The 512 St. Clair is an east–west
streetcar route in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It operates on St. Clair Avenue between
St. Clair station on the
Line 1 Yonge–University subway and Gunns Road, just west of Keele Street.
History
The
Toronto Civic Railways opened the St. Clair streetcar route in 1913 along
St. Clair Avenue West between Yonge Street and the Grand Trunk Railway crossing (near today's Caledonia Road) to serve small developed areas in a newly annexed section of the city. Previously, the only streetcar service near this area was the Davenport line of the
Toronto Suburban Railway (along Davenport Road) and the Avenue route of the
Toronto Railway Company
The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto ...
(ending at Avenue Road and St. Clair Avenue). At the east end of the St. Clair line, passengers could connect with the radial cars of the
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
of the
Toronto and York Radial Railway running on Yonge Street. The St. Clair line was double-track but had no loops or wyes; thus, all streetcars were double-ended.
After its creation in 1921, the
Toronto Transportation Commission took over the assets of the Toronto Civic Railways and the Toronto Railway Company with the goal to connect and integrate the two separate streetcar systems. With respect to St. Clair, the TTC expanded the line eastwards and westwards, adding turning loops at end points and replacing double-ended streetcars with single-ended cars (initially ex–TRC cars). At the east end, the line would continue north from St. Clair Avenue East on Mount Pleasant Road to
Eglinton Avenue; however, this portion would later become a separate route that was subsequently converted to bus operation in the 1970s.
By 1930, the Bay streetcar route was running north on Avenue Road and then west on St. Clair Avenue. Passengers could travel from St. Clair Avenue and Caledonia Road to Bay Street and Queens Quay.
By 1932, Earlscourt Loop at St. Clair Avenue and Lansdowne Avenue became the western terminus of the Bay route.
With the opening of the Yonge subway in 1954, the Bay route disappeared, and the Earlscourt route was created to replace the St. Clair portion of the former Bay route. The Earlscourt route ran between St. Clair station and Earlscourt Loop overlapping the St. Clair route.
About 1978, the Earlscourt route was merged into 512 St. Clair.
Timeline
Dedicated right-of-way
![Streetcar_arrives_at_Keele_from_Gunns_Loop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Streetcar_arrives_at_Keele_from_Gunns_Loop.JPG)
When first built in 1913, the St. Clair streetcar operated in a dedicated right-of-way in the centre of St. Clair Avenue, similar to today's 512 St. Clair route. A dedicated right-of-way is a lane generally in the centre of the street, reserved for transit vehicles. However, it was removed between 1928 and 1935 and replaced with paved trackage open to mixed traffic.
However, since then, road traffic had increased and was degrading the reliability of streetcar service. Given the success of the new 510 Spadina route along dedicated right-of-ways on Spadina and Queens Quay and on portions on several streetcar routes, the TTC proposed to upgrade the St. Clair streetcar line to a dedicated right-of-way.
The tracks along the route needed replacement, and the TTC estimated that building a dedicated right-of-way would cost only $7 million more than simply replacing the tracks. Furthermore, St. Clair Avenue is one of the few streets in Toronto wide enough to accommodate a dedicated right-of-way without significantly reducing the width of traffic lanes.
In 2004, Toronto City Council decided to proceed with the proposal. Construction started on September 25, 2005 and was completed in three stages: From St. Clair station to Vaughan Road on February 18, 2007,
to Lansdowne Avenue on December 20, 2009,
and finally with full service to Gunns Loop on June 30, 2010.
On December 19, 2009, the day prior to the opening of the section from Vaughan Road to Lansdowne Avenue, there was a pre-opening event utilizing the TTC's two remaining
PCC streetcars.
Time-based transfers
St. Clair Pilot (2005–2017)
From July 31, 2005, until September 2, 2017, the TTC ran a
pilot project of providing 2-hour time-based transfers on this route as a temporary measure to support business along St. Clair during the construction projects of the new dedicated streetcar
right-of-way scheme, under which passengers who took a paper transfer after paying their fares by cash or tokens were allowed to disembark and re-board another 512 streetcar, even one going in the opposite direction, as long as they did so within 2 hours of their original boarding. This meant that one could stop part-way through a journey and then continue, or even make a round trip, without paying multiple fares.
From December 14, 2015, until September 3, 2017, passengers who paid by cash or token were required to obtain a time-based paper transfer as a result of the
proof-of-payment (POP) system that had come into effect on all TTC streetcar routes as passengers could have been asked at any time to show POP. At the time, the
Presto card readers on the 512 cars were not configured to handle this special route-specific time-based transfer pilot scheme. Presto users who wished to take advantage of the project were required to board at the front door of the vehicle in order to obtain the special paper time-based transfer after tapping their cards on the fare reader there, or else they would have been charged another fare every time they re-tapped on the same route.
