This article compares travel times for the 509 Harbourfront streetcar for June 2026 and September 2019. It is part of a series setting out the changes in operating speed of streetcar routes since the introduction of the new Flexity streetcars in the past decade.

This article continues a series reviewing the operating speeds of streetcar lines in detail looking at:

• Evolution of travel times on 509 Harbourfront from September 2019 to June 2026 by route segment.
• Detailed profiles of operating speeds over the full route for the same months.
• Dwell time profiles showing locations where streetcars are held by traffic signals, stop service and congestion.

Like many other routes, service on 509 Harbourfront is slower in 2026 than it was in 2020 in parts of the route, although the degree of change varies by route segment, direction and time of day. The lack of meaningful transit priority is evident at intersections, including those with traffic signals but no associated transit stop.

Reductions in travel speed occurred across the operating day and were not confined to periods when passenger and road traffic volumes would typically be heavier. The common excuse of “increased congestion” cannot be used to explain away the changes.

Service Designs

Note that the travel time and scheduled speed for 509 Harbourfront in 2026 is substantially changed from 2019. Round trips have 25% more driving time. One might think that this change was in anticipation of World Cup conditions, but in fact the longer travel times have been in place since June 2025.

June 2026:

September 2019:

Methodology

For a description of the methodology behind these charts, please refer to the Overview article.

Comparative Travel Speed by Route Segment

The charts below show travel speeds over sections of the 509 Harbourfront route for weekdays in the first week of June 2026 and September 2019. Solid lines show the 2026 data, while dotted lines show 2019.

Some 2026 speeds are noticeably slower than in 2019.

• From Bay to York both ways
• Westbound across the junction at Spadina including the entrance to Queens Quay Loop (red, left below)
• Eastbound from Queens Quay Loop to York (orange, left below)
• Fleet from Bathurst to Exhibition Loop, both ways (green, right below)
• From west of Spadina to south of Bathurst/Fleet both ways (yellow, right below)
• From south of Bathurst/Fleet to west of the intersection westbound (blue, right below)

Detailed Speed Profiles

The 509 Harbourfront car achieves some fairly high speeds between some stops, but this is offset by substantial delay elsewhere.

Double stops are common with nearside waits for signals followed by farside stop service. There is a triple stop westbound at Spadina: once for the entrance to Queens Quay Loop, once for the intersection at Spadina, and finally a stop on the farside platform west of Spadina. This is an example of the need for more sophisticated route selection and priority signalling both for 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina.

Operation through the Bathurst/Fleet intersection is glacially slow thanks to both the wait for traffic signals and to slow operation on curves.

Eastbound speeds between Lower Simcoe and Bay are substantially slower in 2026 than in 2019.

Westbound

Eastbound

Dwell Times

Dwell time patterns mirror the speed charts above. A striking point about these charts is that there are far more locations where streetcars stop than there are actual stops/stations on the line.

This arises from a mixture of traffic signals that do not speed approaching cars on their way at farside stops, and some queuing notably on Fleet Street which is shared with 511 Bathurst.

The section between Bathurst/Fleet and Dan Leckie is a problem in both directions

Westbound

Eastbound