Transit City

Oh my. Toronto is planning several new streetcar routes as part of its Transit City initiative, which overall I think is a great thing - especially the Eglinton line, which will be largely underground. But I just read that the current Toronto streetcars do not conform with international standards for track widths, being about 2 inches wider. However, the new streetcar lines will, meaning Toronto will soon have 2 different and incompatible kinds of streetcars. Now, the wheels on an individual streetcar can be adjusted, so the problem is not in the manufacturing. The problem is that I predict, at some point, the city will want to better integrate its new lines with the old in order to have a better and more convenient transit system. But, because the tracks will be different sizes, they won't be able to. This sounds like a very bad idea. Reading this on the same day I read about increased commute times in the GTA doesn't give me much optimism for the future. Why must this city find a way to screw up any good idea it ever has? Do you have to be a clown to get any kind of decision-making authority around here?

There is only one way to travel east-west in the GTA by transit, and that's the subway. The streetcars are slow and cumbersome, especially as traffic worsens - making even the 401 and the Gardiner less convenient for drivers. I wonder if it would be practical to have a dedicated street for streetcars, maybe King St. or Queen St., where the traffic is already horrendous. Not a dedicated lane like Spadina or the new St. Clair line, but to make it an entire street just for the streetcar, and even reduce the number of stops to speed up the whole commute.

I keep thinking back on streetcars I've ridden in Prague, Vienna, Berlin and elsewhere and I don't remember them plodding along like Toronto's "Red Rocket," and I'm trying to remember what was different. Looking at pictures like this, from Prague I see only one lane of traffic next to the streetcar, and no parking. I wonder how that would look on King St. And if it would help.