The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates eleven streetcar (tram) routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that are all together 305.8 km long. Much of Toronto's streetcar network dates back to the 19th century, so rather than a new installation, the streetcars operate in the classic style, spending most of their time in on-street lanes shared with car traffic, and stopping at frequent request stops like buses rather than having fixed stations.

For more on pre-TTC streetcar history refer to:
On The Queensway, Spadina Avenue, and Queen's Quay, however, the streetcars have a separated right-of-way in the road median, and on Bay Street between Front Street and Queen's Quay, streetcars run underground. Despite objections from some local merchants, the TTC plans to reinstate a separated right-of-way — abandoned in the 1940s — on St. Clair Avenue, from Yonge Street to just past Keele Street, to be completed by 2007.
There are underground connections between streetcars and the subway at Union, Spadina, and St. Clair West stations, and streetcars pass by the entrances of several other downtown stations.
Despite their use of techniques long-removed in most cities, Toronto's streetcars are in no way heritage streetcars run for tourism or nostalgic purposes; they provide most of the downtown core's surface transit service, and four of the TTC's five most heavily-travelled surface routes are streetcar routes.
History
From 1921 as the Toronto Transportation Commission, the TTC was solely a streetcar operator. In 1925 routes were operated on behalf of the Township of York (as Township of York Railway), but they were essentially TTC routes. The bulk of the routes was acquired from the Toronto Railway Company.
After World War II, the TTC began plans to eliminate all streetcar routes. During the 1960s and 1970s, in part because subway development was thought to eliminate the need for them, but this policy was dropped in the face of widespread community opposition by citizens' groups who succeeded in persuading the TTC of the advantages of streetcars over buses on heavily-travelled main routes.
The TTC then maintained most of their existing network, purchased new custom-designed streetcars, and then returned to building new streetcar routes in the 1990s, building first a short line along the edge of Lake Ontario (originally numbered 604, it is now operated as the 509 Harbourfront route) and then replacing the Spadina Avenue bus route with the 510 Spadina streetcar, running in reserved lanes at the centre of the street. They now plan to similarly rebuild much of the 512 St. Clair line with a similarly separated right-of-way to increase service reliability.
The previous policy of eliminating streetcars and using buses for extensions built as the city developed northward account for the concentration of streetcar lines within 5 km of the waterfront, and the busiest north-south and east-west routes were replaced respectively by the Yonge-University-Spadina and Bloor-Danforth subway lines, and the northernmost streetcar lines, including the North Yonge and Oakwood routes, were replaced by trolley buses (and later by diesel buses).
Two other lines that operated north of St. Clair Avenue were abandoned for other reasons: the Rogers Road route was to free up streetcars for expanded service on other routes. The Mount Pleasant route ostensibly because of traffic problems it created.
The Scarborough RT line was originally proposed to operate with streetcars on a private right-of-way, but the plans were changed when the Ontario government convinced the TTC and the borough of Scarborough to use its then-new Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) metro trains instead. Another proposed streetcar rapid transit line from Kipling station was abandoned, but the ghost platform at the bus level is a hint of a streetcar line.
Vehicles
The CLRVs and ALRVs
When the TTC reversed their decision to eliminate streetcars in the 1970s, they were faced with the problem of how to replace their ageing fleet of PCC streetcars given that most cities in North America were switching entirely to buses, and so there were no new mass-market streetcar designs already being built that Toronto could purchase as it had before. While Edmonton and Calgary chose to adapt German metro trains for the new systems they were installing around the same time, the TTC instead had a new streetcar designed in the traditional style, and so the two models of streetcars the TTC uses for revenue service today remain unique to the city. It was hoped that the new models could also be sold to the few other cities that continued streetcar service, such as Boston and Philadelphia, but this strategy proved unsuccessful.
The CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle, ordered 1977 - version L1 and L2) and the double-length ALRV (Articulated Light Rail Vehicle, ordered 1983 - version L3) were designed by the Ontario Crown corporation Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC). The cars were built by the Swiss Industrial Company (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft, or SIG) and Hawker-Siddeley Canada Limited in Thunder Bay, with a propulsion system by Brush of England and bogies by MAN of Germany.
The CLRVs and ALRVs retain many features of traditional streetcar design; they collect their electric power by trolley pole rather than pantograph, and are unidirectional, with a cab at only one end and doors on only one side, requiring track loops in order to turn around. Even the ALRVs, which are double-length with an articulated section at the centre, are not very long compared to most modern trams, which frequently have anywhere between two and four articulations.
Both models of streetcar have high floors, accessed by stairs at each door. TTC staff have explored a number of possible means to make them wheelchair-accessible, including constructing level boarding platforms, lowering the track level, installing wheelchair lifts, and attach wheelchair-accessible trailers, but have concluded that none of these options is pratical.
Unlike the TTC's earlier PCC and Peter Witt streetcars, the current models are never run in two-unit trains, or with trailers; the replacement of the two highest-volume routes with subway lines have decreased the number of passengers with which streetcars must cope, and a single ALRV is long enough to provide sufficient capacity on today's busiest routes.
Two of the TTC's PCC streetcars, which operated in regular service until the mid-1990s, are retained for private charters. [1]
The future
As the original CLRVs will reach the end of their thirty-year service life in 2007, the TTC must soon either rebuild or replace them. Until recently, their official plan was to rebuild the CLRVs to extend their useful life by about ten to fifteen years and add new features such as air conditioning, and not purchase any new streetcars until the ALRVs reached the end of their lives. With new funding from senior governments, however, they now intend to refurbish only one hundred CLRVs to meet Toronto's immediate requirements, and buy new low-floor, higher-capacity trams to replace the current fleet and run planned routes along the waterfront and in the inner suburbs. The remaining 96 streetcars will be rebuilt only if the introduction of new models is delayed.
It seems, however, that no 'off-the-shelf' design will work for Toronto; in addition to the city's unique track gauge (see below), the streetcar network contains much tighter curves and steeper slopes than most new tramways, so the TTC believe that they will have to find a model that meets seventy to seventy-five percent of their needs, and then customise its design significantly.
Although the Bombardier Flexity Swift trams used by the Hiawatha Line in Minneapolis and the Siemens S70 Avanto vehicles of Houston's METRORail were among the first examined by councillors, the TTC have recently reported that so far the most suitable vehicles they have seen are those of Portland's recent streetcar network. These Astra streetcars, manufactured by Škoda in the Czech Republic, are narrower and shorter than most modern trams, and operate in a mixed-traffic environment similar to much of Toronto's network.
TTC commissioners hope that the first new streetcars could be in service as soon as 2009, but a TTC report suggests that it is unlikely they could be introduced before 2011 or 2012 because of the amount of design work necessary to produce a vehicle that meets Toronto's requirements.
The report also notes that current projections for population increases and new lines indicate that by 2026, the TTC will need to extend its fleet to between 350 and 480 streetcars, suggesting that the replacements for the CLRVs and ALRVs will be merely the first of a large fleet.
List of current Toronto streetcars
- 158 SIG/UTDC Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) L1 and L2
- 39 UTDC Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV) L3
- 2 St. Louis Car Company PCC streetcar (used only for private charters)
List of past Toronto streetcars
- Birney Car - ex-Toronto Railway Company (retired)
- Canadian Car and Foundry/Brill Peter Witt streetcars - Large with trailers
- Canadian Car and Foundry/Ottawa Car Company Peter Witts - Small Witts
- St. Louis Car Company and CCF President Conference Committee Car A1
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A2-8
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A9-10 - ex-Cincinnati
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A11 - ex-Cleveland
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A12 - ex-Louisville
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A13 - ex-Birmingham
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A14 - ex-Kansas City
- St. Louis Car Company PCC A15 - A8 rebuilds
- W30-W31 Rail Grinder - ex-PCC streetcar
- W28 Rail Grinder - ex-TRC Preston car
Track gauge
The tracks of Toronto's streetcars and subways (apart from the Scarborough RT) are built to the unique track gauge of 1.495 m (4 feet 10 7/8 inches), slightly wider than the usual standard gauge of 1.435 m (4 feet 8 1/2 inches). There are arguments over the reason for this. One popular albeit false belief, sometimes quoted by the TTC themselves, is that the City of Toronto feared that the Toronto Railway Company, which held the franchise to run streetcars before the TTC was created, would allow the Canadian Pacific Railway to operate steam locomotives through city streets. The more practical reason is that early tracks were used to pull wagons smoothly in the days before paved roads, and that they fit a different gauge.
