Service Analysis

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How Slow Is My Streetcar: 506 Carlton

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

  • Evolution of travel times from November 2019 to June 2026 by route segment.
  • Detailed profiles of operating speeds over the full route for the same months.
  • A review of dwell times in June 2026 showing where streetcars are most likely to spend excessive time in the AM and PM peak periods.

The two intervals compared here are:

  • June 1-5, 2026: This was just before the upheavals of the World Cup period, but without any construction diversions that would distort the data.
  • November 11-15, 2019: This was the first period when route 506 Carlton was scheduled with the new Flexity streetcars.

Updated 10am August 3, 2026: This article was accidentally published before I had completed a section on dwell times. That section has now been updated with new charts that provide greater clarity in locations of long dwell times.

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How Slow Is My Streetcar: 510 Spadina

The operation of Toronto’s streetcars is under considerable fire for what is portrayed as the slowest cars in the world. Ironically, the very slowest of Toronto’s routes operates on a private right-of-way: 510 Spadina. The usual excuses about mixed traffic operation do not apply here.

Recently, I published charts showing the speed of each streetcar line over various segments and by time of day. 510 Spadina did not show well, although the actual speeds vary from one place to another. This article looks more deeply at the data including a comparison with September 2019 before the pandemic. but after service was operating with the new Flexity cars.

There are three sets of charts in this article:

  • Travel times by segment comparing June 2026 to September 2019 values. The 2026 numbers are the same as those in the previous article, but the 2019 numbers show how in almost every case travel times are longer today than seven years ago.
  • Travel speeds over the route showing the relationship to stop locations and intersections, and contrasting 2019 values with 2026. This shows the areas with the greatest change in travel speeds.
  • Locations of long dwell times by streetcars. Some of these are at stops, but many are at traffic signals. Some dwell times have grown since 2019 (not shown) in spite of recent transit priority changes at some locations.

The charts in this article are fairly dense, and readers should click on them to view details, preferably on a device larger than a phone.

I do not offer a “magic bullet” to deal with slow operation, but note that it occurs at many locations along the route. Some are at traffic signals, and some but definitely not all are at junctions.

This is the first of a series of articles that will review each route’s performance.

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Improving the 506 Carlton Streetcar

At the July 22 meeting of the TTC Board, there was a fair amount of discussion about a motion by Commissioner Saxe asking for a study of improving the College streetcar, properly known as 506 Carlton.

The TTC Board:

1. Directed staff, in collaboration with the General Manager, Transportation Services, to report back to this Board in Q1 2027 with recommendations how to improve the speed and reliability of the College streetcar through measures that are within the control of the TTC.

There was a companion motion at the Infrastructure & Environment Committee on July 15 with the intent is that the TTC and City work together on this project.

A few deputants spoke to the issue including a challenger to Saxe’s Council seat in the coming election, and they advanced various possible solutions to streetcar speed problems. There was some debate about whether the motion should only address the portion of the 506 Carlton car within Saxe’s ward, the full line, or the streetcar network overall. A related issue is that the TTC already has a study of streetcar operations in general underway that will report back early in 2027. It is not clear what a 506-specific resolution adds.

This article reviews various proposals to speed up streetcar service in the context of the 506 Carlton route. Although this is usually cast as a “streetcar” issue, that is only because the major downtown routes operate with streetcars. Some of the problems, notably political resistance to giving transit better priority over cars, would apply even if these routes used buses.

Issues covered here include:

  • Stop geometry and spacing
  • Transit priority signals
  • Track switch and control system design
  • Operating practices
  • Red lanes and rights-of-way
  • Service reliability and frequency
  • Current and historical route speed
  • Why “Carlton” and not “College”?
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How Slow Is My Streetcar? (I)

In all the debates about streetcar operation and lack of speed, there is little by way of an overview of where the problem locations and times really are. There are discussions of track switching technology, signal priority (or the lack of it), whether stops are too close together, and operating practices such as standing slow orders at various locations. Much less so a line-by-line review to see where the worst problems lie, and where the greatest opportunities for improvement might be found.

Some advocates claim that an improvement of as much as 40% might be achieved in streetcar speeds, although this has too often been misinterpreted as an absolute number, not a best case target. It is worth noting that some routes, segments and times of day already achieve much higher average speeds. The question then is what prevents this from being standard operation across the system.

This post uses vehicle tracking data to plot average vehicle speed, by hour, over segments of each streetcar route for June 1-5, 2026. This interval was chosen because it was just before the onset of special services and conditions related to the World Cup, but during the moratorium of works and diversions that could have distorted the data.

In Part II, I will take a deeper dive into specific problem areas on some lines, and look at comparative data from pre-covid times.

