512 St. Clair

512 St. Clair

Streetcar arriving at Keele from Gunns Loop
Overview
Type Streetcar Route
Locale Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Termini St. Clair Station (East)
Gunns Loop (West)
Stations St. Clair
St. Clair West
Daily ridership 32,400 (2011)[1]
Operation
Operator(s) Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s) Roncesvalles[2]
Rolling stock CLRV
Technical
Line length 7.00 km (4.35 mi) [2]
Track gauge 4 ft 10 78 in (1,495 mm) Toronto gauge
Electrification 600 VDC Overhead
Route number 512
Route map

Legend
Station with off-street
fare-paid platforms
Connection  00 
Terminus  00 
 
Gunns Loop  71 
Gunn's Road
Weston Road to Northland and Avon Loops
Keele Loop
Keele Street  41   89 
CN Weston sub. & CP MacTier sub.
Townsley Loop  127 
Old Weston Road  41   127   168 
Hounslow Heath Road/Silverthorn Ave
Laughton Avenue
CN Newmarket sub.
Caledonia Road  47B   47C 
Earlscourt Loop  47 
Lansdowne Avenue  47   47B   47C 
Earlscourt Avenue
Dufferin Street  29 
Northcliffe Boulevard
Glenholme Avenue
Rogers Road
Oakwood Avenue  63   161 
Oakwood Loop  63A 
Robina Avenue
Winona Drive
Arlington Avenue
Christie Street  126 
Wychwood Carhouse
Wychwood Avenue
Vaughan Road  90 
Bathurst Street  7 
St. Clair West Station
 33   90   126 
Tweedsmuir Avenue
Spadina Road  33 
Russell Hill Road
Dunvegan Road
Avenue Road  5 
Deer Park Crescent
Yonge Street  97 
St. Clair Subway Station
 74   88 
to Mount Pleasant Loop
Avoca Avenue 
Vale of Avoca (Avoca Ravine)
Inglewood Drive
St. Clair & Mt. Pleasant
Moore Park Loop
Heath Street
Moore Avenue  88 
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
Belt Line
Merton Street
Davisville Avenue  28 
Belsize Drive
Manor Road
Soudan Avenue
Eglinton Avenue  34   51   54   56   100   103 
Mount Pleasant Loop

The 512 St. Clair streetcar is an east-west streetcar route in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission.

History

The streetcar route along St. Clair Avenue was created by the Toronto Civic Railways in 1911 in a successful attempt to promote development in a newly annexed section of the city.[3] Originally, the route ran in a dedicated right-of-way. The route was transferred to the Toronto Transportation Commission upon its creation in 1921, which removed the dedicated right of way in 1928. It is the northernmost streetcar route still in operation, and was the first to make an underground connection with the subway at St. Clair West Station. It formerly continued beyond St. Clair Station and up Mount Pleasant Road to Eglinton Avenue, but this portion was later made a separate route that was subsequently converted to bus operation in the 1970s.

When first built, the St. Clair streetcar operated in a dedicated right-of-way, similar to the modern 510 Spadina route. A dedicated right-of-way is a lane generally in the centre of the street, reserved for transit vehicles. However, it was removed between 1928 and 1935 and replaced with paved trackage open to mixed traffic. The TTC later came to regret this decision, and in 2005 it began rebuilding a dedicated streetcar right-of-way.

The TTC is now running a pilot project of time-based transfers on portions of the 512 St. Clair, under which passengers who take a transfer (see Toronto Transit Commission fares) may disembark and then board another streetcar from the same route, even one going in the opposite direction, as long as they do so within a certain amount of time after their original boarding. This means that one can stop part-way through a journey and then continue, or even make a round trip, without paying multiple fares.

The line is operated with Toronto’s non-articulated CLRV streetcars.

