enough to display both the route name and destination. The only exceptions today to this numbering scheme are the '301 Queen' and '306 Carlton'
Blue Night Network routes, which correspond to the regular 501 and 506 routes; there were similarly a '312 St. Clair' and a '304 King' streetcar, but the St. Clair Blue Night service is now a bus route, while the King service was removed and partially replaced with extensions of other night bus 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
subway/RT routes (although these have no numbers in public use) instead of the other streetcars. In
1996 the TTC stopped trying to market the route as 'rapid transit' and changed the number to 510; the tracks were later extended in two directions to form the
509 Harbourfront and
510 Spadina routes.
[4]
During times when streetcar service on all or a portion of a route has been replaced temporarily by buses (e.g., for track reconstruction), the replacement bus service is typically identified by the same route number as the corresponding streetcar line. Shorter-term replacement or supplementary shuttle bus service (e.g., due to a track blockage or short-term street closure) is usually marked simply as 'SPECIAL' on the bus destination sign.
Private rights-of-way
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 private
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 private 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 and former
Long Branch cars have operated on such a right-of-way along
the Queensway between Humber and Sunnyside loops since 1957. More recently, private rights-of-way have been opened downtown along
Queen's Quay,
Spadina Avenue and
St. Clair Avenue West.
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 0.7 km long, includes one intermediate
underground station at Bay Street and Queens Quay.
The TTC is reinstating a separated right-of-way — removed between 1928 and 1935
[1] — on
St. Clair Avenue, from
Yonge Street to just past
Keele Street, to be completed by 2008. 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 streetcar began using it on February 18, 2007. The portion finished was from
St. Clair Station (Yonge St.) to
Vaughan Road. The second phase will start construction in the summer of 2007 from Vaughan Road to Caledonia. The third and final phase from Caledonia to Gunns Loop (just west of Keele St.) will be completed by the end of 2008.
Current streetcar routes
There are currently 11 streetcar routes in
Toronto:
The 512 St. Clair line is currently under reconstruction, building a reserved right-of-way similar to the 510 Spadina. The 508 Lake Shore is a rush-hour only service.
Future expansion
Various plans for future routes include:
★ Continuing a route along
Kingston Road into Scarborough, then returning along
Eglinton Avenue and stopping at
Kennedy subway station
★ A route eastward along Queen's Quay, into new developments on the port lands
★ More coverage and line connections in southern Etobicoke
★ Extending
512 St. Clair to
Jane subway station
★ Extending the Dundas streetcar from
Dundas West (TTC) north to Runnymede Loop at Dundas and Runnymede to connect to a westward extended
512 St. Clair
★ Converting the 25 Don Mills bus to streetcar operation
★ Creating an LRT from
Union (TTC) along Queens Quay East and Cherry Street to Parliament and possibly extending it to
Castle Frank (TTC)
★ Several
ROW routes in Scarborough along Sheppard, Finch, Lawrence East, Eglinton, Danforth, McCowan, and Kingston Road.
The City of Toronto and the TTC’s
Transit City report
[5] released on March 16, 2007, proposes creating new Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines and Rights-of-Way (ROW) including:
★ Don Mills LRT (along
Don Mills Road from
Steeles Avenue to Overlea Boulevard, and continuing to Pape Station along a possible alignment of Overlea Boulevard from Don Mills Road to Millwood Road , continuing adjacent to the Leaside Bridge from Overlea Boulevard to Pape Avenue and along Pape Avenue from Millwood Road to Danforth Avenue)
★ Eglinton Crosstown LRT (along Eglinon Avenue from near Renforth Drive to Kennedy Station, with underground operation from Keele Street to approximately Laird Drive)
★ Etobicoke-Finch West LRT (along
Finch Avenue West from Yonge Street to Highway 27)
★ Jane LRT (along
Jane Street from Bloor Street to Steeles Avenue and continuing along Steeles Avenue from Jane Street to
Steeles West on the Spadina extension. This line also includes a stub extension of the St. Clair ROW from Gunns Loop to Jane Street)
★ Scarborough Malvern LRT (along Eglinton Avenue from Kennedy Station to Kingston Road, continuing along Kingston Road from Eglinton Avenue to
Morningside Avenue and along Morningside Avenue from Kingston Road to Finch Avenue)
★ Sheppard East LRT (along Sheppard Avenue from Don Mills station to Morningside Avenue, with a connection to an extended Scarborough RT near
Markham Road)
★ Waterfront West LRT (along Lakeshore 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 will continue to Union station in either its own as yet to be determined alignment, or in the Harborfront West LRT alignment)
The Ontario government has in its
MoveOntario 2020 plan, proposed funding approximately 2/3 of the $5.5 billion of the seven Transit City lines, with the expectation that the federal government would fund the remaining 1/3.
