Bathurst Streetcar

[unimaginative2]

I've always thought that it would make a lot of sense to run the Bathurst streetcar through to St. Clair and have the connection with the bus there. I know a lot of people who ride up from Bathurst south of Bloor to go north on the Spadina line. It's a pretty awkward trip for them, having to go east to St. George and then back up again. Having the Bathurst bus and streetcar connect directly at St. Clair West would make it easy for people going from Bathurst up north to downtown, from Bathurst south of Bloor to the northern end of the Spadina line, and would only require one climate controlled connection from bus to streetcar for people to go from south of Bloor to north Bathurst. The only real losers would be people going to points on the Bloor line west of downtown, but I'd imagine that isn't a terrifically big demographic.

The streetcar tracks are already in place, of course.

 

[T.O.Fanatic]

I always thought the same thing, I live at Eglinton and Marlee, and work at Ontario Place. I could never understand why I had to get off at Bathurst Stn when the tracks went all the way up to St Clair West, which would simplify the trip home immensely.

 

[EnviroTO]

I agree. I think St.Clair West station makes more sense as the terminus for the Bathurst Nouth bus and the Bathurst streetcar. This would make one of the largest indoor bus terminals the potential hub it should be. Two streetcar lines, multiple bus routes, and a subway station.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

+1 However I always thought the issue with running streetcars on Bathurst North of the TTC yard was that if a streetcar (one of the ARLV's?) got stuck going up the hill there would be no vehicle that could push it up said hill. Would the new streetcars overcome that deficiency? If yes then it should absolutely be something for the TTC to look into.

 

[Dan416]

Sounds very logical.

 

[sixrings]

how about all the way up to eglinton.... could connect with the lrt line there...

 

[andomano]

While we're at it, why not extend it all the way to the Holland River?

 

[ShonTron]

I wouldn't be the only one here to point out that St. Clair West would be a quagmire if this was to happen, based upon the previous route detours caused by the Bathurst CP underpass work that had a Bathurst North and and a Bathurst South bus both terminating here. The shortage of CLRV and ALRVs to cover the current network (there's a few posts on Munro's blog discussing this problem) would also result, at the least, in increased service unreliability on the 511.

That said, I like the idea of the 511 to St. Clair West and the 7 terminating there as well, as it seems to reflect travel patterns well. But I'm skeptical that SCW Station will be able to accommodate it without delays to all routes using the station.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Maybe when the new streetcars are out.

Another alternative is to scrap the streetcar route altogether and have the bus go all the way down to Exhibition.

 

[sjc]

An option would be to run the streetcars through St. Clair West station and on to St. Clair station, giving the route a connection to the Yonge subway line. The additional streetcars needed could, in part, be found by using some of the ones currently on the St. Clair - St. Clair West service.

 

[sixrings]

No way replace a streetcar line with a BUS. I could understand if we had the finances making the streetcar south of Bloor go underground but a bus NO WAY.... ACtually Id like to see the bathurst streetcar underground south of bloor...

 

[RedRocket191]

No way replace a streetcar line with a BUS. I could understand if we had the finances making the streetcar south of Bloor go underground but a bus NO WAY.... ACtually Id like to see the bathurst streetcar underground south of bloor...

+0.5

I don' t think it needs to be underground - I think it's one of the faster streetcar routes in my experience. But bustitution means more vehicles necessary to transport the same amount of people, and these vehicles will take up two lanes through weaving in and out of traffic.

 

[M II A II R II K]

There would be more of a case to make Spadina streetcar underground, north of Queen.

 

[The Mad Navigator]

There would be more of a case to make Spadina streetcar underground, north of Queen.

What's the point? The subway takes care of the demand from Dupont down to Bloor, and north of Dupont, is low density residential where most of the residents there drive anyhow.

 

[golodhendil]

What's the point? The subway takes care of the demand from Dupont down to Bloor, and north of Dupont, is low density residential where most of the residents there drive anyhow.

Um, the Spadina streetcar only starts at Bloor and runs south from it.