Toronto streetcar among 'journeys of a lifetime'

[wyliepoon]

Back to trams...

Congrats to the 501 for making the list. Perhaps this should be a wake-up call to the TTC to make the 501 more passenger-friendly and also tourist-friendly. Perhaps it should create special signage for Queen street streetcar stops, or make up a tourist's ride-guide for the 501 listing businesses and attractions along the route, or even offer an mp3 audio tour that tourists can download and play while riding the 501.

Another congrats to the rickety double-decker trams in my "hometown". However it seems like some nice tram routes are not on the list (at least the list in the article). Where's Melbourne, Blackpool, or a number of cities in Japan on this list?

 

[spaced]

Ahh, finally a place to try out some brainstorming on making the 501 more reliable: how about streetcar only lanes for rush hour from say Spadina to Jarvis? I personally don’t think pedestrianizing this area could be productive since the spill over traffic would likely cause similar problems on other routs. I also think ROW on Queen (or even on King) is the wrong thinking (as I believe most single-use thinking is). How about this: paint diagonal lines on the center lanes, throw up some signs, clear off the parking a little sooner and Wham-mo! An inexpensive solution to making the 501 work better through this corridor.
(You can even allow taxi too, just no left turns.)
(A quick disclaimer on pedestrian zones before someone jumps on me: I LOVE pedestrian zones but don’t think they would work on Toronto’s main streets. Though I do think they would work amazingly on the side streets such as Kensington, Markham St., and around Ryerson; it’s a shame this hasn’t happened yet.)
Viva 501!

 

[adma]

I really don't think many tourists really come to Toronto and say "OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO GO SEE THE PATH"... it's more of a tidbit fact that make people think "oh, cool".. and maybe use it in their treks to more deserving landmarks. The PATH is really worth seeing only during office hours to realize how many people use it and why it's important to the city. On a weekend, I prefer sticking to the sidewalks.

Well, it might also be worth *using* (as opposed to seeing) in overly hot/cold/inclement weather. And it isn't like the Financial District sidewalks are any less dead on weekends...

 

[nfitz]

What is the average quality of stores in the Montreal underground like?

Much better than Toronto. In Toronto, most of the high-end stuff is in the Eaton's Centre, and after that, it's just stuff to service the daytime crowd. Yet in Montreal, there is a lot more retail across the entire area. When I first wandered around PATH on a weekend shopping, I was quite surprised to find most of the stores closed, and the hallways empty - which isn't true in Montreal. But in Montreal there's nothing as epic as the Toronto Eaton's Centre.

 

[DENTROBATE54]

Much better than Toronto. In Toronto, most of the high-end stuff is in the Eaton's Centre, and after that, it's just stuff to service the daytime crowd. Yet in Montreal, there is a lot more retail across the entire area. When I first wandered around PATH on a weekend shopping, I was quite surprised to find most of the stores closed, and the hallways empty - which isn't true in Montreal. But in Montreal there's nothing as epic as the Toronto Eaton's Centre.

Who cares which one's better, they're both all-Canadian ! I went to Monteral once and found their downtown is far more reliant on the subway than Toronto is. I had to go far out (Sherbrooke, Mount Royal) before I saw alot of bus activity. I guess more people use the Underground in Montreal because the pathways are more linear. Everytime I enter the PATH network from Queen St en route to Union I always have to resurface cause it's too confusing to navigate through.

 

[nfitz]

Who cares which one's better, they're both all-Canadian

It was the quality of the stores - away from the Eaton's Centre that I said was better. Not the system itself.

Everytime I enter the PATH network from Queen St en route to Union I always have to resurface cause it's too confusing to navigate through.

Yes, that does seem to be a problem - in Toronto it often seems easier just to stick to the streets. For some reason the walkways in Montreal seem to flow better - the sole exception I can think of used to be when walking from Central Station to Bonaventure Metro, it used to make more sense to cross La Gauchetierre to Place Bonaventure - but since they added that connection directly from Le Passage to Bonaventure Metro, then even that is gone.

