Heads up to all you streetcar fans out there: Starting this Sunday (May 11), the TTC will operate one or both of its two remaining PCC streetcars on the 509 Harbourfront route up, every Sunday until Labour Day, Monday September 6. The PCC(s) will operate from 11:30AM to 7:30PM, in regular revenue service. In the past two years, the TTC has sporadically operated PCCs on the 509 route, particularly during the long weekends.
Interestingly, the rebuilt PCCs were originally intended to operate on the original 604 Harbourfront Route (later renumbered 510 and incorporated into the Spadina Streetcar in 1997), as Toronto’s answer to San Francisco’s F-Market/Embarcadero heritage streetcar route. Complaints from residents about the noise of turning streetcars, ended that idea, and cutbacks eliminated all but 2 PCCs from the fleet. Normally, these cars are only available for (expensive) charter trips, so this is a nice small gesture.
On a related note, for this year’s Doors Open Toronto, on Saturday, May 23, the TTC will have two facilities open to the public from 12PM to 5PM: the Greenwood Subway yards, and the Eglinton bus garage near the corner of Warden and Eglinton. Previously, the TTC opened up the Harvey Shops (on Bathurst Street) and Lower Bay to the public, so it is interesting to see a different rotation this year.
13 comments
Sean, I was walking west on Queen to Spadina around lunch and saw one of these streetcars heading down the street. Stopped me dead in my tracks; it was kind of fun seeing them on the road. Felt a little silly though because the colleague I was with wasn’t quite as geeked out.
The flip side to Jay’s comment is the experience of riding one of the historic streetcars and seeing the reaction of passers-by — seeing how many of them turn their heads and point or smile.
As nice a gesture as this is, to me it’s only a sad reminder of what could have been. One or two PCCs trundling along the 510 on summer Sundays does not equal the 40+ antique vehicles (http://snurl.com/hlcic) on the F-Market line in SF every day of the year, or the 18 rebuilt PCCs now back in regular use in Philly (http://snurl.com/hldil), or the charming original fleet on the St Charles line in New Orleans (http://snurl.com/hle4u), or even the small fleets of heritage/rebuilt/replica streetcars in Memphis, Portland, Little Rock, Tampa…
Toronto couldn’t see in front of its nose and threw away its history while smarter cities were working on saving, restoring or even faking theirs. Shame on us all. Now we have to see more “Toronto” PCC’s in Kenosha (http://snurl.com/hlejj) and San Francisco (http://snurl.com/hlcge) than on the streets of our own city.
Moving forward, what should happen now? Toronto badly needs a “Tourist Tram” to please tourists, ideally running on some sort of downtown loop (Church-Wellington-York-McCaul-Carlton already exists). This has worked very well in peer cities like Melbourne (http://snurl.com/hlcti) so in Toronto it really should be a no-brainer. Using heritage vehicles on such a route would certainly enhance its appeal. When the new Bombardier cars come online the TTC can set aside a few CLRVs for such a use, perhaps mixed with the Peter Witt and the heritage PCCs. It would also probably be necessary to buy a few more old cars. There may only be two candidates for PCCs at this point – either buy back the fleet we sold to freaking Kenosha (http://snurl.com/hlcf3) or wait until Boston eventually retires the PCCs on the Mattapan line (http://snurl.com/hlcdw). Newark and Pittsburgh sold their PCC fleets a few years ago – suffice to say the TTC was not interested.
As much as we push forward with Transit City, I really would like to see Toronto make more of its underused (from a tourist perspective) streetcar network and focus a bit more on bringing to life some of the past on a regular, sustained and prominent basis.
As nice a gesture as this is, to me it’s only a sad reminder of what
could have been. One or two PCCs trundling along the 510 on summer
Sundays does not equal the 40+ antique vehicles
(http://snurl.com/hlcic) on the F-Market line in SF every day of the
year, or the 18 rebuilt PCCs now back in regular use in Philly
(http://snurl.com/hldil), or the charming original vehicles on the St
Charles line in New Orleans (http://snurl.com/hle4u), or even the
small fleets of heritage/rebuilt/replica streetcars in Memphis,
Portland, Little Rock, Tampa…
Toronto couldn’t see in front of its nose and threw away its history
while smarter cities were working on saving, restoring or even faking
theirs. Shame on us all. Now we have to watch more “Toronto” PCC’s glide past in
Kenosha (http://snurl.com/hlejj) and San Francisco
(http://snurl.com/hlcge) than on the streets of our own city.
Moving forward, what should happen now? Toronto badly needs a
“Tourist Tram”, ideally running on some sort of
downtown loop (Church-Wellington-York-McCaul-Carlton already exists).