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Construction Effects at Gerrard and Leslieville Stations

Over coming years, Metrolinx will build new stations on the Ontario Line at Gerrard (Gerrard & Carlaw) and Leslieville (Queen & De Grassi). These structures will span local streets including two streetcar lines. Various partial and total closures of affected streets are needed for this work to proceed. Much of this involves sidewalk and curb lane closures, but there will be a five month period for each station where streetcar service is removed to allow Ontario Line work without energized streetcar overhead.

The full transit changes have not yet been published, but in each case streetcars will divert to the parallel street (Gerrard or Queen) between Coxwell and Broadview. Replacement bus service will bridge the gap diverting around station construction as necessary.

Details including parking restrictions, pedestrian and cycling effects, are in a City of Toronto report on the July 8 agenda of Toronto & East York Community Council:

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College-Carlton Construction Plans Summer-Fall 2026

Phase 2 of the planned reconstruction of sewers and track on College and Carlton requires 506/306 streetcars to divert via Dundas Street between Bay and Parliament Streets. A replacement bus service will operate on College and Carlton. This arrangement begins on July 26 and is expected to continue until the end of 2026.

506B/306B buses will run from Spadina Station to Broadview & Gerrard:

  • Eastbound via Spadina, College, Carlton, Parliament and Gerrard looping near Bridgepoint Hospital.
  • Westbound via Gerrard, Parliament, Carlton, Jarvis, Wellesley, Bay, College and Spadina

Note that there will be no westbound service on Carlton/College between Jarvis and Bay because the street will be closed in that direction in the work zone. One eastbound lane will remain open.

This phase of the work includes:

  • Reconstruction of the sewer and watermain on College between Bay and Yonge, and
  • Reconstruction of the streetcar track on Carlton between Yonge and Church.

In Phase 3 later this year, the work zones will switch with streetcar track replacement west of Yonge.

As with the King Street project described in a separate post, it should be noted that the work by Toronto Water is the lengthier of the two components. As the City upgrades water and sewer infrastructure that is over a century old, there have been many disruptions to streetcar routes, although track and overhead upgrades are scheduled concurrently to take advantage of the streetcar diversions.

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King West Construction Plans: 2026-27

Water main construction, coupled with track repairs, will force the diversion of 504 King streetcars from November 2026 to early Summer 2027.

Updated Aug. 1, 2026 at 10:40 pm:

The dates for various stages of the work have been announced on the TTC’s page for this project.

  • November 2026 to August 2027:
    • From Close to Dufferin, and from Portland to Spadina.
  • March 2027 to late 2027:
    • From Shaw to Bathurst
  • June to August 2027:
    • Intersection of King & York

The map below is taken from a report at Toronto & East York Community Council on July 8-9 (p 4).

Two areas will be affected starting November 2026: Close to Dufferin, and Portland to Spadina. At the end of February 2027 work will begin between Shaw and Bathurst Streets.

The following services will operate over the 504 King corridor:

  • 504 streetcar from Broadview Station to Dundas West Station diverting both ways via Queen between Roncesvalles and Spadina
  • 504 bus service from the Distillery District to Sunnyside Loop
  • 503 Kingston Road bus service from Bingham Loop to Dufferin Loop
  • Not shown in the map is the 508 Lake Shore car whose summer 2026 suspension appears to continue through the construction period.

Night service will be provided by:

  • 304 streetcar over the same route as 504 King car
  • 304C bus over the same route as 504C King bus

Projects planned for 2027 includes watermain work and intersection reconstruction at King and York. This was originally expected in Fall 2026, but has been pushed back into the next construction year. TTC advises that King/York is scheduled to start in late June 2027 with the intention of completion before the film festival in September. Other projects will affect King West in 2027, but details for this work have not been announced.

Traffic regulations will be changed at several locations to assist transit vehicle movement during the construction. Details follow the “more” break.

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505 Dundas Transit Priority: Data to May 2026

Much attention regarding transit priority in recent months focused on the RapidTO red lanes for 29/929 Dufferin and 510 Bathurst, and on traffic signal timings for 6 Finch West, 5 Eglinton and a few intersections on 510 Spadina. Another change with less fanfare was the modification of parking and stopping restrictions on Dundas Street West between Dovercourt and University.

Council approved these changes in two groups. The first was for the area between Spadina and McCaul, and the second extended this east to University and west to Dovercourt.

In a previous articles, I reviewed the effect of changes on 7 Bathurst between Bathurst Station and Eglinton, and on 511 Bathurst and 29 Dufferin south from Bloor.

This article continues the series with a review of changes on Dundas Street West.

