Megaton327
Senior Member
Many of the stops you are proposing they eliminate are high demand, and since the reconstruction, stops are well-spaced-apart as it is. From the tunnel (Union, and Queen's Quay Station--hope you're not proposing they eliminate that, half the people getting on at Union get off there in the summer, same at morning rush especially since RBC expanded) to Spadina you have described exactly the stops that exist currently. However, at that point there are some issues: Dan Leckie and Bathurst are both extremely busy stops in my experience. Combining them would inconvenience about half of the streetcar's rush hour users, and makes no sense for a local, non-express route. Similarly, I have found that Bastion is anywhere from 75% to equally busy as Fleet--Dan Leckie, Bathurst, Fleet, and Bastion seem to be almost the entirety of the streetcar's load during rush hours, provided a 510 is kind enough to run ahead of it at the east stops. After that point, Fort York could potentially be eliminated as the two condos that it serves are only a couple of metres closer to it than Bastion, but then Strachan needs to be kept as it can get very busy during events at the DEC and some people transfer between 509/511 and the 29 there. Even if you combine Dan Leckie with Bathurst, and eliminate Bastion--note I would be more in favour of combining Bastion with Fleet at Stadium instead actually--you're not shaving much run time off the route or really preventing it from catching many reds. Bastion's light is almost always green, and loading/unloading usually takes less then 5 seconds there now that POP is in place. Merging 4 stops into 2 will not fix the route and suddenly open it up sufficiently for the extra vehicles needed for the WWLRT--it will save 1 minute, 2 if you're really lucky, each way, and at the cost of a significantly longer walk for many residents.
You seem to be mixing the need for WWLRT, an express/RT line, with the 509, a very well-used local service that serves a route packed with densely populated condos. Yes, WWLRT needs a quick route with few stops, but dismembering the 509 will do huge collateral damage for absolutely no reason whatsoever, as it is a local, non-express route. I think while most WWLRT riders would hate all of the Fleet/QQ stops if it ran along that route, you'll similarly find that most 509 riders will say that, as far as the number/spacing of stops goes, that's not a real issue for the line at all.
Burying it from Dan Leckie to, say, Fleet and Stadium would of course be nice, but there is simply no money for that, especially given that it would only save 3-4 minutes.
Right now, the issue with the 509 is the absolutely idiotic signals along the revitalized QQ, in addition to the sheer number of them. We'll have to wait and see how the priority signalling works starting June/July--CNE increased service should be a really good indicator of how it is. I am strongly suspecting it will be almost as crippling to the 509 as it is today, but I'm a pessimist. Other issues are the pedestrians who jaywalk right in front of the streetcar on its very short green signals, in large crowds, with kids, not caring at all; the cars that block the ROW; the cars that enter the ROW and get confused and decide to sit there for 10 minutes looking at a map...but lights are the biggest. If future service is added the amount of service density on the line--and limitations at Union, unless the toyed-with second loop is built--will get to be an issue, but removing 2 stops will not fix that by even 1 minute.
