This is the third in a series of reviews of various transit lines in Toronto. Although the streetcar fleet is not yet reporting passenger loads (automatic counter installation is in progress), it is still worth looking at the quality of service provided on some of these lines.

For 505 Dundas, I will look at seven days’ operation from Monday, September 16 to Sunday, September 22. The intent is to show that conditions on the route are not “one of” instances, but a continuing pattern. The article includes:

• operating charts (sometimes called Marey diagrams after their supposed inventor well over a century ago),
• vehicle spacing charts showing bunching and gapping of streetcars, and
• headway summary charts for the month showing the range of headways at various times and places along the route.

An added topic at the end is a review of travel times on Dundas between University Avenue and Bathurst Street and the effect of parking restrictions that were implemented there earlier in 2024.

Items of particular note:

• During some periods, streetcars leave terminals fairly evenly spaced, but do not stay in this condition across the route. The bunching and gaps seen by most riders are not as good as terminal-based stats might indicate.
• Some periods when there is no specific event impeding service see pairs, and occasionally trios, of streetcars travel together for extended periods.
• Terminal dwell times are adequate for a rest break in most periods, but there are times when this does not occur. Short turns, notably westbound at Lansdowne, become more frequent.
• Two major delays/diversion occurred during the period covered by this article from demonstrations downtown. The after-effects on service lasted hours beyond the events.
• Only one event, an early-morning “operational problem”, triggered the use of shuttle buses, at least to the extent that these were tracked and appear in the data feed.

There are a lot of charts in this article. For some readers, this will be a case of “TL,DR” but others really like all of the detail.