TTC: Streetcar Network

[Rainforest]

The 312 ST. CLAIR-JUNCTION night bus runs from DUNDAS WEST STATION to ST. CLAIR STATION, replacing the 512 ST. CLAIR streetcar and 40 JUNCTION bus in the early morning hours. I think it naturally follows the route where a streetcar should run in the regular hours.

The only problem is that it will lose the full R.O.W. advantage that 512 currently enjoys. For the night route, congestion is not a concern. But during daytime, delays in the mixed-traffic section would affect the reliability of the R.O.W. service.

 

[W. K. Lis]

There's this article called
Front Street is about to get an incredible makeover
at this link.

To walk along the western end of Front St. today is to witness an urban wasteland. On one side you have the rubble that remains from the Globe & Mail building and Spin Master warehouse, and on the other you have the sprawling railway tracks leading towards Union Station.

There's a few newer condos as you approach Bathurst St. where the Minto Westside development is also going up, but these pockets are only a hint of what's to come for the street.

Over the next decade, this entire area — stretching west to Spadina and north to Wellington — will be rebuilt with new retail, office space, dense residential, and a surprising number of parks.

Even if some of the development proposals stall, the Front St. corridor is sure to look unrecognizable in just a few years on the basis of the projects that have already been approved.

This photo, from transit.toronto.on.ca, shows a TTC A6-class all-electric PCC operating eastbound on a private right-of-way on the south side of Front Street, approaching Spadina Avenue in FORT-EXHIBITION service on August 30, 1952. (They got rid of the right-of-way to get more traffic lanes for the car. Pitiful!) Find the Front Street tracks at this link, after zooming in.

How about bringing streetcars back on Front Street? From Bathurst Street in the west to Cherry Street in the east.

 

[lead82]

Front street needs to be extended to Dufferin to connect with Liberty Village. The congestion on King is mainly due to lack of E/W streets that connect LV to downtown.

 

[Steve X]

Front St at Union station was designed to be a aesthetic street that tourist can enjoy when they hop off the train. Instead, we get to see a mess of taxis flooding the whole area in rush hour. I don't know what any extension would help with that much traffic. The 121 bus can't even move and is way worst than the previous 172 bus. No streetcars would help. Nothing moves on front. It kinda reminds me of Broadway in NYC but that's a wider road.

 

[nfitz]

Hmm. Which rush hour? I haven't really noticed much of a problem - even when I've ridden the 121 westbound in PM rush, from Sherbourne to Strachan.

 

[dowlingm]

Front street needs to be extended to Dufferin to connect with Liberty Village. The congestion on King is mainly due to lack of E/W streets that connect LV to downtown.

Good luck with that. I agree that the creation of a parkette on the west side of Bathurst is potentially short sighted but given the intention to connect Stanley Park with Fort York and the changes to Strachan from the grade separation, getting as far as Walnut is as far as is likely to ever happen, and that only if the parkette is ditched as well as giving over some of the works yard.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The DUNDAS WEST STATION has nine lines associated with it. Line 2 is the subway line. The 504 KING and 505 DUNDAS are streetcar lines. The 40 JUNCTION and 168 SYMINGTON are bus lines. The 304 KING, 306 CARLTON, and 312 ST. CLAIR-JUNCTION are the night lines. The last is the 193 EXHIBITION ROCKET.

The 193 EXHIBITION ROCKET bus used to be the 522 DUNDAS-EXHIBITION streetcar. See link. If they should put streetcar tracks on Dufferin Street, between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West, we could see return of the 522 using Dundas Street and Dufferin Street to reach the west entrance of Exhibition Place from Dundas West Station.The new 522 streetcar could run "express" along Dufferin Street.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Front street needs to be extended to Dufferin to connect with Liberty Village. The congestion on King is mainly due to lack of E/W streets that connect LV to downtown.

What ever happened to the propsed Front Street extension?

 

[W. K. Lis]

What ever happened to the propsed Front Street extension?

Start at this link.

And this link on Liberty New Street.

Which means that a streetcar only extension from Front Street could happen by the 22nd century, once all the petroleum is used up.

 

[Amare]

What ever happened to the propsed Front Street extension?

It's officially dead. Condos are now being developed at the site at which the extension would have happened.

 

[lead82]

What's the latest on tue new street in Liberty village? Has the EA been approved?

 

[nfitz]

It's officially dead. Condos are now being developed at the site at which the extension would have happened.

I don't think so ... which property? Though there is something going on, on the Ordnance Triangle, but that doesn't preclude a connection, just makes it more expensive.

Keep in mind, that the "Front Street Extension" was more of an expressway on-ramp to the Gardiner, giving a future option of simply terminating the Gardiner at Bathurst, and moving the entire elevated section from Strachan or so, to north of the train tracks. Not a city street that stretched to Dufferin.

The piece from Strachan to Dufferin is to be built. There's nothing really stopping the city in the future building a (very expensive) elevated roadway connecting Bathurst/Front to "New Road aka Front" and Strachan, above the tracks.

Though if this 2014 plan is still current, there's still room to squeeze a road in.

 

[jje1000]

Start at this link.

And this link on Liberty New Street.

Haven't been following that project- so the gist of it means that with the Ordnance Triangle being redeveloped/new park being built at Bathurst, there's no way to connect Front Street to Liberty Village- but that a east-west local street north the tracks in Liberty Village is still in the works, right?

Not that having no Front St Streetcar is a bad thing- if you work in King West/the Downtown Core and live in Liberty Village, cycling is better anyways, and the new bridge will certainly help.

 

[W. K. Lis]

This website (see link) maps the horsecar era, from 1861 to 1891.

It continues (see link) with the age of electric, 1891 to 1921.

 

[44 North]

Just as a precursor to add onto that 1920 track diagram, here's a highly technical diagram showing PM peak passenger movement on the bulk of those lines. Not sure if I posted it before, nor know where I originally found it years ago. Lots of fun to look at though. Resized from 15megs to 1.6 with no apparent loss in quality.