Im from Toronto and i visited Amsterdam about a year ago and was blown away by how much faster their trams are. Even Lines like Spadina that have their own right of way trundle along compared to Dutch ones. We need better signal priority and need to reconsider many streetcar stops that are less then 200m away from each other. Stopping 300 people on a street car so 1 person can get off and walk 120m less or holding up streetcars so 2 cars can make a left turn is ridiculous
Fellow Torontonian here. The fact the 509, 510 and 512 don’t have signal priority is criminal and nullifies any benefit the infrastructure provides. I’ve been on trams in Budapest, Debrecen, Prague, Vienna and a couple other North American cities. All the European networks were fantastic. Even where they didn’t have 100% dedicated right of ways, they still moved fast because they get signal priority and there are other measures to separate them from traffic!
One more thing... On the next day I was boarding an east bound #506 trolley and the operator was the gentleman who took my pic on the PCC at Roncesville.
One little interesting thing about the Toronto streetcar network: we have the only all-direction four way rail interchange at street level anywhere in North America, at spadina and Queen
The building at 0:07 is the Gooderham Building, aka Toronto's Flatiron Building! The building has a Romanesque cornice and frieze above the arched windows on the 4th floor. The main entrance located on Wellington Street makes use of a French Gothic archway. The foundation is made of sandstone. The previous building on the site was shorter, but in the same shape, and it was called the Coffin Block. The current building was designed by architect David Roberts Jr. and originally cost 18K dollars to construct for distiller George Gooderham Sr., a son of the Gooderham and Worts distillery's (once one of the largest distillers in Canada) founder, William Gooderham. The building served as the office of the Gooderham and Worts distillery until 1952, and it was sold by the Gooderham family in 1957. The building was designated a historic site under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1975, then the Ontario Heritage Foundation attained a Heritage Easement in 1977. The Gooderham and Worts company's former nearby main distillery facility on the Toronto waterfront was closed in the 1990s. The buildings, dating to the 1860s, were preserved and repurposed as an arts and entertainment district that is now called the Distillery District. Interesting fact regarding Fort York, the Americans looted and burned the settlement of York in 1813 during the War of 1812, and in 1814, in part motivated by what happened at York, the British Army burned down Washington, DC. Less than four days after the attack began, a heavy thunderstorm extinguished the fires and caused further destruction to DC. The CN Tower held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure for over three decades when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in 2009, and was the world's tallest tower until 2009 as well when it was surpassed by Guangzhou's Canton Tower. CN Tower's antenna is longer than a football field, and the tower resiliently bears an average of 75 lightning strikes per year! In 2011, the tower was subject to record 52 lightning strikes in just 84 minutes. The tower is well-equipped with copper stripes running down to the grounding strips to prevent any damage from such massive lightning strikes. The tower's glass floor is five times stronger than the strength commercial floors require, capable of withstanding the weight of 35 moose, or more than three orcas! Each glass panel is about 6.3 cm thick, including a scuff plate, four 1.25-centimeter layers of glass and a pocket of air for insulation. The tower also has two 68,160-litre water reservoirs at the top which are automatically replenished, and a fire hose at the base of the structure capable of sending 2,725 L/min to any location in the tower. On a clear day, visitors to the CN Tower’s observation deck can see over 160 km, all the way to Niagara Falls and across Lake Ontario to New York State. It is outfitted with 1,330 LED lights that can produce 16 million different color combinations. It was built with the strength and flexibility to withstand an earthquake of 8.5 on the Richter scale. It took 1,537 workers working 24 hours a day, five days a week, approximately 40 months to build at a cost of 63 million Canadian dollars! The tower would garner worldwide media attention when stuntman Dar Robinson jumped off the CN Tower on two occasions in 1979 and 1980. The first was for a scene from the movie Highpoint. The second was for a personal documentary. The first stunt had him use a parachute which he deployed three seconds before impact with the ground, while the second one used a wire decelerator attached to his back. In June 1986, the tenth anniversary of the tower's opening, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin, in a sponsored publicity event, used his hands and feet to climb the outside of the tower, a feat he performed twice on the same day. Following both ascents, he used multiple rappels to descend to the ground
As much as I like Berczy Park, I wish they kept the buildings that comprised the "coffin block." And it's tragic that they tore down the old TTC building adjacent back in the 50s. That would be a gem compared to that glass box. But that happened far too often here; that's why so much of the CBD looks like Legoland. Oh well, at least there's some classic architecture that survived.
Some European countries removed their trams but most seem to have kept them.England and France were the worst offenders for removing them but they are putting them back now slowly but surely.
Yeah, Denmark too. Copenhagen used to have a vast 107km long tram network, however much of it was shut down in the 1960's and the last line closed in 1972 as the last tramline in the country. The closure of the trams was even rushed several times by the highway loving mayor "Urban Hansen", where the initial plans were to keep the 6 busiest lines until underground metros could be build to replace them, then replace the trams by 1975 and then replacement by 1972. Copenhagen is building a new tram now thankfully though its an LRT out in the suburbs around the city. There is a proposal for a tram line going into the city, largely retracing the old Line 5, which was the last tram line to shut down and today the busiest bus line in the city (and 2nd busiest in all of Europe). But this proposal is on rocky road as many politicians in Copenhagen, especially in the centre and the right have a Metro or nothing mentality, with some even comparing tram tracks to the Berlin Wall! This all being while the city is billions in debt to pay off the state loans for the construction of the existing metro lines here. As for the other 2 danish cities to have trams, Aarhus (closed in 1971) and Odense (closed in 1952), they have thankfully both resurrected their trams as Light rail systems in 2017 and 2022 respectively. And though having a rocky start, theyre finding their footing now with decent success, and 2 extensions with new lines, one in each city, have gotten a pseudo green light respectively. I say pseudo green light cause it still hinges on the city's finding some additional funding in their budgets but they have otherwise said yes.
I’ve read that in the UK BP had a lot of influence in getting rid of trams and trolley busses and in franc it was Michelin and Renault that had the influence to get trams and trolley busses there.
I'll always have a bit of nostalgia for the old CLRV streetcars that would have the trolley pole pop off midway round a corner. Seeing the operator get off, walk to the back, grab the wire and do a little left/right dance while car traffic waits and watches. That, and watching them get out and grab the big metal pole to bend a switch was always fascinating for a young blorp to watch!
The TTC still has a couple that they can run on special occasions but they will need to get converted to pantograph since support for trolley poles will be ended in a few years. The CLRV and ALRV did have pantographs intermittently during development so it won't be totally anachronistic
@@OntarioTrafficMan The circa 1920 trams in Lisbon also have both trolley poles and pantographs, as that system is too converted to pantograph operation.
Unlike the small one-line systems North American cities tend to build, Toronto shows when you keep or build a multi-line system, given priority, expansion, have great connections, build TOD along its corridors, and a route that actually serves activity centers, then streetcars can work great. A streetcar system needs to be built out to connect to destinations outside of the innermost districts, and it needs to have dedicated lanes and signal priority where space allows to be fast and attractive. Trams can be useful as a high-density stopgap for last mile connectivity or to serve dense central city areas. They cannot, however, exist in a vacuum of car traffic, parking lots, and sprawl. They must be part of an urban ecosystem of walkability, cycling, and transit in order to be successful. Fort York originated from a garrison established by John Graves Simcoe in 1793. Tensions with the US resulted in the fort being further fortified and designated as an official British Army post in 1798. The original fort was destroyed by American forces following the Battle of York in April 1813. Work to rebuild the fort began later in 1813 over the remains of the old fort and was completed in 1815. The rebuilt fort served as a military hospital for the remainder of the War of 1812, although it briefly saw action against an American naval vessel in August 1814. Simcoe was the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796, and founded York or what would later become Toronto. It was meant to be a "temporary" location for the capital of Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital at what's now London which Simcoe selected in 1793. That is why London was named such in 1826 after the British capital and why Canadian London's river is also called the Thames (to honor that it was meant to be Upper Canada's capital after it was rejected; originally Simcoe had proposed to call it Georgiana in honor of George III). As mentioned, this plan of moving the capital there was rejected, but Simcoe's second choice of York was selected as the capital of Upper Canada in 1796, and Toronto would later become the capital of Ontario in 1867 when the Canadian Confederation was formed.
@@Thom-TRAit wasn't back then. The Americans attacked in 1812 (the land to the south you came in on is all fill. The water was right there back then) under General Pike. They managed to lure the British regulars out and beat them but somehow the powder magazine on the south side (where you showed the shot under the Gardiner is about where it was) blew up. The boom was so big it was heard 30 miles away and it killed a bunch of Americans, including Gen Pike. The Americans went bezerk and burned York to the ground where they could and looted. 2 years later, when the British invaded the Chesapeake, they went to Washington and it is said their burning down part of the town and the President's Mansion was revenge for York's sacking. It was painted white as they repaired it after, hence the name "White House". Oh and Gen Pike has a mountain named in his honour. So Fort York did leave it's stamp on US history
As someone from Melbourne I loved visiting Toronto and riding the streetcars last year. We even rode the streetcar to Billy Bishop Airport to fly to Newark.
@@Thom-TRAtoo many urbanists want to get rid of it and yet most people downtown are barely aware of any noise from it. It is a great thing to have commuter plane service to major US hubs right out of downtown
@@marklittle8805 I’ve always liked having the option of flying out of Billy Bishop for shorter flights. I’ve flown out of there for trips to Ottawa, Philadelphia, and New York. In addition to the Bathurst streetcar, there is also a shuttle bus that runs from Union Station so it’s pretty easy to get to.
