Complaints about sluggish service on busy TTC streetcar line continue to roll in
A TTC route along one of the busiest corridors in Toronto has been met with an onslaught of complaints over the past year, mostly concerning its sluggish and congested service, which often makes travel on the line a complete nightmare.
In multiple videos posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday night, multiple 504 King streetcars are seen travelling back-to-back within a few blocks of each other, leading to standstill traffic in the area.
A wee 🧵.
— Eric H Klaver (@ericklaver) November 23, 2023
This was my commute, erm… walk home last night. 12 minutes sped up to a little over two minutes. Between Peter and King there were 14 streetcars stuck for nothing other than traffic congestion. This is not unusual lately and absolutely ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/3B2dNhyXY6
Back in 2017, the King Sreet Pilot Project was created in an effort to ease traffic flows through the jammed area and improve streetcar reliability by implementing new rules for car traffic so streetcars could get through more quickly and easily.
After much success, city council extended the pilot and made the King Street Transit Priority Corridor permanent in 2019.
Numbers sourced by CityNews show that prior to the pilot, travel eastbound from Bathurst Street to Jarvis Street via the streetcar took 19 minutes at best, 23 minutes on average and 26 minutes at worst.
This is what Toronto’s busiest streetcar corridor looks like on a Thursday evening (watch till the end). As a city, we need to decide whether we want our downtown to have a functional transit system, or free and unrestricted access for cars. We can’t have both. @cityoftoronto pic.twitter.com/aZbq2i8hLc
— Daniel Gordon (@danielgordon94) November 24, 2023
Following the pilot program, traffic flows were eased considerably in the area — with data showing that travel along the corridor took 14 minutes at best, 16 minutes on average and 18 minutes at worst.
However, travel wait times have only increased in the past few years, and have even surpassed pre-pilot figures, with the average commute on the busy route taking approximately 26 minutes in September 2023, and even longer during peak hours.
@TorontoPolice had the temerity to ticket a streetcar for blocking traffic. Have a look here at the number of cars running through the Yonge intersection alone. pic.twitter.com/8MUvOb0cdw
— Eric H Klaver (@ericklaver) November 23, 2023
Some have continued to blame the failure of the program on drivers in the area, who allegedly ignore travel rules, park their vehicles in prohibited areas, and refuse to follow the posted signage restricting non-TTC vehicles from turning left through key intersections.
King streetcar somehow even slower now than before the Transit Priority Corridor 😬https://t.co/g8au99twdo #TTC #Toronto
— blogTO (@blogTO) November 14, 2023
Construction in the area — namely at Queen-Yonge and Adelaide-York — also means more drivers continue to use King Street as a detour.
Residents and commuters in the area have long called for more traffic enforcement on King, with some city councillors even endorsing the idea of implementing automated enforcement along the corridor.
Fareen Karim
