{"id":2688,"date":"2008-01-21T22:40:22","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T03:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2008-01-21T23:37:07","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T04:37:07","slug":"the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/","title":{"rendered":"The continuing saga of the Queen Car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg\" height=\"341\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The 501 Queen Streetcar was recently named by National Geographic as one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2566\">ten great tram rides of a lifetime<\/a> (up there with the San Francisco F-Market Car, the Hong Kong double-decked trams, and the New Orleans streetcars), and it is certainly an interesting and fun ride if you&#8217;re not in a hurry. Unfortunately, it may actually feel like a lifetime to complete a round trip of this great transit ride of an interesting street given the route&#8217;s delays and frequent short-turns.<\/p>\n<p>Queen has long been a busy and slow street, but the problems became worse over the past 15 years. In 1995, the former 507 Long Branch streetcar, which operated exclusively in Etobicoke and a legacy of the old radial railway network to Toronto&#8217;s suburbs, was discontinued and joined with the 501, making it by far the longest streetcar route in the city. End to end, the route is 24 kilometres long between Long Branch at the Mississauga border and Neville Park Avenue. Additionally, service cuts due to provincial funding cutbacks reduced service on most surface routes, to the extent that it allowed the TTC to dispose of its historic PCC fleet even while increasing route mileage with new routes on Spadina and Queen&#8217;s Quay in 1997 and 2000.<\/p>\n<p>While traffic, particuarly on Queen West, has served to delay streetcars, the bigger problem is the TTC&#8217;s insistance on short-turns, leaving passengers stranded at in front of the old Greenwood Race Track, at Roncesvalles and Queen, or at desolate Humber Loop. Also, even with inconvenient short-turns, streetcars tend to bunch, even at the far ends of the route, leaving long waits between the convoys, especially in the Beach(es) and in Etobicoke.<\/p>\n<p>After the <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2506\">Fix the 501 Forum<\/a>, the TTC changed the operation of the Queen Car from a schedule-based system, trying to adhere to specific times to a headway-based system, based on maintaining a minimum distance between cars. This change is  supposed to allow for more even service by spacing streetcars out and reducing the incidence of short-turns that have plagued both the eastern and western extremes of the route.<\/p>\n<p>But citizens in the east end have reported that they found service still lacking, even though is now a bit more reliable. The bottom line is that the service is still not at a level where Beach(es) residents can depend on it.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->In response to the forum and pressure from citizens, a report by Commission Staff on the possibilities of fixing the 501, is scheduled for the Commission meeting this Wednesday. The report is now available and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ttc.ca\/postings\/gso-comrpt\/documents\/report\/f3458\/501_Queen_Streetcar_Route_-_Issues_and_Solutions_-__10952_CR.pdf\">can be read here<\/a> (PDF).<\/p>\n<p>Amongst the usual excuses are traffic congestion and the TTC&#8217;s stated inability to run reliable service without a right-of-way like those on Spadina or those for Transit City. So among the potential solutions are improved traffic signal priority (signals with transit priority stay green after the end of a light cycle if a streetcar is approaching or stopped at the intersection), increased turn restrictions, further restrict or eliminate on-street parking.<\/p>\n<p>Other potential fixes include increased on-the-ground supervision, or even splitting the long route into separate sections. Activist Steve Munro has suggested up to four routing variations, including a resurrection of the 507 route from Long Branch via the Queensway and north to Dundas West Station, and a consolidation of the 502 and 503 Kingston Road services.<\/p>\n<p>Munro has been following the Queen Car mess closely and has his <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/?p=735\">own detailed and opinionated post<\/a> on the state of the Queen Car. He has <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/?p=612\">undertaken<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/?p=618\">detailed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/?p=628\">analysis<\/a> using the now-outdated CIS vehicle locating system to look at <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/?p=725\">run times<\/a>, bunching and service reliabilty.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to keep this  issue on the front burner for TTC Commissioners and City Hall. This is not only for the passengers left to their own devices on Queen Street, but for the entire city. Other routes, <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/?p=726\">including many bus routes like Dufferin<\/a>, have similar issues. The city will one day start building a light rail network across the city with the Transit City plan. Even with dedicated rights of way, these routes may be fouled by poor line management, short-turns and bunching unless citizens, activists, and the media keep paying attention and speaking out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 501 Queen Streetcar was recently named by National Geographic as one of the ten great tram rides of a lifetime (up there with the San Francisco F-Market Car, the Hong Kong double-decked trams, and the New Orleans streetcars), and it is certainly an interesting and fun ride if you&#8217;re not in a hurry. Unfortunately,<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;The continuing saga of the Queen Car&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1405,1684,7903,79,7610,1125,416,22085,7900,7902,316,7901,1187,19],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transit","tag-activist","tag-dundas-west-station","tag-light-rail-network","tag-mississauga","tag-national-geographic","tag-new-orleans","tag-pdf","tag-politics","tag-poor-line-management","tag-potential-solutions","tag-queen","tag-radial-railway-network","tag-steve-munro","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The continuing saga of the Queen Car - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The continuing saga of the Queen Car - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 501 Queen Streetcar was recently named by National Geographic as one of the ten great tram rides of a lifetime (up there with the San Francisco F-Market Car, the Hong Kong double-decked trams, and the New Orleans streetcars), and it is certainly an interesting and fun ride if you&#8217;re not in a hurry. Unfortunately,Continue reading &quot;The continuing saga of the Queen Car&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-22T03:40:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-01-22T04:37:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sean Marshall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sean Marshall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/\",\"name\":\"The continuing saga of the Queen Car - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-01-22T03:40:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-01-22T04:37:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The continuing saga of the Queen Car\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e\",\"name\":\"Sean Marshall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sean Marshall\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/wire\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/sean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The continuing saga of the Queen Car - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The continuing saga of the Queen Car - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"The 501 Queen Streetcar was recently named by National Geographic as one of the ten great tram rides of a lifetime (up there with the San Francisco F-Market Car, the Hong Kong double-decked trams, and the New Orleans streetcars), and it is certainly an interesting and fun ride if you&#8217;re not in a hurry. Unfortunately,Continue reading \"The continuing saga of the Queen Car\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2008-01-22T03:40:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-01-22T04:37:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Sean Marshall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sean Marshall","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/","name":"The continuing saga of the Queen Car - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg","datePublished":"2008-01-22T03:40:22+00:00","dateModified":"2008-01-22T04:37:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2068\/2211353938_491efe644a.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/21\/the-continuing-saga-of-the-queen-car\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The continuing saga of the Queen Car"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e","name":"Sean Marshall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Sean Marshall"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/wire"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/sean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}