I used to live on the 510 Spadina route while I was at the University of Toronto, and I did fall in love with them. I remember how, when I was first visiting the University with my father, we walked into the Spadina subway station and, not knowing about the modern look of the streetcars, sat on the 510 Spadina streetcar thinking it was the subway (it was a train that was underground, and looked really modern. Surely this must be the subway!). You can imagine our surprise when we suddenly emerged in the median of Spadina! Riding the streetcars was nice, so long as you managed to catch one at the right time. I always found it simultaneously funny and sad, how the streetcars often bunch up at the Spadina subway station. Truth be told, I did not ride the streetcar too often, as most of my destinations were either accessible via foot or via the subway (which I could sometimes walk to faster than by riding the Spadina streetcar!). Yet, I nevertheless fell to the charms of this legacy tram network. An interesting tidbit about the 510 Spadina route is that it actually *isn't* a remnant of the old streetcar network. The modern 510 Spadina route was actually built in the 1990s. It was initially called the "Spadina LRT" during the planning stages, according to an exhibit put up by the City of Toronto Archives (www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/online-exhibits/web-exhibits/web-exhibits-transportation/the-ttc-100-years-of-moving-toronto/harbourfront-spadina-light-rapid-transit/). Supposedly (I could not find a better source than Wikipedia for this claim), the TTC rebranded the project to a streetcar route because local residents thought it meant building a large elevated guideway like the defunct Line 3 Scarborough RT (RIP, at least the trains found a new home on the Detriot People Mover)
The Scarborough RT was supposed to run streetcars like the Mattapan-Ashmont line in Boston (both the old soon-to-be-retired PCC's and the CLRV/CALRV ones) on a right-of way route that went from Scarborough Center (where Scarborough City [Borough] Hall and the Scarborough Town Center shopping mall is ) to Kennedy subway station, but the provincial government forced the city government and the TTC to buy and use the (IMHO) stupid linear induction train system and have it be on the Scarborough RT route because the manufacturer of these vehicles (UTDC-Urban Transit Development Corporation) was a crown (state-owned) company and it wanted to get a sale, or some other stupid reason. The RT linear induction trains were not good, as they were a demonstration system and were not meant for long-duration use; eventually, UTDC went out of business,, with the company being eventually acquired by Bombardier, but without Bombardier having any parts to keep these trains running (these trains run in Vancouver as well, but that's a newer system that has parts for it still made by Bombardier and its successor-in-interest Alstom), plus the system has to be winterised at the start of winter every year for it to run in winter, while the Vancouver trains don't need this when they run on elevated outdoor sections in Vancouver. Eventually, it had to be shut down as the trains were reaching the end of their service life (the accident forced this to happen quickly. )
The TTC is working on extending the platform at Spadina so that multiple streetcars can fit at once and you aren't stuck in the tunnel for 5 mins... been there, and its the worst!
Historic irony: Just down the road, around the SW corner of Lake Ontario, the city of Hamilton's transit system is called HSR-Hamilton Street Railways; even though the street railway mode of transit is long gone from there...
I heard a giant red panda destroyed the SkyDome on the day of a 4*Town concert, so it's great to see it was rebuilt! Crazy! 😉😂 In Turning Red, the Spadina and Dundas streetcars through Toronto's Chinatown were referenced, and it being set in the 2000s, they animated CLRVs (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) which TTC operated from the late 1970s to 2019, which I loved! Spadina comes from the Ojibwe word ishpadinaa, roughly meaning "high place/ridge" or "sudden rise in the land." The Ishpatina Ridge, in Northern Ontario, which is the highest point of land in the province, is derived from the same Ojibwe word. If you're wondering why CN wanted to build CN Tower, it was first conceived in 1968 when the railway wanted to build a large television and radio communication platform to serve the Toronto area, and to demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry. It began construction in 1973 opened in 1976 and was meant to be a part of the Metro Centre development, which aimed to redevelop the large Spadina Street switching yard as CN shifted the functions of many of its yards in Greater Toronto to a centralized facility in Vaughan and viewed the yards' layout as increasingly outdated. Metro Centre was scrapped two years into the CN Tower's construction so CN Tower stood alone for some time until the 1984 completion of a convention center. Via Rail relocated their operations to a maintenance center in New Toronto which freed up lands for revitalization, SkyDome was completed in 1989, economic downturn caused many of the development plans to be shelved, much land stood abandoned until the Air Canada Centre/Scotiabank Arena opened in 1999, and now it's the CityPlace neighborhood. The Newark Light Rail's Penn Station stop also has a loop! The stop has five tracks, two incoming and three outgoing, connected by two loop tracks. If you're transferring from the Broad Street Station section to the City Subway, they tell you to stay on the train (it first drops you at a platform just for those getting off at Penn) so it can go around the loop and drop you at the platform shared with Grove St-bound trains so you can have an easier time! On weekends, the two sections are operated jointly, so you just stay on the train! Newark's streetcar history runs deep! What's now PSEG headquarters was once the Public Service Terminal, a three-level streetcar station owned and operated by the Public Service Corporation, adjacent to the former Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's (which became PATH) former Park Place station (now NJPAC). Park Place closed in 1937 after Newark Penn opened in 1935. The Public Service Terminal served as the terminus for streetcar or interurban lines from as far as Trenton. Public Service was both a transportation company and a utility, providing electric and gas service to much of northern NJ, but today no longer runs transit with its energy utility becoming PSEG and selling its transit to NJT in the 1980s, and the terminal was demolished in 1981. Most streetcars used the upper level, reached by a ramp from Mulberry Street on the east side. Some used the lower level, reached on the west side from Washington Street by a two-block Cedar Street Subway. In 1935, the lower level was connected to the City Subway, but this wasn't used until 1937 as the City Subway's extension to Penn was delayed until 1937, and by the time the connection was used, Public Service was turning its routes into buses, so it was only briefly used between June and September that year. In 2006, the former Cedar Street subway junction with the City Subway line was re-purposed for the then new branch to Newark Broad Street station. The Newark Light Rail's Broad Street extension runs on the surface, but it runs in its own ROW that connects Newark's two train stations of Newark Penn and Newark Broad St, serving sites like NJPAC, Rutgers Business School, the main Newark Public Library, Berkeley College's Newark campus, and the Newark Museum of Art.
I find it sad that Newark didn't buy the CLRV/CALRV's when they first came out in the early 1980's, but it was interesting to see the city and NJ Transit still use the PCC streetcars up ti the 1990's (IIRC and if I'm not mistaken.)
really enjoyed this video, lived in hamilton for a few years and moved to kitchener recently (previously berlin ontario) Hamiltons transit system is called the hamilton street railway which i find quite funny, kitchener currently has 1 operating lrt/tram line with a expansion planned to cambridge i hope one day every canadian city will have streetcars again...
Ik kom uit Toronto maar ik heb ook in Rotterdam gewoond. De trams in Rotterdam zijn veel sneller dan die in Toronto, ze hebben gelijkvloers instappen en betere betrouwbaarheid. Maar de frequentie van tramlijnen in Toronto is hoger in het algemeen dan tramlijnen in Rotterdam
Fun fact: Toronto’s streetcars, the Subway cars, and the GO Train cars are all built in the same factory in Thunder Bay - some 1000kms away as the crow flies, or 1400kms by ground transportation. And, because of the ‘Toronto Gauge’, they need to be brought in riding regular rail cars on CN or CPKC!
We were in Toronto a few weeks ago and used the streetcar a lot. We took the Harbourfront line a lot since our Airbnb was on it, including taking it to the subway and taking it to the ferries. But my most memorable experience was taking the Queensway streetcar back from High Park. It passed through some fun looking residential neighborhoods - the next day I actually placed a delivery order from a restaurant just because I saw that restaurant from the streetcar and it looked good.
I live in Toronto and use Transit daily . I very much enjoyed your video. You included so much information (history and statistics) that I was not even aware of . Thank you for that . 😊
There were a couple of times in your video I said to myself "no that's not correct" but when I checked... you were right :) I actually live on King St and I didn't know the night route was 304. I really enjoyed the video and am glad you enjoyed our city!
I visited Toronto in 1995. Taking pictures outside the Roncesville carhouse an operator took my pic on a PCC. Also when crossing the street to catch a trolley a had to wait for the light to change. The operator put her hand up indicating "I'll wait for you to cross on the green so you can board safely". I hope to get back there soon.
Despite some complaints, the streetcars have always been a great part of why I love living in Toronto. It's so easy to get places since our subways are limited.
I like how you showed clips of San Francisco's historic streetcars, as they have a somewhat similar history (though some aren't as modern and the network is smaller)
About the trolley poles - I remember on the old CLRV streetcars it was a semi regular occurrence for them to come loose from the wire. The whole streetcar would go dead and we’d have to wait while the operator got out a big pole and reattached it.
Living in Toronto I was not aware of some of the history and facts in this video. Great research and content. Glad you enjoyed your stay. One thing to mention is that the 501 line is the longest street car route in the world
In 2015 I worked in the TTC Planning department and had the privilege of putting up the notices at all Sunday stops to be removed. The stops were mostly removed because they were all ridiculously close to other stops and unnecessarily complicated the system both for riders and for planners since they made travel times very unpredictable on Sundays. They were also generally not located at crosswalks as normal stops are, so we had some safety justification as well.
The worst backlash we got was a group of three ladies who group called the chief stops planner and lectured him over the phone. When I was putting up the notices at Dundas & Bond St, a guy came up and said that we shouldn't remove the stop. I said "there's a normal stop right there" pointing at the stop 70m away, and he just said "oh okay" and left. So no, not much opposition. However when we remove regular stops (we're trying to increase the stop spacing to 300m) there is a lot of opposition and the removals often get vetoed by the local councillor
The streetcars were much faster before the Flexities came in, the legacy network was not designed to handle such vehicles. Many of the issues include stops being spaced very close together, the slow acceleration of the vehicles themselves, and the single point switches at junctions that resulted in multiple derailments (this led to the stop and proceed policy at all switches on the network which frequently causes streetcars to miss green lights)
@@Thom-TRA The ridiculous thing is the Leslie streetcar facility was built with proper double point switches but the TTC said they wont upgrade any of the switches on the network to them. There's plenty of things the TTC and city could do to improve streetcar service but they refuse to do it.
In a straight line the Flexities in pantograph mode are faster than the older generations, but they are much slower around corners due to the wibbly wobbly wheel arrangement. The absurd outdated switch technology remains because the TTC has spent more than a decade trying to decide on a new communications system between the streetcars and the switches. To eliminate the need to stop at each switch and proceed at 10 km/h, they need a new comms system that can request the switch far enough in advance for it to be locked in the correct direction before the vehicle arrives, there needs to be a signal that operators can see that the switch is set correctly without needing to stop and look at the actual switch, and they need to use dual leaf switches to allow higher speeds.
A major cause of delays relates to the lines being in the middle of the street. If a tram is behind a car, or line of cars, waiting to make a left turn, it must simply wait, sometimes through two or more light changes. Of course, if a car or truck should have an accident across the track (even if only a centimetre across) the tram comes to a halt until it is cleared.
