501 Queen Streetcar

September 2009

Starting next month, the 501 Queen streetcar service will be split downtown on a trial basis. From Monday to Friday, the 501 Queen West service will run from Long Branch Loop/Humber Loop to Parliament Street. The 501 Queen East service will run from Neville Park Loop to Shaw Street. The routes overlap each other for a two-kilometre stretch along Queen Street, between Shaw and Parliament. The weekday pilot, which end Nov. 21, will help examine the effects of a route split on gapping, bunching and short turning, as well as study the impact on customers forced to transfer to continue their trip beyond the split.

The 501 Queen streetcar route provides a unique perspective of Toronto’s landscape as it travels past The Beach, popular shops, restaurants, historical buildings, High Park and Lake Ontario Lake on a 49-km trek through the heart of the city. But the three-hour, round-trip journey, named one of the worlds Top 10 Trolley Rides by National Geographic, may have reached the end of the line.

The 501 route, which operates in a mixed-traffic environment, is being re-evaluated as the TTC implements measures to improve the quality of service for customers. The TTC’s longest streetcar route has become more difficult to manage with increasing traffic on the roadways.

Steady increases in pedestrian and vehicular traffic on Toronto’s roadways have led to a growing number of delays along the 501 route. As a single line, a delay anywhere on the route can cause bunching, gapping and the inevitable short-turning of streetcars.

In the summer of 2007, the TTC received a petition calling for improved service on the 501 route. By the beginning of 2008, the TTC had started testing a variety of strategies to evaluate spacing, headways, short turns and travel time.

Improvements were made to route management and overall communication strategies. Supervisors were placed at various points along the route to dispatch streetcars on headways and to space service mid route. Route Supervisors were equipped with Mike Phones to provide rapid response communication between CIS, Queen East, Queen Central, Queen West and end of line dispatch positions.

In an effort to further decrease headway, the Step Forward/End of Line Dispatch strategy was implemented last September. The strategy works by disconnecting the Operator’s schedule from the vehicle, thereby increasing service and reducing run time. At some locations, the trial reduced gaps, bunching and short turns by up to 75 per cent. That was followed by a simplified schedule of crewing and breaks, and additional running time.

After months of testing modified versions of the Step Forward strategy, Operations staff concluded that the Step Forward/End of Line Dispatch with a simplified schedule and additional running time produced the best measures for service improvements. But a single, city-wide route was still a stumbling block.

On July 9, Commissioners decided to split the 501 route on trial basis in an effort to creating a smoother commute for customers heading to and from the city core.