The unique gauge has remained to this day, since converting all tracks and vehicles would be expensive and unproductive. Some proposals for the city's subway system involved using streetcars in the tunnels, and possibly having some routes run partially in tunnels and partially on city streets, so the same gauge was used, though the idea was ultimately dropped in favour of dedicated rapid-transit trains. The use of standard-gauge tracks on the Scarborough RT makes it impossible for there to be any track connection between it and the other lines, and so when RT vehicles need anything more than basic service (which is carried out in the RT's own McCowan Yard), they are carried by truck to the Greenwood subway yards.
Routes
The TTC has used route numbers in the 500 series for streetcar routes since the late 1970s; prior to then, streetcar routes were identified by their name alone, but the destination signs on the new CLRVs were not large enough to display both the route name and destination.
The only exceptions to this numbering scheme are the 301 Queen and 306 Carlton all-night routes, which replicate the regular daytime routes, but are officially numbered in the 300s as Blue Night Network routes. The Harbourfront LRT (which ran along what is now the shared portion of the 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina routes) was originally assigned the number 604, grouping it with the subway/RT routes instead of the other streetcars, but this unusual numbering was dropped when the TTC stopped trying to market it as a 'rapid transit' route in 1996. [2]
During times when streetcar service on all or a portion of a route has been replaced temporarily by buses (e.g., for track reconstruction), the replacement bus service is typically identified by the same route number as the corresponding streetcar line. Shorter-term replacement or supplementary shuttle bus service (e.g., due to a track blockage or short-term street closure) is usually marked simply as 'SPECIAL' in the bus destination sign.
Current streetcar routes
- 501 Queen
- 502 Downtowner
- 503 Kingston Road
- 504 King
- 505 Dundas
- 506 Carlton
- 508 Lake Shore
- 509 Harbourfront
- 510 Spadina
- 511 Bathurst
- 512 St. Clair - currently being re-built with a reserved right-of-way similar to routes 509 and 510
Abandoned streetcar routes
- 507 Long Branch (merged with 501 Queen in 1996)
- 512L Earlscourt
- 521 King Exhibition
- 522 Dundas Exhibition
- 604 Harbourfront LRT (forms part of the present 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina routes)
- Belt Line (original and Tour Tram)
- Yonge (replaced by the Yonge subway line)
- Bloor, including Danforth Tripper (replaced by the Bloor-Danforth subway line)
- Coxwell
- Dupont (including Bay)
- Fort (merged with 511 Bathurst)
- Harbord
- Oakwood
- Parliament
- Mount Pleasant
- Rogers Road
Properties
Loops
Because all of Toronto's current streetcars are unidirectional, they require off-street track loops in order to change direction.
