Last March, nearly a year ago, I visited Toronto. It was a fun time and I liked it a lot. Let's do a few general urbanism photos first, then get into the transit stuff.
Of course we went downtown, but we didn't spend that much time there. It's good but we're just a lot more interested in the more grainy urbanism of the neighborhoods.
We stayed in an Airbnb near Dundas & Ossington. The fact that it had a Star Trek mural on its wall was an important selling point.
We spent most of our time just wandering Queen Street West. We walked its entire length from downtown to Roncesvalles. Loved it.
Oops, streetcar. Forget you see it for now. We'll talk more about these later.
We made the mandatory stop around Kensington Market.
...Drifted down to Chinatown.
...And went up to The Annex to pay homage to Jane Jacobs.
Now let's talk transit
Toronto may be North America's most fascinating transit city. It has virtually every mode in abundance and its per capita ridership is far above any US city except New York. The use+variety is unparalleled in all of Norman America.
The most interesting thing, IMO, is the streetcars. Toronto's
52-mile streetcar network is the largest and most successful in North America. It covers the
entire central city south of Bloor, and carries about 300,000 riders per day. Most of the system runs with 1980s-era vehicles in mixed traffic with cars. The older streetcars come in two sizes, a short 50-foot version and an articulated 76-foot version.
The small ones in particular feel a bit out of time. Almost like riding on an old
PCC streetcar (which they replaced), and a lot like
Philadelphia's trolleys.
The big ones feel more legit as modern transit, even if they're basically identical except longer.
But the best ones are the 99-foot new trams, longer than any other streetcar in North America.
Having long individual trams with multiple articulated sections is a growing trend. It's coming to the US too, but more slowly.
The Spadina line is my #1 favorite streetcar line in the US or Canada. It's got the new vehicles, and (even more importantly), it runs in a dedicated transitway--special streetcar lanes down the center of the street.
This is what all streetcar lines should aspire to be.
Like most--maybe all--North American cities that retained their pre-war streetcar networks, a portion of Toronto's enters a subway.
But of course Toronto also has a large heavy rail subway. It's an interesting & unique vintage, post-war but older than the generation of DC/SF/Atlanta metros that dot the US.
There's old trains...
...And new trains.
The new train are what's called "open gangway," meaning they're one long railcar with an open interior all the way from front to back. In recent years this has become standard for subways all over the world, except in the US where we lag. You get a 10% capacity increase for doing it, basically for free.
Of course there are buses. Lots of people ride them. But there's so much other unique stuff about Toronto transit that this is the only TTC bus picture I'll show you.
But let's go out to the suburbs for a few minutes, to York, the Canadian equivalent of a US suburban county. They've been building BRT along some of their arterial roads, and I've got to say it looks great: Full median transitway, red-colored bus lanes, big beautiful glassy stations.
Nice big stations with iconic blue glass, fare pre-pay, real-time arrival displays, and even an indoor waiting area. These are better than a lot of light rail stations.
While the median busway is the best place to put it in terms of speed and street/bus operations, it is unfortunately intimidating for pedestrians to reach.
While we're in the suburbs, let's talk about Toronto's Go commuter rail. They have a 280-mile system with about 200,000 riders per day. Similar equipment as you see in diesel-locomotive commuter rail all over North America.
Except Toronto's rear-facing cab cars are more visibly different than most others I've seen.
Toronto also has a dedicated airport express train, the Union Pierson Express. It's a DMU, a smaller form of diesel train, and it runs with only a couple of stops from downtown Toronto to the airport. It's new, only opening a couple of years ago.
Ridership is pretty low. Less than 10,000/day, I think. Most cities don't have lines like this because in North America airports just generally aren't enough to sustain an entire rail line on their own. If Toronto can't make it work, I doubt anyone in the US can except maybe New York. Better to build your airport connection as part of a normal line.
Usually when I do a transit thread I cover bikes too. Toronto has a small bikeshare system, as well as its share of bike lanes, but it's not really a leader. Montreal, Vancouver, and plenty of US cities do it better.
I think that's about it. Nice trip, good city.
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