Cars, not streetcars, are problem
Toronto’s streetcars form part of our fabric. They lend glamour to our flat, modern, grid-based city. Naming Toronto No. 1 on its list of Top 10 trolley rides, National Geographic magazine writes, “Route 501 boasts one of the longest streetcar routes in North America. Starting on Lakeshore Boulevard, it whisks through lively downtown Toronto and into the Beach district.”
Okay. But the 501 doesn’t whisk. Like other streetcars, it crawls, it bunches. Our poor streetcars provide ter- rible service. On Monday I described the squalor of my morning commute on the 501 Queen streetcar. I was engulfed by mail, from streetcar riders and operators, more than I have ever received for a story. Many share Terence Corcoran’s view — scrap the streetcars.
“Streetcars are fine for Judy Garland in ‘Ding, ding ding went the trolley,’ ” writes Marcel St. Pierre, a Toronto comic. “They have no place in 21stcentury Toronto. Get rid of them.”
This is absurd. Last year I visited Berlin, Budapest and Helsinki. Guess what? Streetcars provide much of the public transit in all three cities. Across Europe, cities are buying trams.
Closer to home, Portland, Ore., has had streetcars for 13 years; Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Tucson, Ariz., and Washington are all putting in streetcar lines. It’s smooth, clean, elegant, costeffective transportation. Plus, you can look out the window.
What slows streetcars in Toronto? Automobiles. To get our streetcars moving we must enforce restrictions on vehicles on major streetcar routes during peak times. The city is studying a ban on cars on King Street during rush hour.
Drivers will squawk when we kick them off King. But city council’s decision to allow a gold rush of condo construction has already tipped the balance of power downtown from motorists. Deborah Belgrove, the frustrated Queen streetcar commuter I met Monday, sold her car after her twins left home and moved into a condo on Queen Street West. She is not going to buy another car, nor should she. She expects the Queen streetcar to reliably take her to her job at St. Michael’s Hospital.
We should hike Toronto Transit Commission fares, and use the money to hire more streetcar operators, repair streetcars and add inspectors to ensure riders pay fares. Politicians should also tell police enforcing no-stopping zones and left-turn restrictions is a priority. Toronto needs a congestion charge, as has succeeded in London, England.
The TTC must share blame for terrible streetcar service. As a driver writes, “King Street has too much service for the stations on the ends. Streetcars are scheduled every two minutes; neither Broadview or Dundas West Station can handle it. The TTC would be better off to schedule fewer cars to go all the way to the ends, rather than have all cars scheduled to and then short turn many.”
I share his fear the new, longer streetcars will flop: “Bigger cars, fewer cars, more people waiting, slower loading, more bunching.”
Replace streetcars with buses? This will make no difference. Go, ride the 60 Steeles or the 36 Finch bus. In rush hour, these buses move no faster than the King streetcar. The problem is not the mode of surface transit.
Perhaps the most fascinating response to our series, Streetcar Blues, comes from Kristin Annable, who worked at the National Post last summer and is now at the Winnipeg Sun.
“Gotta say @pkuitenbrouwer’s #streetcarnage strangely makes me miss Toronto, horrible streetcars and all,” she tweeted.
I replied, “That is sick. Most readers are telling me it’s proof I should leave town.”
She responded, “The hustle, the bustle. I miss it. Winnipeg’s all cars. Where’s the human interaction?”
This puts our streetcar woes in perspective. There is something special about our stoic suffering on our overcrowded public transit system. As citizens, it brings us together. Why else is everyone moving here?