June 3, 2015 by Steve

504 King Cars Returning to King Street (Updated)

After a long absence courtesy of a shutdown of the King Street branch of the Queen/Don Bridge, streetcars will return to King east from Parliament to the Don on Friday, June 5. This will put the 504 King and 503 Kingston Road Tripper cars back on a route they have not seen since mid-2013.

Construction under the Don Bridge of infrastructure to support the development of West Don Lands undermined the bridge foundations which, as it turns out, are wooden piers. Infrastructure Ontario, the agency in charge of the overall project to build the Atheletes’ Village in the WDL, has claimed that King Street would reopen at several possible dates going back to fall 2014.

This will also mark the first streetcar traffic over the new intersection at Sumach Street that leads south to Cherry Street, the WDL and the Distillery District. That line is expected to begin service in Spring 2016 when new residents start moving in to the neighbourhood. The TTC has not yet announced what route structure will be used to serve Cherry south to the loop at the rail corridor (just north of the old Cherry Street Tower).

A comment left by a reader in another thread adds a few details:

503/504 service will be restored on King St. East between Parliament St. and Queen St. East at 5 AM June 05 2015. The city and its contractor (Aecon) have completed repairs and the TTC has replaced the trolley wire. Test streetcars have already been conducted with good results. The TTC will be posting at stops and on web site of changes, as well as having alternate duties employees at the affected Queen St. East stops to advise customers of the restoration of service. (nfitz will be very happy)

Updated June 5, 2015 With Photos

The century-old housing that provided a backdrop for diverting King cars on Parliament will soon disappear under yet more new condominiums.

Meanwhile, down on King, the landscape has changed a lot since the 504 last plied these rails. The black building is a new condo while the brown one across the street, with a Tim Horton’s that has been busy from the day it opened, is a new Toronto Community Housing building.

At Sumach, the new intersection leads south to track on Cherry that will be activated in Spring 2016 when new condo residents move in to what is now the Pan Am Games Athletes’ Village.

: June 4: SB on Parliament at Adelaide

: June 4: SB on Parliament at Richmond

: June 5: EB on King at River

: June 5: WB on King W of River

: June 5: EB on King at Sumach

June 2, 2015 by Steve

Queens Quay Two Way Traffic Begins

On Monday, June 1, the transition to the “new” two-way operation of Queens Quay started with conversion of the traffic signals at Bay Street to their new configuration. This work will progress westward with one intersection a day until June 10.

The new traffic controllers are supposed to have much more sophisticated transit priority provisions than are used elsewhere in Toronto, and their ability to speed up operations on the streetcar right-of-way will be interesting to watch. I have already requested vehicle tracking data for May 2015 as “before” information, and the June 2015 data, when it comes, will show the degree to which the new signals actually perform as claimed.

(Existing signals have no transit priority at all. They merely cycle through a standard program which does more to hinder transit vehicles than to help them.)

Work on the overall Queens Quay project is nearing completion in many areas, although visitors may be forgiven for doubting this given the ever-present and shifting construction barriers. The weekly construction notice gives details of the work as it progresses.

June 2, 2015 by Steve

Russell Carhouse: Eastern Avenue Reconstruction (Updated November 20, 2015)

Updated Noveber 20, 2015 at 3:00 pm: Track construction at Russell Carhouse is now complete and overhead installation is in progress.

Updated July 28, 2015 at 12:20 pm: Photos of construction work in progress.

Updated July 3, 2015 at 5:40 pm: Photos of construction work in progress.

Updated June 24, 2015 at 5:00 pm: Photos of construction work in progress.

Updated June 6, 2015 at 10:00 am: Photos of Eastern Avenue construction from 1928 provided by John F. Bromley from his collection have been added to this article.

The ladder track at the south end of Russell Carhouse is being completely regraded and replaced in a project that will consume a few months. This is a joint project with the City of Toronto who are replacing a storm sewer that runs along the northern side of Eastern Avenue.

The track will not only be replaced, but it will be separated from a new sidewalk, and the track elevation will be changed to reduce the effect of turning and climbing at the same time into the tracks at the carhouse.

Eastern Avenue will be one lane each way in the new configuration. Because parking is allowed in curb lanes east and west of this area, a two-lane road is all that is needed to handle typical traffic volumes.

[Image from the City of Toronto Construction Notice]

Removal of the existing track is, as of June 2, complete. Carhouse operations are more complex than usual with cars having to back into their storage and maintenance locations. Originally, the TTC would have had Leslie Barns at least partly available for storage, but that site and its access track are still under construction.

: Looking W on Eastern Avenue from Connaught.

: The south entrance to Russell Carhouse.

: Looking NE to the carhouse.

: The west end of Russell Yard looking north.

: Looking E on Eastern Avenue.

The original ladder track on Eastern Avenue was further south. The change is visible in these construction photos from 1928 provided by John F. Bromley from his collection.