Wow, I thought I knew a lot about Toronto streetcars, but I learned a lot of new things. Great video! The most glaring issue of the Toronto streetcar system is that cars are allowed to block intersections without serious fines (or, let's be real, any fines). This means cars that cross into intersections without somewhere to go and don't clear the rails block streetcars, often resulting in huge delays as numerous streetcars are backed up one after the other. This would be easy to fix with some paint, cameras and a hefty fine for that particular problem--as is common in other cities--but Toronto has for many years failed to take the leap on ensuring that cars that choose to block the tracks are fined commensurate with the delays they cause. This isn't a problem with the streetcar lines, it's a problem with the way the quality of travel is not equally valued--making that small change would improve travel for people driving private vehicles as well!
i grew up riding streetcars my whole life, they're an integral part of my childhood and got me to school everyday all the way up until university. i like them more than the dark subways. nothing feels more toronto to me than a bunch of guys hanging out in the back of a streetcar cracking jokes at the end of the night gently being slid home across the tracks
Welcome to my Hometown !!! So nice to hear you enjoyed your ride I so especially loved your research. Most can learn from you and your hard work. Huge thumbs up !!! 10 out of 10
One slight detail is that in 1980, the numbers actually fully replaced the names, so the Spadina Streetcar became the 510 full stop. It wasn't until the Flexities came in that they reintroduced the names officially, which meant that they had to come up with a name for the 509, since it never originally had one besides it's marketing name "Harbourfront LRT"
Well the names existed but only internally. It's like how the Rapid Transit network is internally numbered in the 600s. Line 1 is route 601, Line 2 is 602, Line 4 is 604, Line 5 is 605 etc.
The names still existed before the Flexities but they just weren't shown on the destination board. So for example "510 King" didn't mean a streetcar on King Street, it meant a streetcar on Spadina Avenue that would end at King Street. But the streetcar route names were still used in other places like timetables.
@@stinkyroadhog1347The internal number for Line 1 is just 1, Line 2 is 2 and Line 4 is 4. Those 600-series numbers are from before the lines had public facing numbers. They are not used anymore.
Thank you for your well-informed video on Toronto's streetcar system. You're ight: We kept our tram system that's easily integrated with our subway system, but we bow to the pressures of car drivers, so the majority of our routes are mixed traffic hence and slow-moving. I just returned from San Francisco, where the LRTs are underground downtown, underground when going uphill, but other then that appropriately on street and mostly separately from traffic. I would move there just for that!
good presentation and great photography of Toronto. And I love trolleys. As a kid, I enjoyed riding most of the lines in Philly. Like Toronto, there seems to be a trend to upgrade the existing lines, but as usual it takes forever to get it done.
I used to live close to Humber Loop and I love the streetcar system. By the way, you can hop on the streetcar within the fare paid zone at the following stations: Main Station, Dundas West, St Clair, St Clair West, Spadina, Bathurst and Union Stations. I do miss the CLRV and ALRVs.
The funny thing about the fares is that my mind always forgot to switch to Canadian dollars. So I’d think: “dang, that’s expensive.” And then I’d remember.
@@Thom-TRA I now live in Ottawa and I use Presto all the time. I can even use Presto in GTA as well as Ottawa. With OC Transpo Monthly Pass I can hop on the STO bus in Gatineau and board STO buses with OC Transpo pass loaded on Presto Card but cannot use Presto for single fare aboard STO. I love TTC, best system I used.
@@Thom-TRA Presto is good on OC Transpo (Ottawa), TTC, Miway, Brampton Transit, Oakville Transit, Go Transit, YRT buses and Viva Buses. I hope they expand to the whole province. I was born and raised in Montreal and I dislike the Opus CARD and the system.
This video refreshed memories of our June ‘23 round trip on Amtrak’s Cardinal and Maple Leaf trains to Toronto. We rode the subway from Union Station, across from our hotel, to the Royal Ontario Museum and back, but did not experience the streetcars. I’m looking forward to your video about the Toronto Islands ferry which we rode. We had an enjoyable time walking the three islands.
Toronto also used to have electric buses which rolled on regular tires and used two trolley pickups to get both power lines from paired overhead wires. The streetcars (then and now) rely on the rails for a return path for the power and so only need a single overhead wire. As I recall the pickup arms on the bus trolleys were quite long so the bus could freely move between the lanes on the street.
Thanks for this awesome video about the streetcars of Toronto. I appreciate your dedication to giving the history as well as how to ride it and its awesome features!!!
In Vienna, the trams are also driving in the middle of the street very often. This is because of a mix of mix of operational and historical reasons from the tramway-side and because of safety reasons for the cars. Historically, the trams here mostly ran in the middle of the street on streets with more lanes. Some years or decades, it was decided, that on streetcar-running-streets with two lanes per direction, one lane would become streetcar-only (buses, the police and the ambulance use this lane also sometimes). On the operational side, it was clever, that the tram lanes were toghether. It is also safer for car-drivers because they can enter streets without the fear of getting hit by a tram and furthermore on crossings, where the tram branches off in two directions, you know, where to look if a tram comes (the middle).
Toronto public transit is so nice. It's air conditioned, it's quiet, and there's usually a seat (depending on what time you're taking it). The worst parts of it are actually transferring between vehicles and figuring out which one to take.
Actually, there is a trend to run newer lines on the side of the street, like Cherry Street and Queens Quay. I was at a public meeting when someone suggested this for Cherry Street and the TTC changed their plans because they thought the idea had merit.
Most of the removed streetcar km in Toronto were above where subway lines were built. Notably Yonge Street and Bloor/Danforth. Other major one removed was Eglinton, to be replaced by electric trolley buses and soon an underground LRT that has been under construction for a dozen years. I road the Queen Street car to work for many years and love the street cars, although driving around them takes some practice.
Trams do this neat trick of making a city futuristic as well as giving it an old school charm. No other mode of transit pulls this off. And those TTC colours of red and white look great. Unfortunate that the new trams on the Crosstown and Finch lines will be painted a boring grey and white. Cheers.
I like the Toronto streetcar system other than Philly's. Toronto has a much larger system where you can see and explore the neighborhoods. You would love the CLRV/ALRVs that they had there. That really made it like a street car. I last wrote it in 2017. When they were just transitioning from CLRVs to the Flexity streetcars. Only the 509 Harbourfront and the 510 Spadina Streetcars had the Flexitys ,the other lines had the CLRVs. I'm glad I was able to record it when I first came to Toronto in 2009 and in 2017. Hopefully, on your visit back to Toronto, Thom, you'll explore more of the city on streetcar. Can't wait for your Toronto ferry videos. That was fun too when I rode them!!
I’m glad you visited in the summer. There are currently major disruptions to streetcars on Queens Quay and Spadina due to construction and upgrades, so it’s a bit of a mess. I live equidistant to both a streetcar stop and a subway station. I have to admit it’s nice having multiple transit options depending on where I’m going and whether or not there are any service/weather disruptions, etc.
Although the Flexities are the largest individual vehicles at just under 30m, the TTC has historically operated longer coupled pairs of 15m PCCs on the Bloor streetcar line until that was replaced by the subway in 1966. And even further back, the TTC used Peter Witt streetcars with trailers on busy routes such as the Yonge streetcar line that was replaced by the subway in 1954.
PCC trains were only 90 feet long, so each car was about 13.7 m long, not 15. CLRV were around 51 m long. The Peter Witt Cars on Yonge Street were about 51 feet long with a similar length trailer. The line was converted to a subway in 1954, line 1.
FUN FACT! The first major transportation system in Toronto was founded by a Black Millionaire in the 1850s named James Mink, who went from former slave to businessman. He had a hotel, livery and coach service that was in wide use around the time, along with his brother George.
Hoi from Toronto! I just discovered your channel, loved this video and subscribed. Looking forward to watching more of your content. I live in Toronto, love transit, and am a wheelchair user. While I like the streetcars and am very happy Toronto has kept them, the accessible design of these units means I can't board independently. The ramps are too steep. They need to be longer or there needs to be a wheelchair lift for wheelchair users to board independently. To board: - The drivers have to get out to physically deploy the ramps, - then I have to uncover and unfold my fold down push handles, this means taking the custom hand sewed bag off of the back of my wheelchair and putting it on my lap. - give the driver's a lesson on how not to break my wheelchair. It's a $5,500 custom titanium ultra-light wheelchair. - then they have to pull me backwards up the ramp. (I hate other people pushing me and especially don't like going backwards.). Unlike busses, there's also no tie downs/secure spots for wheelchair users. So those tight turns mean my ultralight wheelchair moves even with the breaks on. Subways are large enough vehicles that my wheelchair rarely slides around. Hopefully by the time you're back in Toronto the Crosstown LRT is actually running (maybe), and all the subways stations are accessible.
Im a Torontonian that just got home from my trip to Amsterdam today haha We often complain about our transit system so it's nice to see a visitor complimenting and teaching me about my own transit system
It has changed a bit from being a teen in the 80's . Lived at Queen and Niagara for 10 years . When moved to suburbs for a few years i found it hard to sleeo because was si use to sound of the streetcars 😂😂 Glad to be back in city . Brampton transit was brutal . Lived equal distance from job and 2.5 hours for there . From city was always under 90 minites . Perfect timing and it was a hour !!! Hamilton transit good for when i travel there and the moat polite transit riders i have seen ! Yes really !
Thanks for sharing this well balanced coverage and history of Toronto's streetcar network. It's great they preserved their system and if a little less "car brain" it could be a really world class system. That must be so fustrating to see a streetcar with 50 or 100 people on it get delayed by one person turning left in a car. That's so interesting about the Toronto guage and about how they had Sunday services for churgoers into the 2010s. In a way seems sensible when it some other cities churches and urbanists have all too often found themselves at loggerheads over the churches wanting to guarantee parking for their parishioners on Sunday mornings versus urbanists wanting to improve things for all users on all days of the week.
You have to visit the Halton County Radial Railway Museum in Milton! They have all sorts of transit history from vehicles of the 1920s, tram cars from different cities, and the recently retired TTC CLRVs and ALRVs. You can take a ride on their streetcars there. It's a nice place to visit if you're also into transit history.
Aw I don't know what it brings tears to my eyes to learn the history of our mundane yet remarkably resistant lil ol' Toronto streetcar system. I didn't know there was a feud between the subway and streetcars, I always thought of them as sisters in arms. I hope we keep being on the right side of transit history in the future!