A few noteworthy points:

  • Over the 29 month period of this review there has been little change in travel times, although there are some specific seasonal and weather-related spikes and dips.
  • Peak period, peak direction shows more variation than off-peak, especially westbound in the PM peak.
  • Extended travel times do not occur only in the “downtown” part of the route, nor only in the peak periods. Attempts at transit priority that focus only on the core and the peak periods will not address issues at other times and locations.
  • There are quite striking “heartbeat” patterns in the data where the highest values usually fall on the same day of the week:
    • AM peak eastbound: The spikes tend to be on Tuesday or Wednesday. This corresponds to a known pattern that developed during the pandemic that midweek traffic was higher than the ends of the week.
    • Early and late evening eastbound: The spikes tend to fall late in the week on Thursdays and Fridays. A similar pattern shows up in the late evening westbound.
  • Although travel times are fairly consistent, they only measure the service that actually shows up. At the end of the article are charts showing headways (the interval between streetcars) both ways at Dufferin, Bathurst and University in May 2026. Travel times might be consistent and even slightly improved, but the overall service quality remains uneven.
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TTC Service Changes Effective June 7, 2026

As I began to write this on June 6 at 5:00pm, the TTC had not yet published the detailed memo of service changes for June 7. There is a web page listing World Cup related service changes, but no details about service frequencies. On an interim basis, I have used the electronic version of the June 7 schedules (GTFS data) as a source for info on scheduled service. On game days, there will be additional service as needed.

Updated: The TTC issued the detailed service memo in the early hours of June 7. Thanks to those burning the midnight oil to get this out. This article has been updated to consolidate info from the memo. Note that June service changes for subway, LRT and bus routes will not occur until June 21, and these will be covered in a separate post.

  • 307 and 311 Bathurst night services: Stopping arrangements at Bathurst and St. Clair West Stations clarified.
  • Streetcar route maps added at the end of the article.
  • 301L route clarified to include extension to Dufferin Loop.
  • Streetcar vehicle allocation tables added.
  • Spreadsheet of detailed changes added. Revised to include 929 Dufferin Express.
  • List of destination sign changes added.

Bathurst Corridor

  • Night service on 307 Bathurst bus will be shortened to end at Bathurst Station. Service south to Exhibition will be provided by a 311 Bathurst night car running from St. Clair to Exhibition Loop.
  • Service on 511 Bathurst will be improved (see table later in this article).
  • Updates:
  • 307 buses will loop through Bathurst Station, but will lay over and serve a new stop northbound on Bathurst at London (opposite the station).
  • 311 streetcars will run out of service through St. Clair West Station.

Spadina Corridor

  • Service on the 510 Spadina streetcar will be shortened to turn at Queens Quay Loop. Service to Union Station will be provided by 509/309 Harbourfront and by 310 Spadina. (Corrected)

Waterfront

  • Service on 509 Harbourfront will be improved (see table later in this article), and a new 309 Harbourfront night car will operate.

Dufferin Corridor

  • Service on 929 Dufferin express will be added on Sunday evenings on Game Days running every 8 minutes.

King Corridor

  • Service will be improved on 504 King. On Game Days, the 504B from Broadview Station will turn back via a loop of King, Queen and Shaw without serving Dufferin Loop. See detailed map and schedule in the schedule section later in this article.

Queen / Lake Shore Boulevard West

  • 507/501/301 Long Branch service will be replaced by buses due to construction at Long Branch Loop.
    • Two branches of the replacement bus service will operate:
      • 507 from Humber Loop to Long Branch Loop via Park Lawn.
      • 507M from Humber Loop to the Humber Bay Shores area looping via Marine Parade Drive.
    • This configuration will run until Labour Day weekend. In September, 507 streetcars will return as far as Kipling Loop, and the 110 Islington South will be extended west to Long Branch Loop.
  • 508 Lake Shore streetcar service will be suspended for the summer season returning after Labour Day.
  • Updated: 301L night buses will operate from Long Branch Loop to Dufferin Loop via Queen and Dufferin providing an overlap with the 301 Queen night car.
  • See map in the schedule details later in this post.
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Red Lane Effects on 29/929 Dufferin and 511 Bathurst

This article updates previously published on the Dufferin bus and Bathurst streetcar routes to show how the travel times in affected areas changed with the gradual implementation of red lanes over past months.

In summary, there is a reduction in travel time during some periods, but not others, typically because congestion is not an issue all of the time. An important factor, one we saw some years back on King Street, is not just to lower travel times, but to reduce the variations that contribute to irregular headways.

With a reserved lane, periods that might not be badly congested all the time have extra protection against surges like special events or construction projects that remove some network capacity. This depends on enforcement, of course, and paint alone will not keep motorists out of transit lanes.

The balance of the article shows how travel times have evolved from 2024 to May 2026 as a reference point before the World Cup events stress the transit and road system.

Also shown here are the headways on the three services from terminals and along the route. This is a very serious problem, and, indeed, the Achilles’ Heel of the RapidTO scheme. It is not enough to reduce travel times by a few minutes if the service reliability is poor.

Riders are more sensitive to wait times than travel times, especially over shorter distances because the unreliability of a wait contributes substantially to total travel time. On a route like Dufferin with local and express service, the short travel time can be completely outweighed by the longer wait for a bus which is also likely to be crowded when it eventually arrives.

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