This has worked very well in peer cities like Melbourne
(http://snurl.com/hlcti) so in Toronto it really should be a
no-brainer. Using heritage vehicles on such a route would certainly
enhance its appeal. When the new Bombardier cars come online the TTC
can set aside a few CLRVs for such a use, perhaps mixed with the Peter
Witt and the heritage PCCs. It would also probably be necessary to
buy a few more old cars. There may only be two candidates for PCCs at
this point – either buy back the fleet we sold to freaking Kenosha
(http://snurl.com/hlcf3) or wait until Boston eventually retires the
PCCs on the Mattapan line (http://snurl.com/hlcdw). Newark and
Pittsburgh sold their PCC fleets a few years ago – suffice to say the
TTC was not interested.
As much as we push forward with Transit City, I really would like to
see Toronto make more of its existing assets and underutilized past, benefiting tourists and locals alike on a regular, sustained and prominent basis.
For those of us who rode those cars when we were young – I used to love watching the reflection of the streetcar in the storefronts and turning the crank handle to open the window up as we’d ride to High Park on summer days – they don’t look one bit out of place when I see them out and about, just like they’ve never left. I was lucky enough to be able to catch the last of the old second-hand cars, so even when you rode a PCC, you never knew what you were going to get – green interior, blue interior, the brown/cream interior, different colour seats, some had crank handle windows, some had the clips , some had couplers – it was always fun to see what class would show up. I’m glad we still have the two to enjoy.
As nice a gesture as this is, to me it’s only a sad reminder of what
could have been. One or two PCCs trundling along the 510 on summer
Sundays does not equal the 40+ antique vehicles
(snurl.com/hlcic) on the F-Market line in SF every day of the
year, or the 18 rebuilt PCCs now back in regular use in Philly
(snurl.com/hldil), or the charming original fleet on the St
Charles line in New Orleans (snurl.com/hle4u), or even the
small fleets of heritage/rebuilt/replica streetcars in Memphis,
Portland, Little Rock, Tampa…
Toronto couldn’t see in front of its nose and threw away its history
while smarter cities were working on saving, restoring or even faking
theirs. Shame on us all. Now we have to see more “Toronto” PCC’s in
Kenosha (snurl.com/hlejj) and San Francisco
(snurl.com/hlcge) than on the streets of our own city.
Moving forward, what should happen now? Toronto badly needs a
“Tourist Tram” to please tourists, ideally running on some sort of
downtown loop (Church-Wellington-York-McCaul-Carlton already exists).
This has worked very well in peer cities like Melbourne
(snurl.com/hlcti) so in Toronto it really should be a
no-brainer. Using heritage vehicles on such a route would certainly
enhance its appeal. When the new Bombardier cars come online the TTC
can set aside a few CLRVs for such a use, perhaps mixed with the Peter
Witt and the heritage PCCs. It would also probably be necessary to
buy a few more old cars. There may only be two candidates for PCCs at
this point – either buy back the fleet we sold to freaking Kenosha
(snurl.com/hlcf3) or wait to see if Boston ever retires the
PCCs on the Mattapan line (snurl.com/hlcdw). Newark and
Pittsburgh sold their PCC fleets a few years ago – suffice to say the
TTC was not interested.
As much as we push forward with Transit City, I really would like to
see Toronto make more of its underused (from a tourist perspective)
streetcar network and focus a bit more on bringing to life some of the
past on a regular, sustained and prominent basis.
uSky: I pulled your comment from the Spam filter. Yes, all the urls set it off. It’s primitive right now — we’ll be upgrading soon, hopefully it will be smarter. You may want to brush some of the porn off your comment though — it was hanging with some seedy characters in our spam filter.
Yes, the PCCs bring back memories of Toronto 40 years ago.
Trains on Queen. Cars still on both ends of Danforth and Bloor. ( The Yonge Subway then ended at Eglington with Red Glouster Cars. )
I wish I was there to see and ride them again.
When do they plan to bring out Witt 2424?
Memories, nicer that reality, at times.
I have a picture from a Saturday in August 2005 of Witt 2766 running in regular service on the Harbourfront line. I’m not sure if there was a special occasion, or if they were doing a PCCs-on-weekends thing (like what’s planned for this year) and decided to throw in a Witt for variety. In any case, that one really turns heads.
I was wrong in thinking that TTC still had Large Witt 2424 in storage at Hillcrest.
It and another Small Witt were in use back in the Seventies and we rode the Large Witt on a tour tram.
Both these cars came from Rockwood on a lease?
Yes, getting rid of the refurbished PCCs was a poor idea, but, money overrides so many things that would be nice to have/see.
Thank You.
Thanks Sean. It’s good to know this. I’ll be definetely be riding it a few times over the summer.
Hi Folks;
TTC was kind enough to sell a few PCCs to Kenosha.
Please don’t take them back. I live in Chicago and
I would have to go to Boston, Philly, or SF to ride a PCC in revenue service (ie, not a museum). Anyway, congratulations on bringing the vintage cars out.
I last visited Toronto in 1995. Maybe when I comeback I can ride PCCs, Peter Witts, CLRVs and new Bombardier LRVs.
|Chartered a PCC this summer it was a unique experience. It wasn’t overly priced either.