The following loops are or have been used by the TTC (some are no longer used or have been disposed of):
- Avon Loop (Weston Road and Rogers Road)
- Bathurst Station Loop
- Bedford (Bedford and Yonge)
- Bicknell Loop (Rogers Road and Bicknell Avenue) - now belongs to the City of Toronto
- Bingham Loop (Queen)
- Birchmount Loop (Birchmount and Kingston)
- Broadview Station Loop
- Caledonia Loop (St Clair and Station St)
- Charlotte (King and Spadina)
- Christie Loop (Dupont and Christie)
- Danforth Loop (Danforth and Coxwell)
- Dundas St West Station Loop
- Dufferin Loop
- Earlscourt Loop (Lansdowne and St Clair)
- Eglinton Loop: Eglinton and Mount Pleasant - later trolley bus loop
- Erindale Loop (Broadview Station)
- Exhibition Loop
- Ferry Loop (Bay Street and Lakeshore Blvd West)
- Fleet Loop (Fleet Street and Lakeshore Blvd West)
- Gilbert Loop (Oakwood)
- Gunn's Loop (Keele and St Clair) - formerly Maybank
- High Park Loop (Parkside and Howard Park)
- Hillside Wye -Hillside and Lakeshore
- Humber Loop
- Hillcrest Loop
- Jane Loop
- Keele Loop (Keele Street north of St Clair Avenue West)
- Kipling Loop (Kipling Avenue north Lakeshore Boulevard West, west side)
- Long Branch Loop
- Lawton Loop (Yonge and St Clair)
- Lipton Loop (Lipton and Pape)
- Main Station Loop
- McCaul Loop (McCaul and Queen)
- Mutual Loop (Mutual and Queen)
- Moore Park Loop (Mount Pleasant and St Clair) - now parkette
- Neville Park Loop
- New Toronto Loop - now Kipling Loop
- Oakwood Loop (Oakwood and St Clair)
- Parliament Loop (King)
- Preston Loop (Dovercourt and St Clair)
- Queen-Coxwell Loop
- Queen's Quay Loop
- Roncesvalles Carhouse
- Royce Loop (Lansdowne and Dupont)
- Russell Carhouse Loop
- Runnymede Loop (Dundas and Runnymede)
- Spadina Loop
- St Clair Carhouse Loop
- St Clair Station Loop
- St Clair West Station Loop
- St Clarens Loop (St Clarens and Harbord)
- Sunnyside Loop (Sunnyside and Roncesvalles)
- Townsley Loop (St Clair and Lansdowne)
- Terauley (Bay)
- City Hall (Bay and Albert)
- Vaughan Loop (Vaughan and Bathurst)
- Viaduct Loop (Bloor and Parliament)
- Vincent Loop (across from Dundas West Station)
- Wolseley Loop (Queen and Bathurst)
- Woodbine Loop (Woodbine and Queen)
Source: Toronto Streetcar Track Map
Carhouses
Toronto's streetcars are housed and maintained at various carhouses or streetcar barns:
- Hillcrest Shops (Davenport Road and Bathurst Street) - 1924
- Roncesvalles Carhouse (Queen Street and Roncesvalles Avenue) - 1895
- Russell (Connaught) Carhouse (Connaught Avenue and Queen Street) - 1913
Inactive Carhouses once part of the TTC's streetcar operations:
- Danforth Carhouse (Danforth and Coxwell Avenues) 1915-2002
- Eglinton Carhouse (Eglinton Avenue and Yonge Street) 1922-2002
- Lansdowne Carhouse (Lansdowne Avenue and Paton Avenue) 1911-1966
- St. Clair (Wychwood) Carhouse (Wychwood south of St. Clair Avenue West) 1913-1991
Source: The TTC's Active Carhouses
Did You Know...
The TTC still has a blacksmith employed to make specialized parts for the overhead wires used by the streetcars. The pole to the overhead wires is called a witch's broom.
The lights, called bull's eyes, on today's CLRV and ALRV are relics of the past streetcars in Toronto.
See also
External links
- Transit Toronto Streetcar Pages. Transit Toronto.
- Jeff Gray. TTC to shop for new streetcars. Globe and Mail. 23 June 2005.
- Future Streetcar Fleet Requirements and Plans. Toronto Transit Commission report. 22 June 2005.
- Christopher Livett. Toronto's Streetcar System (schematic track map). Transit Toronto.