Roncesvalles Carhouse serves the St. Clair streetcar route. When a 512 St. Clair streetcar begins service, it travels from the yard at Roncesvalles and the Queensway, along King Street, then on Bathurst Street, which connects to St. Clair Avenue. When a 512 streetcar finishes service, the roll sign indicates "512 RONCESVALLES", and the vehicle travels on Vaughan Road to Bathurst and King Streets, ending in Roncesvalles Yard, with some ending at Bathurst Street's Hillcrest Yard.

Upgrade to dedicated right-of-way

CLRV #4146 waits for a green light at the Yonge Street passenger shelter.
CLRV #4164 moves east along its dedicated right-of-way.

Following the success of the new 510 Spadina route along dedicated right-of-ways on Spadina and Queen's Quay and on portions on several streetcar routes, the TTC decided to upgrade the St. Clair streetcar to a dedicated right-of-way. The tracks along the route needed replacement, and the TTC estimated that building a dedicated right-of-way would cost only $7 million more than simply replacing the tracks. Furthermore, St. Clair Avenue is one of the few streets in Toronto wide enough to accommodate a dedicated right-of-way without significantly reducing the width of traffic lanes.

Possible extensions

Two major plans have been proposed and examined in the past. The first plan would see Route 512 extended west along St. Clair Avenue West to Runnymede Road, and south underneath the Canadian Pacific Railway Galt Subdivision line to a bus loop at Runnymede Road and Dundas Street West, replacing a portion of route 71 Runnymede. Streetcar tracks would then be extended southeast along Dundas Street West to Dundas West Station where the 504 King and 505 Dundas streetcar routes currently terminate. The tracks on Dundas would be served by a new route replacing the current 40 Junction bus route. While this scheme may not be warranted by potential ridership, it would cut down the amount of deadhead (not-in-service) time required by St. Clair streetcars to get to St. Clair Avenue.

The other plan comes as part of Transit City, the Light Rail expansion proposal. It would see route 512 extended west on St. Clair all the way to Jane Street, replacing portions of routes 71 Runnymede and 79 Scarlett Road, where it would connect with the planned Jane Street LRT.

Stops and connecting routes

The St. Clair west right of way consists of 26 stops (east to west). Full Streetcar service resumed (St. Clair Station to Gunns Loop) on June 30, 2010.[4] Streetcar service resumed to Earlscourt Loop (Lansdowne Ave.) December 20, 2009,[5] with a pre-opening event on the 19th utilizing the TTC's two remaining PCC streetcars. Prior to that portion of the line being reopened streetcars only serviced stops between St. Clair and St. Clair West Stations.

The Torontoist reports that, even during rush hour, it takes 29 minutes to travel the entire route, from Yonge Street to Gunns Road.[6]

Night route

Unlike the 512 route, the 312 Blue Night buses stop at the curb (sidewalk), not the streetcar islands. Recently, the TTC placed several signs along the route to indicate this, likely due to passenger confusion over new, "far-side" streetcar stops while the curb bus stops remain "near-side" (stopping before crossing the intersection).

Transfer points on St. Clair and Jane, 312 St. Clair Blue Night bus:[7]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. "Ridership and cost statistics for bus and streetcar routes, 2011" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. April 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  2. 1 2 Toronto Transit Commission (September 18, 2009). "TTC Service Summary" (PDF).
  3. Lloyd Alter (2013-11-25). "Streetcars save cities: A look at 100 years of a Toronto streetcar line". Treehugger.com. Archived from the original on 2013-11-26. Retrieved 2013-11-25. A hundred years ago, a new streetcar line was installed on St. Clair Avenue in Toronto in a dedicated right-of-way. In 1928 they got rid of the right-of-way to make more room for cars; In 2006 they rebuilt it again, putting the right of way back.
  4. http://www3.ttc.ca/Service_Advisories/Route_diversions/512_St_Clair_10630.jsp
  5. TTC Streetcar service advisory: 512 St. Clair and 505 Dundas routes
  6. Dan Foster (2011-04-05). "A St. Clair Journey". Archived from the original on 2013-12-23.
  7. Toronto Transit Commission. "TTC Blue Night Service Map" (PDF).

External links

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