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A study taken late in 2011, comparing traffic and ridership levels along the route, suggested that the final outcome of the St. Clair project should be hailed as a success, rather than the disaster its critics had claimed. The average daily ridership on the line had increased from 28,500 in 2005 (before construction started) to 32,400 in 2011. The average morning rush hour round trip was eight minutes shorter in 2011 than 2005. On Saturday mornings, the average round trip had been shortened by fourteen minutes. Thanks in part to the increase in ridership, the TTC had actually increased frequencies along the line by anywhere from 7% to 45%. On average, the St. Clair streetcar is scheduled to operate at frequencies of 2 minutes, 55 seconds. For most of the route, vehicular congestion had also decreased, by as much as 40% in certain areas at certain times of the day, and accidents were down.
That said, much did go wrong with the St. Clair project, only some of which can be explained by the unexpected injunction that halted construction at the start. The project was over budget and several months overdue, and business suffered along the route. Multiple city departments, including Toronto Hydro, the city roads department and the TTC itself were called upon to work together on this project, and didn’t. As a result, portions of St. Clair Avenue were ripped up multiple times as different work crews proceeded at their own pace on their own portions of the project. Then there were the embarrassing construction mistakes which occurred that furthered delays, including misplaced and misspelled shelter signs.[...]