I'm from Toronto, and I actually learned a few things from this video, like why Toronto gauge is the way it is. Thanks! I'd say the biggest problem with the Toronto streetcar system is the lack of urgency with which they perform maintenance and repairs. Entire lines get taken out of service and replaced by shuttle buses for literal years for service upgrades and past due track maintenance. I kind of have a joke with myself that I can't move somewhere near a streetcar line without it getting taken out of service. It seriously depresses ridership levels, because people need their daily commuter routes to be reliable, and nobody wants to take a slow packed-to-the-gills shuttle bus every day.
Streetcars are a Toronto icon, especially as the old antique ones (PCC model). I rode them many times where I lived there in 86, 87. The PCC street cars were first designed in the 1930s, still running in Toronto in the 90s! Now people call the CLRV cars as 'old,' but to me they seem modern and new. eh but I have not been in downtown toronto in 25 years.
Hi Guy, great video. If you wanted to see some of the older Streetcars of the TTC, you should head west young man, well about a 2 hour drive to a place called Rockton Ontario, where they have a museum dedicated to the streetcars of the TTC.
The TTC streetcars and infrastructure are my favorite way as a Canuck to see if the film or TV project was produced in Toronto... Chances are if you see tracks in a road it's Toronto and NORTH NEW YORK... Aka New New New York... Since Futurama already claimed New New York, you know... Edmonton's valley line is using the Bombardier Flexity Freedom variant that Kit-Wat also uses.. So far they've had about 15 minor and major accidents since opening late last year but nothing that's closed the line for any real extensive periods of time thankfully. Solidly built trains that even when they derail don't cause a whole lot of damage except to the fibreglass drivers cab/shell space...
I watched the video as soon as it appeared and gave it a second like! It is very interesting to find out the reason why Toronto streetcar gauge so unique! Streetcars moving throught the streets without any priority, passenger boarding in the street middle with no safety zones - we still have all this in many cities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The transition from the tram pole to the pantograph is correct and effective, now the same we can see in Riga and Daugavpils, Latvia. Another interesting fact is that the streetcars in Toronto were replaced not only by the subway and buses, but also by trolleybuses. The city had a large trolleybus network, but it was closed in 1993 because it had not been updated or modernized for a long time... It just fell into disrepair. The same thing was happened in Moscow - a long time ago, many tram routes were replaced by trolleybuses, there were not many trams left, but tram network survived, and the trolleybus network was closed.
What a great video! I visited Toronto for the first time last month and I took public transit everywhere. In particular, the streetcar was my goto option for getting around. My hotel was across the street from the Queens Quay station. I didn't ride a single Uber during my trip (which was great). One thing that I thought was confusing was Google directions, it told me that I had to ride the 510 to get to my destination so I was waiting at the bus stop on the street level when a driver told me that the station was below.
Our trolley system here in San Diego isn’t bad and it’s fairly extensive. I lived next to the St. Clair street car line in Toronto back in 1977/78. I don’t know if it’s still there and I imagine the neighborhood has changed a lot since then. Great video! Thanks!
I went two weeks ago to Toronto for my first time, and took the street car 510 from the harbor to Union Station and down there that curve is very very tight. I was a little bit confused because everybody had to offload there. Very nice system.
@@Thom-TRA Oohh yeah... We had a great time... The metro was a lot easier, to get to our Airbnb, our stop was Finch West from Union Station, also bus number 41 was very useful in that area once you get to the finch West station, running every 15 minutes precisely, even though it was a 5-minute walk.
Nice analysis. Please come again and see more of Toronto! 😉 The major Canadian cities are mostly all walkable and safe over large areas and have distinct neighbourhoods, like in Europe. This is how most Canadian cities developed. This is very different than the US, where only SOME major cities are walkable and ONLY in limited areas. In US cities, you really have to be aware of safe and unsafe neighbourhoods almost anywhere you go (any time of the day or night). The opposite is true in Canada, where the default is mostly safe neighbourhoods almost any time, with sketchy areas being fairly rare and limited in size. The US is a FAR more car-centric country than Canada. To be sure, outside of the big Canadian cities, cars are a must due to the vastness of the country (2nd largest in the world) and the relatively small population.
@@Thom-TRA I would love to see an on wheel series of rail videos with you and Reese along with an discussion between the two of you regarding Toronto rail and bus transit. Discussion of what is working, what should happen and plans for Streetcar, regional rail and subways and buses.
Well the streetcars in Toronto can only go in one direction they do have an additional set of controls under a locked cover at the back of the streetcar for yard operations
@@Thom-TRA definitely. There have been occasions where they have been used outside of the yard but I think that's rare. Although the yards or barns as they are called in Toronto ( a hold over from the old horse drawn streetcars) have tracks around them so that both sides can be accessed. Right now they have three barns and are looking at converting an old mantanice shop into a fourth.
Thank you! I absolutely love the livery if those trams. It is almost identical to the traditional team livery in my home city if St.Petersburg, Russia. 😊 And we also have the tracks in the middle of the street most of the time...
@@Thom-TRA more like thick red and white horizontal stripes. It used to be a standard, but apparently manufacturers insisted on full red for most modern tram sets.
I visited Toronto in 2012 and navigated the city by streetcar and subway. It was very convenient and the streetcar operators were friendly. I was in Philadelphia last week visiting friends, and rode the restored Route 15 trolley along Girard. The old PCC cars are fun, but I'm looking forward to the planned, new cars for both the el and the trolley by Alstom. Hopefully SEPTA restores the line up to Chestnut Hill, or at least a portion of it. Getting around by tram is a pleasant experience and convenient in general, so I'm hopeful for continued investment and improvements in North America.
Another tip is the Presto cards cost $6 CAD. The Toronto Public Library has the cards and they will give them to you for free. You don’t need a card or ID
Interesting roundup of history 👍🏼 Btw we still have a few of those centrally placed tracks in Budapest that don't have side platforms, for lack of space. Most have been phased out though.
I'm a 73 year old born and bred Torontonian and though I loved those old PCC streetcars I'm old enough to realize that things change . Those streets that " were ounce dominated by trolleys " were also ounce dominated by horses . Time marches on !
Im from Toronto and i visited Amsterdam about a year ago and was blown away by how much faster their trams are. Even Lines like Spadina that have their own right of way trundle along compared to Dutch ones. We need better signal priority and need to reconsider many streetcar stops that are less then 200m away from each other. Stopping 300 people on a street car so 1 person can get off and walk 120m less or holding up streetcars so 2 cars can make a left turn is ridiculous
Fellow Torontonian here. The fact the 509, 510 and 512 don’t have signal priority is criminal and nullifies any benefit the infrastructure provides. I’ve been on trams in Budapest, Debrecen, Prague, Vienna and a couple other North American cities. All the European networks were fantastic. Even where they didn’t have 100% dedicated right of ways, they still moved fast because they get signal priority and there are other measures to separate them from traffic!
I'm a transit worker in Toronto so it's always nice to hear visitors enjoy the system!
I had a great time! Thanks for doing what you do
One more thing... On the next day I was boarding an east bound #506 trolley and the operator was the gentleman who took my pic on the PCC at Roncesville.
As a Torontonian, while I have an ENORMOUS amount of issues either the transit system, got nothing but love for yall transit workers and wish the best
When I visited Toronto every transit worker I asked for help was super kind and helpful!!
One little interesting thing about the Toronto streetcar network: we have the only all-direction four way rail interchange at street level anywhere in North America, at spadina and Queen
That’s pretty epic
It's an absolute delight to hear from an out-of-towner celebrating one of my favourite things about our city and our transit!
The building at 0:07 is the Gooderham Building, aka Toronto's Flatiron Building! The building has a Romanesque cornice and frieze above the arched windows on the 4th floor. The main entrance located on Wellington Street makes use of a French Gothic archway. The foundation is made of sandstone. The previous building on the site was shorter, but in the same shape, and it was called the Coffin Block. The current building was designed by architect David Roberts Jr. and originally cost 18K dollars to construct for distiller George Gooderham Sr., a son of the Gooderham and Worts distillery's (once one of the largest distillers in Canada) founder, William Gooderham. The building served as the office of the Gooderham and Worts distillery until 1952, and it was sold by the Gooderham family in 1957. The building was designated a historic site under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1975, then the Ontario Heritage Foundation attained a Heritage Easement in 1977. The Gooderham and Worts company's former nearby main distillery facility on the Toronto waterfront was closed in the 1990s. The buildings, dating to the 1860s, were preserved and repurposed as an arts and entertainment district that is now called the Distillery District. Interesting fact regarding Fort York, the Americans looted and burned the settlement of York in 1813 during the War of 1812, and in 1814, in part motivated by what happened at York, the British Army burned down Washington, DC. Less than four days after the attack began, a heavy thunderstorm extinguished the fires and caused further destruction to DC.
The CN Tower held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure for over three decades when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in 2009, and was the world's tallest tower until 2009 as well when it was surpassed by Guangzhou's Canton Tower. CN Tower's antenna is longer than a football field, and the tower resiliently bears an average of 75 lightning strikes per year! In 2011, the tower was subject to record 52 lightning strikes in just 84 minutes. The tower is well-equipped with copper stripes running down to the grounding strips to prevent any damage from such massive lightning strikes. The tower's glass floor is five times stronger than the strength commercial floors require, capable of withstanding the weight of 35 moose, or more than three orcas! Each glass panel is about 6.3 cm thick, including a scuff plate, four 1.25-centimeter layers of glass and a pocket of air for insulation. The tower also has two 68,160-litre water reservoirs at the top which are automatically replenished, and a fire hose at the base of the structure capable of sending 2,725 L/min to any location in the tower. On a clear day, visitors to the CN Tower’s observation deck can see over 160 km, all the way to Niagara Falls and across Lake Ontario to New York State. It is outfitted with 1,330 LED lights that can produce 16 million different color combinations. It was built with the strength and flexibility to withstand an earthquake of 8.5 on the Richter scale. It took 1,537 workers working 24 hours a day, five days a week, approximately 40 months to build at a cost of 63 million Canadian dollars! The tower would garner worldwide media attention when stuntman Dar Robinson jumped off the CN Tower on two occasions in 1979 and 1980. The first was for a scene from the movie Highpoint. The second was for a personal documentary. The first stunt had him use a parachute which he deployed three seconds before impact with the ground, while the second one used a wire decelerator attached to his back. In June 1986, the tenth anniversary of the tower's opening, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin, in a sponsored publicity event, used his hands and feet to climb the outside of the tower, a feat he performed twice on the same day. Following both ascents, he used multiple rappels to descend to the ground
Imagine climbing up something that tall, getting to the top, and being like: “you know what? I should do that again.”