Abandoned streetcar routes
★ 507 Long Branch (1928-1995 - merged with 501 Queen in 1996)
★ 512L Earlscourt (1954-1976)
★ 521 King Exhibition (1980-1986)
★ 522 Dundas Exhibition (1980-1986)
★ 604 Harbourfront LRT (1990-2000 - forms part of the present 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina routes)
★ Belt Line (1891-1923 - original and Tour Tram along Spadina and Sherbourne )
★ Bloor, including Danforth Tripper (1890-1966) (''replaced by the Bloor-Danforth subway line'')
★ Coxwell (1921-1966)
|
★ Dupont/Bay (single line 1926-1965)
★ Fort (1931-1966 merged with 511 Bathurst)
★ Harbord (1911-1956)
★ Oakwood (1922-1960)
★ Parliament (1910-1966); one small section forms part of the present 506 Carlton
★ Winchester(1910-1924)
★ Mount Pleasant (1954-1976)
★ Rogers Road (1922-1974)
★ Yonge (1873-1954) (''replaced by the Yonge subway line'')
|
Toronto Street Railway routes
★ St Lawrence Hall-Yorkville (1873-1891)
★ Yonge (1873-1891)
★ Queen (1873-1891)
★ Front (1873-1891)
★ Sherbourne (1873-1891)
★ Carlton (1873-1891)
★ St Lawrence Market-Woodbine (1873-1891)
★ Dovercourt-McCaul (1873-1891)
★ North Toronto-Union Station (1873-1891)
★ King (1873-1891)
★ Bloor (1873-1891)
★ Spadina (1873-1891)
Toronto Railway Company routes
★ Queen-High Park (1891-1921)
★ Church (1891-1921)
★ Carlton-College (1891-1921)
★ Yonge (1891-1921)
★ Belt Line (1891-1921)
★ Bloor-McCaul (1891-1921)
★ Avenue Road (1891-1921)
★ Dundas (1891-1921)
★ College-Yonge (1891-1921)
★ Bathurst (1891-1921)
★ Wincester (1891-1921)
★ Parliament (1891-1921)
★ Broadview (1891-1921)
Toronto Civic Railway routes
★ Danforth Division (1913-1921)
★ Gerrard (1912-1921)
★ Bloor West Division (1915-1921)
★ St. Clair Division (1913-1921)
★ Lansdowne (1917-1921)
Please see abandoned streetcar routes
[2]
Properties
Loops
Since all of Toronto's current streetcars are unidirectional, they require off-street track
loops in order to change direction.
The following loops are or have been used by the TTC (some are no longer used or have been disposed of):
★ Avon Loop (Weston Road and Rogers Road) [3]
★ Bathurst Station Loop
★ Bedford (Bedford and Yonge)
★ Bicknell Loop (Rogers Road and Bicknell Avenue) - now belongs to the City of Toronto [4]
★ Bingham Loop (Kingston Road and Victoria Park)[5]
★ Birchmount Loop (Birchmount and Kingston) [6]
★ Broadview Station Loop
★ Caledonia Loop (St Clair and Station St)
★ Charlotte (King and Spadina) [7]
★ Christie Loop (Dupont and Christie)
★ Danforth Loop (Danforth and Coxwell, now buses only part of Coxwell Station)
★ Dundas West Station Loop
★ Dufferin Loop
★ Earlscourt Loop (Lansdowne and St Clair)
★ Eglinton Loop: Eglinton and Mount Pleasant - later trolley bus loop, now used only by buses
★ Erindale Loop Broadview Station
★ Exhibition Loop
★ Ferry Loop (Bay Street and Lakeshore Blvd West)
★ Fleet Loop (Fleet Street and Lakeshore Blvd West) [8]
★ Gilbert Loop (Eglinton & Caledonia)
★ Gunn's Loop (Keele and St Clair) - formerly Maybank
★ High Park Loop (Parkside and Howard Park)
★ Hillside Wye -Hillside and Lakeshore [9]
★ Humber Loop [10]
★ Hillcrest Loop
★ Jane Loop
★ Keele Loop (Keele Street north of St Clair Avenue West)
★ Kipling Loop (Kipling Avenue north Lakeshore Boulevard West, west side)
★ Long Branch Loop [11]
★ Lawton Loop (Yonge and St Clair)
|
★ Lipton Loop (Lipton and Pape, now buses only part of Pape station)
★ Luttrell Loop (Danforth just west of Victoria Park)
★ Main Station Loop
★ McCaul Loop (McCaul and Queen)
★ Mutual Loop (Mutual and Queen) [12]
★ Moore Park Loop (Mount Pleasant and St Clair) - now parkette
★ Neville Park Loop (Queen just west of Victoria Park) [13]
★ New Toronto Loop - now Kipling Loop
★ Oakwood Loop (Oakwood and St Clair)
★ Parliament Loop (King)
★ Preston Loop
★ Queen-Coxwell Loop
★ Queen's Quay Loop
★ Roncesvalles Carhouse
★ Royce Loop (Lansdowne and Dupont)
★ Russell Carhouse Loop
★ Runnymede Loop (Dundas and Runnymede)
★ Spadina Loop
★ St Clair Carhouse Loop
