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Earlier this Spring, a new advocacy group called FastTrackTO proposed a bold 10-point plan to speed up Toronto's infamously and maddeningly slow streetcar network, to reduce travel times by as much as 40 per cent. Media coverage of the plan upon its release in March was decent, but UrbanToronto is digging more deeply into the plan across this second of three stories on the topic, putting it squarely front and centre in peoples' minds as anticipation for Toronto's 2026 municipal election this Fall begins to build. To help accomplish this, we are presenting the plan in depth, in three parts, looking at how for it to succeed fully, the City's agencies needs to address each of the points.
Last week's coverage of FastTrackTO's plan explored their first three proposals for a better streetcar and light rail network:
- One: Make Transit Signal Priority Work Better,
- Two: Split the Crossing, Speed Up Signals, and
- Three: Stop Slowing Down Streetcars That Could Safely Go Faster.
These initial items touched on some of the most straightforward, low-cost solutions to chronic issues plaguing Toronto's surface rail network. The next three, however, cut deeper into long-held operational norms at both the TTC and the City of Toronto's Transportation Services department. Speaking with UrbanToronto, FastTrackTO co-founder and respected transit expert Jonathan English explained that the city could unlock vast improvements in streetcar speeds and reliability if these operational norms were shifted to better align with international best practices.
Four: Prevent Unnecessary Emergency Stops
On Toronto's recently built LRT lines along Finch and Eglinton Avenues, a web of onerous "safety" protocols regulating vehicle operations has come under fire for dramatically slowing down transit. While City Hall and the TTC have promised to review these operational norms, FastTrackTO has highlighted suboptimal emergency stop software as a major culprit. Currently, the system triggers a sudden, violent emergency stop if a vehicle operator goes even a few kilometres per hour over the prescribed speed limit. English told us, "These harsh stops can be dangerous for standing passengers, and necessitate operators to constantly check their speed and take their eyes off the road."
To resolve this, FastTrackTO proposes a simple solution: alter the vehicle software to automatically cap acceleration once maximum speeds are reached. This would allow operators to comfortably drive at the maximum permitted speed and focus fully on the tracks ahead, without the constant anxiety of accidentally triggering a disruptive, traffic-halting manoeuvre. Beyond the hours required for the TTC and likely its P3 partner to rewrite a few lines of code, this fix would be virtually free to implement, and it is all but guaranteed to speed up general traffic flow while improving the ride quality for transit users.
Five: Eliminate Left Turns Where They Don't Belong
Across the hundreds of major intersections throughout Toronto, including those where streetcar or LRT services operate, left turns are near-universally permitted—regardless of how much congestion they cause. On narrower streets like Queen or Dundas, streetcars regularly waste entire signal cycles waiting for a single motorist to complete an unprotected left turn. Meanwhile, on wider avenues like Eglinton and St Clair, transit vehicles in dedicated rights-of-way sit idling because the lengthy light cycles required to facilitate dedicated left-turn signals hold up all other traffic, delaying transit riders and private motorists alike.
FastTrackTO proposes eliminating these left turns where possible and instead shifting left-turning traffic movements onto adjacent side streets. English points to the intersection of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue as a prime example: "The 510 Spadina streetcar frequently sits through multi-minute signal cycles, which are elongated by motorists trying to turn westbound onto Dundas Street West from northbound Spadina Avenue. Removing this left turn and directing motorists along one-way Grange Avenue and Huron Street to reach Dundas Street West instead would drastically shorten intersection wait times, speeding up travel on both Spadina and Dundas—two chronically congested downtown arterials."
Six: Stop Stopping at Every Switch
Any Torontonian who spends time south of Bloor Street will quickly become familiar with the seemingly inexplicable sight of a streetcar coming to a complete stop right before entering an intersection during a green light. This transit-slowing and congestion-inducing practice stems from the TTC's failure to install automatic track switch detectors—a technology that is nearly a century old. These devices allow a streetcar to verify well ahead of time whether an upcoming track switch is aligned in the correct direction. Because these internationally widespread systems are not in place anywhere on the network's on-street tracks, streetcar operators must halt, request the switch position, and visually confirm it is set correctly before proceeding. If a switch happens to be misaligned, the operator is forced to step out into live traffic and use a three-foot tool to manually wrench the switch into place.
Fortunately, an off-the-shelf solution is readily available and has been successfully implemented on street railways across the globe for decades. Unlike the multi-billion-dollar, tri-government light rail extensions the City of Toronto is pursuing for the Port Lands and Eglinton Avenue East, funding for this specific fix could easily be absorbed by the City's annual capital budget. In English's words, implementing it would be "an easy win for the TTC and riders, and one that is nearly a century overdue."
This second trio of proposed solutions to long-standing issues within Toronto's streetcar and LRT network requires a comprehensive rethink of how the systems regulating mobility in Toronto operate—from the physical configuration of our streets to the very code on which transit vehicles run. Opposition is all but guaranteed, whether it stems from concerns over increasing TTC expenses during a budget crunch or the friction of shifting traffic onto smaller side streets. However, English asserts that "the improvements in operational efficiency and the reduction in congestion would more than pay for themselves" if implemented as part of the comprehensive plan his organization has advanced. "Remember, these improvements compound; the benefits of one enhance the benefits of the others, for example, more reliable journey times make Transit Signal Priority more effective, and so on."
This article is the second in a series of three examining FastTrackTO's "10-Point Plan to Fix Toronto’s Streetcars and LRT". UrbanToronto will continue to follow updates on Toronto's surface rail network, but in the meantime, you can learn more about our new Light Rail Transit lines from our Database files, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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