As much as I like Berczy Park, I wish they kept the buildings that comprised the "coffin block." And it's tragic that they tore down the old TTC building adjacent back in the 50s. That would be a gem compared to that glass box. But that happened far too often here; that's why so much of the CBD looks like Legoland. Oh well, at least there's some classic architecture that survived.
Some European countries removed their trams but most seem to have kept them.England and France were the worst offenders for removing them but they are putting them back now slowly but surely.
Yeah, Denmark too. Copenhagen used to have a vast 107km long tram network, however much of it was shut down in the 1960's and the last line closed in 1972 as the last tramline in the country. The closure of the trams was even rushed several times by the highway loving mayor "Urban Hansen", where the initial plans were to keep the 6 busiest lines until underground metros could be build to replace them, then replace the trams by 1975 and then replacement by 1972.
Copenhagen is building a new tram now thankfully though its an LRT out in the suburbs around the city. There is a proposal for a tram line going into the city, largely retracing the old Line 5, which was the last tram line to shut down and today the busiest bus line in the city (and 2nd busiest in all of Europe). But this proposal is on rocky road as many politicians in Copenhagen, especially in the centre and the right have a Metro or nothing mentality, with some even comparing tram tracks to the Berlin Wall! This all being while the city is billions in debt to pay off the state loans for the construction of the existing metro lines here.
As for the other 2 danish cities to have trams, Aarhus (closed in 1971) and Odense (closed in 1952), they have thankfully both resurrected their trams as Light rail systems in 2017 and 2022 respectively. And though having a rocky start, theyre finding their footing now with decent success, and 2 extensions with new lines, one in each city, have gotten a pseudo green light respectively. I say pseudo green light cause it still hinges on the city's finding some additional funding in their budgets but they have otherwise said yes.
Buses are better
@@unknownninja4430, no, they're not.
I’ve read that in the UK BP had a lot of influence in getting rid of trams and trolley busses and in franc it was Michelin and Renault that had the influence to get trams and trolley busses there.
I'll always have a bit of nostalgia for the old CLRV streetcars that would have the trolley pole pop off midway round a corner. Seeing the operator get off, walk to the back, grab the wire and do a little left/right dance while car traffic waits and watches.
That, and watching them get out and grab the big metal pole to bend a switch was always fascinating for a young blorp to watch!
The CLRVs were iconic, I wish I had taken some pictures years ago
The TTC still has a couple that they can run on special occasions but they will need to get converted to pantograph since support for trolley poles will be ended in a few years.
The CLRV and ALRV did have pantographs intermittently during development so it won't be totally anachronistic
When they had to come around the corner at Spadina and College and would get stuck in the middle of the intersection. Classic.
@@vf1923 and it didn’t matter because there were a THIRD (at a guess) as many cars and NO 💩 eating ❄️ crying about their “right” to drive a car (solo)
@@OntarioTrafficMan The circa 1920 trams in Lisbon also have both trolley poles and pantographs, as that system is too converted to pantograph operation.
Unlike the small one-line systems North American cities tend to build, Toronto shows when you keep or build a multi-line system, given priority, expansion, have great connections, build TOD along its corridors, and a route that actually serves activity centers, then streetcars can work great. A streetcar system needs to be built out to connect to destinations outside of the innermost districts, and it needs to have dedicated lanes and signal priority where space allows to be fast and attractive. Trams can be useful as a high-density stopgap for last mile connectivity or to serve dense central city areas. They cannot, however, exist in a vacuum of car traffic, parking lots, and sprawl. They must be part of an urban ecosystem of walkability, cycling, and transit in order to be successful. Fort York originated from a garrison established by John Graves Simcoe in 1793. Tensions with the US resulted in the fort being further fortified and designated as an official British Army post in 1798. The original fort was destroyed by American forces following the Battle of York in April 1813. Work to rebuild the fort began later in 1813 over the remains of the old fort and was completed in 1815. The rebuilt fort served as a military hospital for the remainder of the War of 1812, although it briefly saw action against an American naval vessel in August 1814.
Simcoe was the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796, and founded York or what would later become Toronto. It was meant to be a "temporary" location for the capital of Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital at what's now London which Simcoe selected in 1793. That is why London was named such in 1826 after the British capital and why Canadian London's river is also called the Thames (to honor that it was meant to be Upper Canada's capital after it was rejected; originally Simcoe had proposed to call it Georgiana in honor of George III). As mentioned, this plan of moving the capital there was rejected, but Simcoe's second choice of York was selected as the capital of Upper Canada in 1796, and Toronto would later become the capital of Ontario in 1867 when the Canadian Confederation was formed.
Crazy to think of America and Canada ever being at war with each other
@@Thom-TRAit wasn't back then. The Americans attacked in 1812 (the land to the south you came in on is all fill. The water was right there back then) under General Pike. They managed to lure the British regulars out and beat them but somehow the powder magazine on the south side (where you showed the shot under the Gardiner is about where it was) blew up. The boom was so big it was heard 30 miles away and it killed a bunch of Americans, including Gen Pike. The Americans went bezerk and burned York to the ground where they could and looted. 2 years later, when the British invaded the Chesapeake, they went to Washington and it is said their burning down part of the town and the President's Mansion was revenge for York's sacking. It was painted white as they repaired it after, hence the name "White House".
Oh and Gen Pike has a mountain named in his honour. So Fort York did leave it's stamp on US history
As someone from Melbourne I loved visiting Toronto and riding the streetcars last year. We even rode the streetcar to Billy Bishop Airport to fly to Newark.
Nice! Billy bishop is a weird airport lol
I've longed to visit Melbourne and ride the largest tram network in the world. Plus Melbourne just looks really nice.
@@Thom-TRAtoo many urbanists want to get rid of it and yet most people downtown are barely aware of any noise from it. It is a great thing to have commuter plane service to major US hubs right out of downtown
@@marklittle8805 I’ve always liked having the option of flying out of Billy Bishop for shorter flights. I’ve flown out of there for trips to Ottawa, Philadelphia, and New York. In addition to the Bathurst streetcar, there is also a shuttle bus that runs from Union Station so it’s pretty easy to get to.
@@marklittle8805considerably more flights to Canadian destinations than US ones.
I like Toronto’s Transit and I like how they keep improving the system so people can get everywhere , good job Toronto.
I used to live on the 510 Spadina route while I was at the University of Toronto, and I did fall in love with them. I remember how, when I was first visiting the University with my father, we walked into the Spadina subway station and, not knowing about the modern look of the streetcars, sat on the 510 Spadina streetcar thinking it was the subway (it was a train that was underground, and looked really modern. Surely this must be the subway!). You can imagine our surprise when we suddenly emerged in the median of Spadina!
Riding the streetcars was nice, so long as you managed to catch one at the right time. I always found it simultaneously funny and sad, how the streetcars often bunch up at the Spadina subway station. Truth be told, I did not ride the streetcar too often, as most of my destinations were either accessible via foot or via the subway (which I could sometimes walk to faster than by riding the Spadina streetcar!). Yet, I nevertheless fell to the charms of this legacy tram network.
An interesting tidbit about the 510 Spadina route is that it actually *isn't* a remnant of the old streetcar network. The modern 510 Spadina route was actually built in the 1990s. It was initially called the "Spadina LRT" during the planning stages, according to an exhibit put up by the City of Toronto Archives (www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/online-exhibits/web-exhibits/web-exhibits-transportation/the-ttc-100-years-of-moving-toronto/harbourfront-spadina-light-rapid-transit/). Supposedly (I could not find a better source than Wikipedia for this claim), the TTC rebranded the project to a streetcar route because local residents thought it meant building a large elevated guideway like the defunct Line 3 Scarborough RT (RIP, at least the trains found a new home on the Detriot People Mover)
Yeah it’s good to see they started building again! Shows they re-embraced it.
The Scarborough RT was supposed to run streetcars like the Mattapan-Ashmont line in Boston (both the old soon-to-be-retired PCC's and the CLRV/CALRV ones) on a right-of way route that went from Scarborough Center (where Scarborough City [Borough] Hall and the Scarborough Town Center shopping mall is ) to Kennedy subway station, but the provincial government forced the city government and the TTC to buy and use the (IMHO) stupid linear induction train system and have it be on the Scarborough RT route because the manufacturer of these vehicles (UTDC-Urban Transit Development Corporation) was a crown (state-owned) company and it wanted to get a sale, or some other stupid reason.
The RT linear induction trains were not good, as they were a demonstration system and were not meant for long-duration use; eventually, UTDC went out of business,, with the company being eventually acquired by Bombardier, but without Bombardier having any parts to keep these trains running (these trains run in Vancouver as well, but that's a newer system that has parts for it still made by Bombardier and its successor-in-interest Alstom), plus the system has to be winterised at the start of winter every year for it to run in winter, while the Vancouver trains don't need this when they run on elevated outdoor sections in Vancouver. Eventually, it had to be shut down as the trains were reaching the end of their service life (the accident forced this to happen quickly. )
The TTC is working on extending the platform at Spadina so that multiple streetcars can fit at once and you aren't stuck in the tunnel for 5 mins... been there, and its the worst!
@@veonnisual Yeah, every time I boarded a streetcar there at Spadina station, I never knew how long I would be sitting there
Historic irony: Just down the road, around the SW corner of Lake Ontario, the city of Hamilton's transit system is called HSR-Hamilton Street Railways; even though the street railway mode of transit is long gone from there...
