Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Trouble on 501 Queen line


There has been alot of talk about the 24.8 km 501 Queen streetcar line in the news lately. It is the TTC's longest surface route, the longest streetcar route operating in Canada, and one of the longest in North America. It stretches from the Long Branch GO Station (just west of Browns Line) at the western edge of the city in the west to Neville Park loop (just west of Victoria Park Avenue) in the east, running on Lake Shore Boulevard, in a reserved right-of-way at the median of The Queensway, and on Queen Street.

The route was named by National Geographic Society as one of the 10 Great Streetcar routes in the world. Among others were the Berlin StraBenbahn Tram 68, Lisbon's Companhia de Carris de Ferro de Lisboa (Carris) 28 Tram, Seattle's Metro Transit Geroge Benson Waterfront Streetcar, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority St. Charles Streetcar Tour, Hong Kong Tramways and San Francisco Municipal Railway Streetcar F.

And yet I still hate the streetcar. Here is reason #592. Stopped in their tracks due to an accident at Spadina and Queen, six "world famous" streetcars sit and wait and wait and wait. Hope you don't have to be anywhere in a hurry....

1 comment:

amidnightrider said...

Those cars should have one of those "cow" thing fronts. When there is an accident, the street car could simply put the vehicles out of it's way.