Back in August 2021, I published an article about running times on the 510 Spadina streetcar including comparisons with the nearby 511 Bathurst car. Despite being on its own right-of-way, the Spadina car is almost always slower than the Bathurst car.

• How Slow Is The 510 Spadina Car?

There are various reasons for this including double stops at signalled intersections and longer stop service times due to the demand level on Spadina.

That article used May 2021 data which reflected mid-pandemic traffic conditions. With demand and traffic rising in past months, I return to the subject using October 2022 data.

The situation has not changed much in the intervening year and a half. 511 Bathurst cars still win the race during most time periods, although on a few occasions the 510 Spadina cars take the prize.

Comparing Travel Times

Here are comparative running time averages for October weekdays on the two routes. Two sets of values are shown here:

• The solid lines show average travel times between Bloor and Front each way.
• The dotted lines show the average travel times between Bloor and Richmond each way avoiding problems with congestion and enroute layovers at the south end of these lines.

Throughout these charts, data for Spadina are plotted in red while data for Bathurst are in green.

During most weekday periods, Bathurst cars have the lower average travel time between Richmond and Bloor, but the results are mixed between Front and Bloor.

Here are the comparable charts for Saturdays and Sundays. Bathurst almost always wins out.

The charts below subdivide the weekday data by week to show that the numbers are not always exactly the same. There is even more variation on a day-to-day basis. I include these to illustrate the importance of not taking averages over long periods at face value because this can hide variations.

In these charts, the warmer colours (red through light green) show data for the Spadina car while the cooler colours (blues and purple) show the Bathurst car.

These charts show the general shape of average data, but more a more detailed view is needed to compare the routes’ behaviour.

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