The ghost of the streetcars making sure everyone still remembers them
They’re getting an LRT now
I heard a giant red panda destroyed the SkyDome on the day of a 4*Town concert, so it's great to see it was rebuilt! Crazy! 😉😂 In Turning Red, the Spadina and Dundas streetcars through Toronto's Chinatown were referenced, and it being set in the 2000s, they animated CLRVs (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) which TTC operated from the late 1970s to 2019, which I loved! Spadina comes from the Ojibwe word ishpadinaa, roughly meaning "high place/ridge" or "sudden rise in the land." The Ishpatina Ridge, in Northern Ontario, which is the highest point of land in the province, is derived from the same Ojibwe word. If you're wondering why CN wanted to build CN Tower, it was first conceived in 1968 when the railway wanted to build a large television and radio communication platform to serve the Toronto area, and to demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry. It began construction in 1973 opened in 1976 and was meant to be a part of the Metro Centre development, which aimed to redevelop the large Spadina Street switching yard as CN shifted the functions of many of its yards in Greater Toronto to a centralized facility in Vaughan and viewed the yards' layout as increasingly outdated. Metro Centre was scrapped two years into the CN Tower's construction so CN Tower stood alone for some time until the 1984 completion of a convention center. Via Rail relocated their operations to a maintenance center in New Toronto which freed up lands for revitalization, SkyDome was completed in 1989, economic downturn caused many of the development plans to be shelved, much land stood abandoned until the Air Canada Centre/Scotiabank Arena opened in 1999, and now it's the CityPlace neighborhood.
The Newark Light Rail's Penn Station stop also has a loop! The stop has five tracks, two incoming and three outgoing, connected by two loop tracks. If you're transferring from the Broad Street Station section to the City Subway, they tell you to stay on the train (it first drops you at a platform just for those getting off at Penn) so it can go around the loop and drop you at the platform shared with Grove St-bound trains so you can have an easier time! On weekends, the two sections are operated jointly, so you just stay on the train! Newark's streetcar history runs deep! What's now PSEG headquarters was once the Public Service Terminal, a three-level streetcar station owned and operated by the Public Service Corporation, adjacent to the former Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's (which became PATH) former Park Place station (now NJPAC). Park Place closed in 1937 after Newark Penn opened in 1935. The Public Service Terminal served as the terminus for streetcar or interurban lines from as far as Trenton. Public Service was both a transportation company and a utility, providing electric and gas service to much of northern NJ, but today no longer runs transit with its energy utility becoming PSEG and selling its transit to NJT in the 1980s, and the terminal was demolished in 1981. Most streetcars used the upper level, reached by a ramp from Mulberry Street on the east side. Some used the lower level, reached on the west side from Washington Street by a two-block Cedar Street Subway. In 1935, the lower level was connected to the City Subway, but this wasn't used until 1937 as the City Subway's extension to Penn was delayed until 1937, and by the time the connection was used, Public Service was turning its routes into buses, so it was only briefly used between June and September that year. In 2006, the former Cedar Street subway junction with the City Subway line was re-purposed for the then new branch to Newark Broad Street station. The Newark Light Rail's Broad Street extension runs on the surface, but it runs in its own ROW that connects Newark's two train stations of Newark Penn and Newark Broad St, serving sites like NJPAC, Rutgers Business School, the main Newark Public Library, Berkeley College's Newark campus, and the Newark Museum of Art.
I made sure to be extra nice to people on my trip just in case they were prone to turning into destructive pandas!
I find it sad that Newark didn't buy the CLRV/CALRV's when they first came out in the early 1980's, but it was interesting to see the city and NJ Transit still use the PCC streetcars up ti the 1990's (IIRC and if I'm not mistaken.)
really enjoyed this video, lived in hamilton for a few years and moved to kitchener recently (previously berlin ontario) Hamiltons transit system is called the hamilton street railway which i find quite funny, kitchener currently has 1 operating lrt/tram line with a expansion planned to cambridge
i hope one day every canadian city will have streetcars again...
I hope so too!
The 509 and 510 were built in the 90s as a form of light rail, and the 512 on St Clair West was overhauled to run on a dedicated median corridor.
Toronto's streetcar system is quite unique in that streetcars are running in the heart of skyscrapers.
Yes, you don’t see that much!
@@Thom-TRA The only other similar example that comes to my mind is Hong Kong.
Also San Francisco as you can see at 14:02
Melbourne too.
Now I want to visit Toronto....
Greetings from Rotterdam
De groeten terug! Ik heb mijn vwo in Rotterdam gedaan
Ik kom uit Toronto maar ik heb ook in Rotterdam gewoond. De trams in Rotterdam zijn veel sneller dan die in Toronto, ze hebben gelijkvloers instappen en betere betrouwbaarheid. Maar de frequentie van tramlijnen in Toronto is hoger in het algemeen dan tramlijnen in Rotterdam
If you want the city shown in this video, stick to the area served by streetcars. The rest of the city can be depressingly car centric.
@@tristanridley1601the buses are good in most of Toronto
Torontos a dump!
Toronto resident here. Excellent video.
Thank you!!
Fun fact: Toronto’s streetcars, the Subway cars, and the GO Train cars are all built in the same factory in Thunder Bay - some 1000kms away as the crow flies, or 1400kms by ground transportation. And, because of the ‘Toronto Gauge’, they need to be brought in riding regular rail cars on CN or CPKC!
I bet that’s a fun sight to see!
My hometown!
We were in Toronto a few weeks ago and used the streetcar a lot. We took the Harbourfront line a lot since our Airbnb was on it, including taking it to the subway and taking it to the ferries. But my most memorable experience was taking the Queensway streetcar back from High Park. It passed through some fun looking residential neighborhoods - the next day I actually placed a delivery order from a restaurant just because I saw that restaurant from the streetcar and it looked good.
I love trying random restaurants that I find when riding transit!
Bruce, where were you visiting from, may I ask?
I live in Toronto and use Transit daily . I very much enjoyed your video. You included so much information (history and statistics) that I was not even aware of . Thank you for that . 😊
So glad you enjoyed it! Always makes me happy when locals do
There were a couple of times in your video I said to myself "no that's not correct" but when I checked... you were right :) I actually live on King St and I didn't know the night route was 304. I really enjoyed the video and am glad you enjoyed our city!
The once in Kitchener and Waterloo has driver's cabin both sides.
I visited Toronto in 1995. Taking pictures outside the Roncesville carhouse an operator took my pic on a PCC. Also when crossing the street to catch a trolley a had to wait for the light to change. The operator put her hand up indicating "I'll wait for you to cross on the green so you can board safely". I hope to get back there soon.
How kind of her!
the running in the middle crossing the street to board happens in parts of Warsaw too
Despite some complaints, the streetcars have always been a great part of why I love living in Toronto. It's so easy to get places since our subways are limited.
I like how you showed clips of San Francisco's historic streetcars, as they have a somewhat similar history (though some aren't as modern and the network is smaller)
The network isn’t much smaller than Toronto’s though
About the trolley poles - I remember on the old CLRV streetcars it was a semi regular occurrence for them to come loose from the wire. The whole streetcar would go dead and we’d have to wait while the operator got out a big pole and reattached it.
Living in Toronto I was not aware of some of the history and facts in this video. Great research and content. Glad you enjoyed your stay. One thing to mention is that the 501 line is the longest street car route in the world
I didn’t know that! Thanks for the fact
The streetcars in Toronto are an amazing concept. I’m glad they kept them
They're expanding the network as well, though construction has been predictably slow.
In 2015 I worked in the TTC Planning department and had the privilege of putting up the notices at all Sunday stops to be removed. The stops were mostly removed because they were all ridiculously close to other stops and unnecessarily complicated the system both for riders and for planners since they made travel times very unpredictable on Sundays. They were also generally not located at crosswalks as normal stops are, so we had some safety justification as well.
Interesting. Was there much backlash?
The worst backlash we got was a group of three ladies who group called the chief stops planner and lectured him over the phone.
When I was putting up the notices at Dundas & Bond St, a guy came up and said that we shouldn't remove the stop. I said "there's a normal stop right there" pointing at the stop 70m away, and he just said "oh okay" and left. So no, not much opposition.
However when we remove regular stops (we're trying to increase the stop spacing to 300m) there is a lot of opposition and the removals often get vetoed by the local councillor
The streetcars were much faster before the Flexities came in, the legacy network was not designed to handle such vehicles. Many of the issues include stops being spaced very close together, the slow acceleration of the vehicles themselves, and the single point switches at junctions that resulted in multiple derailments (this led to the stop and proceed policy at all switches on the network which frequently causes streetcars to miss green lights)
It sounds like they should have put more money in fixing the tracks. Because from a passenger perspective I think the flexities are an improvement.
@@Thom-TRA The ridiculous thing is the Leslie streetcar facility was built with proper double point switches but the TTC said they wont upgrade any of the switches on the network to them. There's plenty of things the TTC and city could do to improve streetcar service but they refuse to do it.
@@KangaRueProductions sounds about right unfortunately
In a straight line the Flexities in pantograph mode are faster than the older generations, but they are much slower around corners due to the wibbly wobbly wheel arrangement.
The absurd outdated switch technology remains because the TTC has spent more than a decade trying to decide on a new communications system between the streetcars and the switches.
To eliminate the need to stop at each switch and proceed at 10 km/h, they need a new comms system that can request the switch far enough in advance for it to be locked in the correct direction before the vehicle arrives, there needs to be a signal that operators can see that the switch is set correctly without needing to stop and look at the actual switch, and they need to use dual leaf switches to allow higher speeds.
A major cause of delays relates to the lines being in the middle of the street. If a tram is behind a car, or line of cars, waiting to make a left turn, it must simply wait, sometimes through two or more light changes. Of course, if a car or truck should have an accident across the track (even if only a centimetre across) the tram comes to a halt until it is cleared.
Wow, I thought I knew a lot about Toronto streetcars, but I learned a lot of new things. Great video!
The most glaring issue of the Toronto streetcar system is that cars are allowed to block intersections without serious fines (or, let's be real, any fines). This means cars that cross into intersections without somewhere to go and don't clear the rails block streetcars, often resulting in huge delays as numerous streetcars are backed up one after the other. This would be easy to fix with some paint, cameras and a hefty fine for that particular problem--as is common in other cities--but Toronto has for many years failed to take the leap on ensuring that cars that choose to block the tracks are fined commensurate with the delays they cause. This isn't a problem with the streetcar lines, it's a problem with the way the quality of travel is not equally valued--making that small change would improve travel for people driving private vehicles as well!
i grew up riding streetcars my whole life, they're an integral part of my childhood and got me to school everyday all the way up until university. i like them more than the dark subways. nothing feels more toronto to me than a bunch of guys hanging out in the back of a streetcar cracking jokes at the end of the night gently being slid home across the tracks
Great video! Lots of interesting history and other info regarding streetcars:)
Thank you!