I don't think any better planning went into the Montreal system. The one thing that comes to mind, is that many of the Metro stations are much larger complexes than a Toronto subway station. McGill station for example is the heart of their system. And the station itself is one huge hole with a walkway around the perimeter that connects into - oh at least a half-dozen different buildings.

I was quite suprised recently, as I was in City Hall during business hours - a rarity, so I decided to check out the PATH back to Queen station. Which essentially consisted of trying to follow a trail of breadcrumbs through underground parking lots to the Sheraton Centre. Quite odd - I can't imagine anyone using this unless the weather is awful.

 

[Andrew3D]

What is the average quality of stores in the Montreal underground like?

Excluding the Eaton Centre and the Bay, The PATH has mostly low end retail and food courts, with a few mid level stores in FCP. Oh and Scotia has Winners, yay!

I often wonder if tourists are fooled by guidebooks saying the PATH is a big shopping destination and then wander around the TD Centre trying to figure out where all the stores are.

I agree with what you're saying. I'd never go down there to shop, it really is only a 9-5 mall for the most part. TD however has a decent selection of big name places. I'm kind of surprised Rogers hasn't opened a few video stores down there for the bay street crowd.

 

[Andrew3D]

Oops, just realized this was the streetcar thread I opened so to stay on topic I'd just like to ad I love the Queen Street car.

Queen Street and Bay 1923 Toronto Heritage Site, it's interesting what was there before Nathan Phillips Square.

 

[DENTROBATE54]

Has anyone seen the recent "My Toronto Is..." ad by CTV News featuring the 506 streetcar? The driver claims it's the most diverse route in the city. Largely I think he's right: Roncesvalles Village (Polish/Ukrainian), Rua Acores (Portugese), Little Italy, Chinatown, U of T (multicultural), the Gay Village, Regent Park (new immigrants), Chinatown East, Little India. I can't think of any other route that captures so many cultures.

 

[Edward Skira]

Oops, just realized this was the streetcar thread I opened so to stay on topic I'd just like to ad I love the Queen Street car.

Queen Street and Bay 1923 Toronto Heritage Site, it's interesting what was there before Nathan Phillips Square.

Interesting shot. Noticed there's no traffic lights. Scramble intersection long before the word was coined. I guess the guy in the bottom right is controlling things.

 

[adma]

I'm still prone to treating it as a de facto scramble intersection, particularly in a NE/SW direction and maybe when the lights are changing favourably...

 

[grey]

I wouldn't think they plan for it in advance, but if you look at guide books and travel news stories about Toronto, it is often mentioned on par with other attractions. There was even a wire news story picked up in a lot of US papers few months ago that was specifically about shopping in the PATH.

About the same quality of stores, if you exclude pathways that run through shopping districts. I found that the RESO system was less of an underground mall and more of a pathway from A to B. Also, I think PATH sees far more usage thanks to being connected to union station and most of the financial district.

Toronto's PATH is far larger than Montreal's RESO because PATH one continuous pathway, while RESO is a bunch of smaller connections between buildings connected to various metro stations. If you consider subway tunnels part of their network, I guess you could say it's larger. Some of the RESO tunnels I visited were newer and much nicer than anything in Toronto, but that's just an age thing. By tunnels, I mean the sub-street connections between buildings. A lot of ours are poorly ventilated, boring square tunnels with a few lame backlit advertisements on the wall. I'm sure the new Bay Adelaide, Wellington, and south of union PATH connections will look nice.

Here's a map of RESO (green, orange, and yellow lines are the subways):

 

[EnviroTO]

Has anyone seen the recent "My Toronto Is..." ad by CTV News featuring the 506 streetcar? The driver claims it's the most diverse route in the city. Largely I think he's right: Roncesvalles Village (Polish/Ukrainian), Rua Acores (Portugese), Little Italy, Chinatown, U of T (multicultural), the Gay Village, Regent Park (new immigrants), Chinatown East, Little India. I can't think of any other route that captures so many cultures.

Thats interesting... when my girlfriend asked me what "my Toronto" is (in response to the CTV ads asking) I also said the 506 streetcar with Bloor street being the second choice... especially during World Cup.