★ St. Clair Station Loop
★ St. Clair West Station Loop
★ St Clarens Loop (St Clarens and Davenport)
★ Sunnyside Loop (Sunnyside and Roncesvalles)
★ Townsley Loop (St Clair and Old Weston) [14]
★ Terauley (Bay)
★ City Hall (Bay and Albert)
★ Union Station Loop
★ Viaduct Loop (Bloor and Parliament)
★ Vincent Loop (across from Dundas West Station)
★ Wolseley Loop (Queen and Bathurst)
★ Woodbine Loop (Kingston Road and Queen, across from former Woodbine Racetrack)
★ Wychwood Carhouse
|
Source:
Toronto Streetcar Track Map
Carhouses
Streetcars at the Roncesvalles depot
Toronto's streetcars are housed and maintained at various carhouses or "streetcar barns":
'Facility details'| ' Yard ' | ' Location ' | ' Year Open ' |
| Hillcrest Shops | Davenport Road and Bathurst Street | 1924 |
| Roncesvalles Carhouse | Queen Street and Roncesvalles Avenue | 1895 |
| Russell (Connaught) Carhouse | Connaught Avenue and Queen Street) | 1913 |
'Inactive carhouses once part of the TTC's streetcar operations:'
'Facility details'| ' Yard ' | ' Location ' | ' Year Open ' | ' Year Closed ' |
| Danforth Carhouse | Danforth and Coxwell Avenues | 1915 | 2002 |
| Eglinton Carhouse | Eglinton Avenue and Yonge Street | 1922 | 2002 | |
| Lansdowne Carhouse | Lansdowne Avenue and Paton Avenue | 1911 | 1996 | |
| St. Clair (Wychwood) Carhouse | Wychwood south of St. Clair Avenue West | 1913 | 1978 |
'Lost carhouse'
'Facility details'| ' Yard ' | ' Location ' | ' Year To Open ' | ' Notes ' |
| Runnymede Carhouse | Runnymede Road | 1926 | proposed carhouse / never developed and abandoned in 1960s |
Source:
The TTC's Active Carhouses
Facilities
The TTC vehicles are serviced and stored at various location throughout the city:
Facility details'| ' Shop Name ' | ' Year Open ' | ' Location ' |
| D.W. Harvey Shops | 1924 | Hillcrest Complex |
| W.E.P. Duncan Shops | 1985 | Hillcrest Complex |
| Greenwood Shops | 1966 | Greenwood Yard |
| Roncesvalles Yard | 1895 | At Intersection of Roncesvalles, Queen and The Queensway |
Statistics
★ The TTC still has a blacksmith employed to make specialized parts for the overhead wires used by the streetcars.
★ The lights, or bullseyes, over the route sign on today's CLRV and ALRV, are relics of the past streetcars in Toronto. Before lighted route signs, single green and red lights on the front and back of the cars allowed people waiting for streetcars at night to tell which direction a car in the distance was travelling.
★ To reduce friction noise of wheels on tracks on curved sections of track, water is piped in to the tracks; if oil was used for lubrication, it would destroy the tires of cars that drive over the tracks.
★ Sand is used for the brakes for extra traction; a passenger might notice spilled sand on the streetcar floors near the front of the car.
★
Eglinton West station features an artwork called ''Summertime Streetcar'' by Gerald Zeldinwith, which consists of two enamel murals depicting
PCC streetcars facing each other, although these streetcars had never served this station.
References
1. Red Rocket Historic Charters
2. TTC Runs PCCs on August Civic Holiday
3. TTC Operating Statistics
4. Route 509 - The New Harbourfront Streetcar
5. Transit City
★
TTC to shop for new streetcars Jeff Gray
★
Future Streetcar Fleet Requirements and Plans
★
Toronto's Streetcar System (schematic track map)
★
Opportunities for New Streetcar Routes
See also
★
Toronto Transit Commission
★
Toronto buses and trolley buses
★
Toronto subway and RT
★
Queen's Quay-Ferry Docks (TTC)
★
Lower Queen
★
Scarborough RT (TTC)
★
Transit City
External links
★
Toronto Transit Commission
★
TTC Transit City - LRT expansion proposals
★
TTC's website for its new vehicle procurement programme
★
Siemens' proposal for Toronto's new streetcar fleet
★
Transit Toronto Streetcar Pages
★
TTC Schedules by Route Name
★
Pictures of old Toronto streetcars, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s.
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