Toronto's streetcar system is not "one of the largest" in North America -- it is the largest.
Those things aren’t mutually exclusive. If it is the largest, it is automatically also one of the largest. Fairly simple logic.
Welcome to my Hometown !!! So nice to hear you enjoyed your ride I so especially loved your research. Most can learn from you and your hard work. Huge thumbs up !!! 10 out of 10
Thank you so much! This comment is a 10 out of 10 too!
Interesting Evolution Of Streetcar Travel In Big City .😊Thanks 😊
One slight detail is that in 1980, the numbers actually fully replaced the names, so the Spadina Streetcar became the 510 full stop.
It wasn't until the Flexities came in that they reintroduced the names officially, which meant that they had to come up with a name for the 509, since it never originally had one besides it's marketing name "Harbourfront LRT"
Oh interesting
Well the names existed but only internally. It's like how the Rapid Transit network is internally numbered in the 600s. Line 1 is route 601, Line 2 is 602, Line 4 is 604, Line 5 is 605 etc.
The names still existed before the Flexities but they just weren't shown on the destination board. So for example "510 King" didn't mean a streetcar on King Street, it meant a streetcar on Spadina Avenue that would end at King Street.
But the streetcar route names were still used in other places like timetables.
@@stinkyroadhog1347The internal number for Line 1 is just 1, Line 2 is 2 and Line 4 is 4. Those 600-series numbers are from before the lines had public facing numbers. They are not used anymore.
15:20 Ontario Premier Doug Ford bursts through the screen like the Kool Aid man
Thank you for your well-informed video on Toronto's streetcar system. You're ight: We kept our tram system that's easily integrated with our subway system, but we bow to the pressures of car drivers, so the majority of our routes are mixed traffic hence and slow-moving. I just returned from San Francisco, where the LRTs are underground downtown, underground when going uphill, but other then that appropriately on street and mostly separately from traffic. I would move there just for that!
I love San Francisco! I was there just two weeks ago as well
Vancouver is an expensive but very livable city. I hope when their subway expansion opens up you will show us it.
If you take 501 Queen from end to end you'll love it. What a ride!
Toronto? You could have visited the colleague Reece Martin from RMTransit. That would be a cool crossover.
If he’d have made time for me of course
@@Thom-TRAHis loss, Thom. “If it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much.” 😊
@@Thom-TRAHe doesn't live in Toronto anymore.
good presentation and great photography of Toronto. And I love trolleys. As a kid, I enjoyed riding most of the lines in Philly. Like Toronto, there seems to be a trend to upgrade the existing lines, but as usual it takes forever to get it done.
I used to live close to Humber Loop and I love the streetcar system. By the way, you can hop on the streetcar within the fare paid zone at the following stations: Main Station, Dundas West, St Clair, St Clair West, Spadina, Bathurst and Union Stations. I do miss the CLRV and ALRVs.
The funny thing about the fares is that my mind always forgot to switch to Canadian dollars. So I’d think: “dang, that’s expensive.” And then I’d remember.
@@Thom-TRA I now live in Ottawa and I use Presto all the time. I can even use Presto in GTA as well as Ottawa. With OC Transpo Monthly Pass I can hop on the STO bus in Gatineau and board STO buses with OC Transpo pass loaded on Presto Card but cannot use Presto for single fare aboard STO. I love TTC, best system I used.
@@tkdbrother1977 I didn’t realize it was the same card!
@@Thom-TRA Presto is good on OC Transpo (Ottawa), TTC, Miway, Brampton Transit, Oakville Transit, Go Transit, YRT buses and Viva Buses. I hope they expand to the whole province. I was born and raised in Montreal and I dislike the Opus CARD and the system.
ua-cam.com/video/smC2GgwcBZo/v-deo.html
This video refreshed memories of our June ‘23 round trip on Amtrak’s Cardinal and Maple Leaf trains to Toronto. We rode the subway from Union Station, across from our hotel, to the Royal Ontario Museum and back, but did not experience the streetcars. I’m looking forward to your video about the Toronto Islands ferry which we rode. We had an enjoyable time walking the three islands.
The islands were my favorite part of the trip
Toronto also used to have electric buses which rolled on regular tires and used two trolley pickups to get both power lines from paired overhead wires. The streetcars (then and now) rely on the rails for a return path for the power and so only need a single overhead wire.
As I recall the pickup arms on the bus trolleys were quite long so the bus could freely move between the lanes on the street.
I remember loving the Toronto trolleys when I visited frequently---in the 1970s ! !
Must have felt like just yesterday haha
Great video! I’m from Toronto and didn’t know any of this. Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Thanks for this awesome video about the streetcars of Toronto. I appreciate your dedication to giving the history as well as how to ride it and its awesome features!!!
In Vienna, the trams are also driving in the middle of the street very often. This is because of a mix of mix of operational and historical reasons from the tramway-side and because of safety reasons for the cars. Historically, the trams here mostly ran in the middle of the street on streets with more lanes. Some years or decades, it was decided, that on streetcar-running-streets with two lanes per direction, one lane would become streetcar-only (buses, the police and the ambulance use this lane also sometimes). On the operational side, it was clever, that the tram lanes were toghether. It is also safer for car-drivers because they can enter streets without the fear of getting hit by a tram and furthermore on crossings, where the tram branches off in two directions, you know, where to look if a tram comes (the middle).
That’s a good solution! Dedicated is always better
Thanks for the most informative and scenic Toronto streetcar tour. Ligh rail? Trolley? I'm glad the classic "streetcar" name is still being spoken
Thank you for coming, we love our streetcars here in the 6ix. Have you to Bern, the capital of Switzerland? Their tram system is awesome!
Yes, I love the Bernmobile
So fascinating and informative! Thank you
Toronto public transit is so nice. It's air conditioned, it's quiet, and there's usually a seat (depending on what time you're taking it). The worst parts of it are actually transferring between vehicles and figuring out which one to take.
When l worked for the CN in Toronto l always used the street cars were l needed to go. Fantastic and convenient to get around. Thx Thom great video.
Thank you! Did you like working in Toronto?
Actually, there is a trend to run newer lines on the side of the street, like Cherry Street and Queens Quay. I was at a public meeting when someone suggested this for Cherry Street and the TTC changed their plans because they thought the idea had merit.
That’s good!
Most of the removed streetcar km in Toronto were above where subway lines were built. Notably Yonge Street and Bloor/Danforth. Other major one removed was Eglinton, to be replaced by electric trolley buses and soon an underground LRT that has been under construction for a dozen years. I road the Queen Street car to work for many years and love the street cars, although driving around them takes some practice.
Trams do this neat trick of making a city futuristic as well as giving it an old school charm. No other mode of transit pulls this off. And those TTC colours of red and white look great. Unfortunate that the new trams on the Crosstown and Finch lines will be painted a boring grey and white. Cheers.
I agree!
Happy that you enjoyed the streetcars in Toronto. I love the streetcars in the city and the easy connection with the Subway at Union station.
I just enjoyed everything about Toronto. Well, except for the attitude we got from a lot of the service workers…
I like the Toronto streetcar system other than Philly's. Toronto has a much larger system where you can see and explore the neighborhoods. You would love the CLRV/ALRVs that they had there. That really made it like a street car. I last wrote it in 2017. When they were just transitioning from CLRVs to the Flexity streetcars. Only the 509 Harbourfront and the 510 Spadina Streetcars had the Flexitys ,the other lines had the CLRVs. I'm glad I was able to record it when I first came to Toronto in 2009 and in 2017. Hopefully, on your visit back to Toronto, Thom, you'll explore more of the city on streetcar. Can't wait for your Toronto ferry videos. That was fun too when I rode them!!
Last time I was in town I saw the CLRVs. I wish I had taken some pictures then…
@@Thom-TRA I hope you’ve had the opportunity to ride the subway system including the now gone Scarborough RT line. That would make for a great video.
I’m glad you visited in the summer. There are currently major disruptions to streetcars on Queens Quay and Spadina due to construction and upgrades, so it’s a bit of a mess.
I live equidistant to both a streetcar stop and a subway station. I have to admit it’s nice having multiple transit options depending on where I’m going and whether or not there are any service/weather disruptions, etc.
Multiple options is always great! Something I really enjoyed in Chicago and now in DC.
Excellent video! Thanks for all the work you put into it. It was very informative.
You’re welcome!
Although the Flexities are the largest individual vehicles at just under 30m, the TTC has historically operated longer coupled pairs of 15m PCCs on the Bloor streetcar line until that was replaced by the subway in 1966. And even further back, the TTC used Peter Witt streetcars with trailers on busy routes such as the Yonge streetcar line that was replaced by the subway in 1954.
I never knew the PCCs were that long
Yeah streetcar opponents called them buses on rails but they were actually a fair bit bigger than a bus
PCC trains were only 90 feet long, so each car was about 13.7 m long, not 15. CLRV were around 51 m long. The Peter Witt Cars on Yonge Street were about 51 feet long with a similar length trailer. The line was converted to a subway in 1954, line 1.
FUN FACT! The first major transportation system in Toronto was founded by a Black Millionaire in the 1850s named James Mink, who went from former slave to businessman. He had a hotel, livery and coach service that was in wide use around the time, along with his brother George.
I am literally flying out of Toronto right now. Can’t believe you post this at the same time!
Hope you had a good time! Unless you line there lol, idk
Cool stuff dude. Hope you visit Toronto again soon. It’s a great city to visit and I spent my whole life living here
It’s a great city! I did not have enough time to see it all
Indeed. Hopefully next time you come for a longer visit.
Hoi from Toronto! I just discovered your channel, loved this video and subscribed. Looking forward to watching more of your content. I live in Toronto, love transit, and am a wheelchair user.
While I like the streetcars and am very happy Toronto has kept them, the accessible design of these units means I can't board independently. The ramps are too steep. They need to be longer or there needs to be a wheelchair lift for wheelchair users to board independently.
To board:
- The drivers have to get out to physically deploy the ramps,
- then I have to uncover and unfold my fold down push handles, this means taking the custom hand sewed bag off of the back of my wheelchair and putting it on my lap.
- give the driver's a lesson on how not to break my wheelchair. It's a $5,500 custom titanium ultra-light wheelchair.
- then they have to pull me backwards up the ramp. (I hate other people pushing me and especially don't like going backwards.).
Unlike busses, there's also no tie downs/secure spots for wheelchair users. So those tight turns mean my ultralight wheelchair moves even with the breaks on. Subways are large enough vehicles that my wheelchair rarely slides around.
Hopefully by the time you're back in Toronto the Crosstown LRT is actually running (maybe), and all the subways stations are accessible.
Enjoyed your video.✌
Glad you enjoyed it!
Im a Torontonian that just got home from my trip to Amsterdam today haha
We often complain about our transit system so it's nice to see a visitor complimenting and teaching me about my own transit system
It has changed a bit from being a teen in the 80's . Lived at Queen and Niagara for 10 years . When moved to suburbs for a few years i found it hard to sleeo because was si use to sound of the streetcars 😂😂 Glad to be back in city . Brampton transit was brutal . Lived equal distance from job and 2.5 hours for there . From city was always under 90 minites . Perfect timing and it was a hour !!! Hamilton transit good for when i travel there and the moat polite transit riders i have seen ! Yes really !
Thanks for sharing this well balanced coverage and history of Toronto's streetcar network. It's great they preserved their system and if a little less "car brain" it could be a really world class system. That must be so fustrating to see a streetcar with 50 or 100 people on it get delayed by one person turning left in a car. That's so interesting about the Toronto guage and about how they had Sunday services for churgoers into the 2010s. In a way seems sensible when it some other cities churches and urbanists have all too often found themselves at loggerheads over the churches wanting to guarantee parking for their parishioners on Sunday mornings versus urbanists wanting to improve things for all users on all days of the week.
You have to visit the Halton County Radial Railway Museum in Milton! They have all sorts of transit history from vehicles of the 1920s, tram cars from different cities, and the recently retired TTC CLRVs and ALRVs. You can take a ride on their streetcars there. It's a nice place to visit if you're also into transit history.
I’ve heard about it! Would love to!
Great video, very informative! Looking forward to seeing more of your Toronto transit adventures.
Thank you! Subway, ferries, and Amtrak to look forward to!
Aw I don't know what it brings tears to my eyes to learn the history of our mundane yet remarkably resistant lil ol' Toronto streetcar system. I didn't know there was a feud between the subway and streetcars, I always thought of them as sisters in arms. I hope we keep being on the right side of transit history in the future!
I'm from Toronto, and I actually learned a few things from this video, like why Toronto gauge is the way it is. Thanks!
I'd say the biggest problem with the Toronto streetcar system is the lack of urgency with which they perform maintenance and repairs. Entire lines get taken out of service and replaced by shuttle buses for literal years for service upgrades and past due track maintenance. I kind of have a joke with myself that I can't move somewhere near a streetcar line without it getting taken out of service. It seriously depresses ridership levels, because people need their daily commuter routes to be reliable, and nobody wants to take a slow packed-to-the-gills shuttle bus every day.
Yup the tracks just don't last.
Streetcars are a Toronto icon, especially as the old antique ones (PCC model). I rode them many times where I lived there in 86, 87. The PCC street cars were first designed in the 1930s, still running in Toronto in the 90s! Now people call the CLRV cars as 'old,' but to me they seem modern and new. eh but I have not been in downtown toronto in 25 years.
Hi Guy, great video. If you wanted to see some of the older Streetcars of the TTC, you should head west young man, well about a 2 hour drive to a place called Rockton Ontario, where they have a museum dedicated to the streetcars of the TTC.
That sounds like a place I need to visit!
@@Thom-TRA Get thee to the Halton County Radial Railway!
I love Toronto
The TTC streetcars and infrastructure are my favorite way as a Canuck to see if the film or TV project was produced in Toronto... Chances are if you see tracks in a road it's Toronto and NORTH NEW YORK... Aka New New New York... Since Futurama already claimed New New York, you know... Edmonton's valley line is using the Bombardier Flexity Freedom variant that Kit-Wat also uses.. So far they've had about 15 minor and major accidents since opening late last year but nothing that's closed the line for any real extensive periods of time thankfully. Solidly built trains that even when they derail don't cause a whole lot of damage except to the fibreglass drivers cab/shell space...
I watched the video as soon as it appeared and gave it a second like!
It is very interesting to find out the reason why Toronto streetcar gauge so unique!
Streetcars moving throught the streets without any priority, passenger boarding in the street middle with no safety zones - we still have all this in many cities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The transition from the tram pole to the pantograph is correct and effective, now the same we can see in Riga and Daugavpils, Latvia.
Another interesting fact is that the streetcars in Toronto were replaced not only by the subway and buses, but also by trolleybuses. The city had a large trolleybus network, but it was closed in 1993 because it had not been updated or modernized for a long time... It just fell into disrepair.
The same thing was happened in Moscow - a long time ago, many tram routes were replaced by trolleybuses, there were not many trams left, but tram network survived, and the trolleybus network was closed.
Wow, a second like! Lucky me!
What a great video! I visited Toronto for the first time last month and I took public transit everywhere. In particular, the streetcar was my goto option for getting around. My hotel was across the street from the Queens Quay station. I didn't ride a single Uber during my trip (which was great). One thing that I thought was confusing was Google directions, it told me that I had to ride the 510 to get to my destination so I was waiting at the bus stop on the street level when a driver told me that the station was below.
Thank you! Yeah Google isn’t always great at 3D directions haha. Driving in Chicago, where some streets have 3 levels, was always a mess.
Toronto is a true gritty city with a very large tram network, very rare indeed, in fact one of a kind
Excellent video. I have some complaints about streetcar experience but ultimately I do like like it. It's the best option out of all TTC vehicles IMO
ALSTOM also built the Flexity LRVs for VGF in Frankfurt
It was Alstom together with bombardier
Interesting stuff. I'm off to Toronto thos weekend (first time to Canada) and looking forward to spending 9 days there.
Have fun!
Our trolley system here in San Diego isn’t bad and it’s fairly extensive.
I lived next to the St. Clair street car line in Toronto back in 1977/78. I don’t know if it’s still there and I imagine the neighborhood has changed a lot since then.
Great video! Thanks!
I really want to visit San Diego
The San Diego Trolley is the only streetcar in North America where you can go to another country ... Mexico.
San Diego also has 2 Vintsge Trolley cars than alternate with the very 1rst u2 trolley and only runs on holidays and is called the Silver Line.
I think I love this channel! Great info!
And it’s not even Valentine’s Day yet
I went two weeks ago to Toronto for my first time, and took the street car 510 from the harbor to Union Station and down there that curve is very very tight. I was a little bit confused because everybody had to offload there. Very nice system.
I hope you enjoyed your trip!
@@Thom-TRA Oohh yeah... We had a great time... The metro was a lot easier, to get to our Airbnb, our stop was Finch West from Union Station, also bus number 41 was very useful in that area once you get to the finch West station, running every 15 minutes precisely, even though it was a 5-minute walk.
Nice analysis. Please come again and see more of Toronto! 😉 The major Canadian cities are mostly all walkable and safe over large areas and have distinct neighbourhoods, like in Europe. This is how most Canadian cities developed.
This is very different than the US, where only SOME major cities are walkable and ONLY in limited areas. In US cities, you really have to be aware of safe and unsafe neighbourhoods almost anywhere you go (any time of the day or night). The opposite is true in Canada, where the default is mostly safe neighbourhoods almost any time, with sketchy areas being fairly rare and limited in size.
The US is a FAR more car-centric country than Canada. To be sure, outside of the big Canadian cities, cars are a must due to the vastness of the country (2nd largest in the world) and the relatively small population.
Great videography. When I am in TO I use the streetcars extensively downtown.
Thanks!
@@Thom-TRA I would love to see an on wheel series of rail videos with you and Reese along with an discussion between the two of you regarding Toronto rail and bus transit. Discussion of what is working, what should happen and plans for Streetcar, regional rail and subways and buses.
@@pauldevey8628 I wonder if he’d give a small guy like me the time of day
Well the streetcars in Toronto can only go in one direction they do have an additional set of controls under a locked cover at the back of the streetcar for yard operations
Which is smart
@@Thom-TRA definitely. There have been occasions where they have been used outside of the yard but I think that's rare. Although the yards or barns as they are called in Toronto ( a hold over from the old horse drawn streetcars) have tracks around them so that both sides can be accessed. Right now they have three barns and are looking at converting an old mantanice shop into a fourth.
Thank you! I absolutely love the livery if those trams. It is almost identical to the traditional team livery in my home city if St.Petersburg, Russia. 😊 And we also have the tracks in the middle of the street most of the time...
Beautiful popping red color!
@@Thom-TRA more like thick red and white horizontal stripes. It used to be a standard, but apparently manufacturers insisted on full red for most modern tram sets.
I visited Toronto in 2012 and navigated the city by streetcar and subway. It was very convenient and the streetcar operators were friendly. I was in Philadelphia last week visiting friends, and rode the restored Route 15 trolley along Girard. The old PCC cars are fun, but I'm looking forward to the planned, new cars for both the el and the trolley by Alstom. Hopefully SEPTA restores the line up to Chestnut Hill, or at least a portion of it. Getting around by tram is a pleasant experience and convenient in general, so I'm hopeful for continued investment and improvements in North America.
Septa’s new fleet looks amazing. Hoping their new regional rail trains will carry on the tradition of good design.
Oh wow that looks great. As a Hagenaar I enjoy watching those tram videos. Groetjes van Den Haag!
De groeten terug van een Leidenaar!
Groetjes uit Toronto!
Another tip is the Presto cards cost $6 CAD. The Toronto Public Library has the cards and they will give them to you for free. You don’t need a card or ID
Great tip!
Interesting roundup of history 👍🏼
Btw we still have a few of those centrally placed tracks in Budapest that don't have side platforms, for lack of space. Most have been phased out though.
Yes, I remember taking the tram from the Margaret Island and the platforms were in the middle. But there were underpasses so it felt safer!
I'm a 73 year old born and bred Torontonian and though I loved those old PCC streetcars I'm old enough to realize that things change . Those streets that " were ounce dominated by trolleys " were also ounce dominated by horses . Time marches on !
I see the cover Pic. My immediate thought was, "ooooh. I'm so sorry."
No need to be so negative here
Great video on Toronto
Thanks!
Your welcome