The pilot program was discontinued on September 3, 2017, the same day the new
Flexity Outlook streetcars were deployed on the 512 route, as drivers of the new streetcars are situated inside a fully enclosed cab and are not responsible for handling fare collection or providing paper transfers.
Presto
The TTC reintroduced a 2-hour time-based transfer on August 26, 2018, but this time system-wide rather than for just the 512 route. It is currently available only to
Presto card customers who pay single fares with stored card balance.
Proposed extensions
About 2007, two plans had been proposed to extend the St. Clair line west of Gunns Loop, but neither are active today. At that time, transit advocate
Steve Munro was of the opinion that extensions west of Gunns Loop may lack the ridership to be justified.
The first proposal would see Route 512 extended west along St. Clair Avenue West to Runnymede Road, and south underneath the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
Galt Subdivision line to a bus loop at Runnymede Road and Dundas Street West, replacing a portion of route 71A Runnymede. Streetcar tracks would then be extended southeast along Dundas Street West to
Dundas West station
Dundas West is a subway station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located just north of Bloor Street West at the corner of Dundas Street and Edna Avenue. The station is about 200 metres west of Bl ...
where the
504 King
504 King (304 King during overnight periods) is an east–west Toronto streetcar route in Ontario, Canada. It serves King Street in Downtown Toronto as well as Broadview Avenue on the east end and Roncesvalles Avenue on the west end of the line ...
and 505 Dundas streetcar routes currently terminate. The tracks on Dundas would be served by a new route replacing the current 40 Junction bus route. While this scheme may not be warranted by potential ridership, it would cut down the amount of deadhead (not-in-service) time required by St. Clair streetcars to get to St. Clair Avenue.
The other proposal comes as part of
Transit City, the Light Rail expansion proposal. It would see route 512 extended west on St. Clair all the way to Jane Street, replacing portions of routes 71A Runnymede (now replaced by route 189 Stockyards) and 79B Scarlett Road, where it would connect with a planned
Jane Street LRT.
Route description
Route 512 St. Clair serves St. Clair Avenue between
St. Clair station at the east end of the line, and
Gunns Loop at Gunns Road at the west end. The route passes through
St. Clair West station
St. Clair West is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans the block north of St. Clair Avenue West to Heath Street, between Bathurst Street and Tweedsmuir Avenue. The station serves the local communiti ...
in both directions. The route operates almost entirely within a dedicated streetcar right-of-way, with mixed traffic for a short distance east of Yonge Street and for very short distances at streetcar loops. There are five turning loops along the line; besides the station loops at St. Clair and St. Clair West stations, the other loops are Oakwood Loop at Oakwood Avenue, Earlscount Loop at Lansdowne Avenue, and Gunns Loop at Gunns Road. The streetcar tracks along Bathurst Street and Vaughan Road are the only connection between the St. Clair streetcar line and the rest of the Toronto streetcar system.
According to a 2011 ''
Torontoist'' article, it took 29 minutes for the author to travel from St. Clair station to Gunns Loop shortly after the
rush hour
A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...
.
![512 St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/512_St._Clair_route_Arlington_westbound_stop.jpg)
With the exception of stops at turning loops, all stops along the route are on-street surface stops with islands separating the regular traffic from the streetcar tracks, and have streetcar traffic signals, partial shelters, and railings to protect patrons from the traffic. One end of each platform connects to a pedestrian crossing at a signalized street intersection. The other end of the platform has a planter. There are 22 on-street stops serving both directions, and two serving just one direction: Old Stock Yards (eastbound) and Yonge (westbound), both near a terminus.
Half of the on-street stops have artwork consisting of vertical panels along the shelter roof. If an on-street stop has both east- and westbound platforms, then only one of the two platforms displays artwork. Various artists were selected by competition to design the art pieces.
Night route
312 St Clair–Junction operates during the overnight period. Buses are used rather than streetcars, however, stopping at the curb (sidewalk), instead of the streetcar islands.
Transfer points on St. Clair Avenue and Junction Road, 312 St. Clair–Junction Blue Night bus:
*
St. Clair station – 320 Yonge Blue Night bus
*
Bathurst Street – 307 Bathurst Blue Night bus
*
Oakwood Avenue Oakwood may refer to:
Places
;in Australia
*Oakwood, Queensland, a locality in the Bundaberg Region
;in Canada
*Oakwood, Ontario
*Oakwood-Vaughan, Toronto, Ontario, a neighbourhood
**Oakwood Collegiate Institute, a public high school in the southe ...
– 363 Ossington Blue Night bus
*
Dufferin Street – 329 Dufferin Blue Night bus
*
Keele Street – 341 Keele Blue Night bus
*
Jane Street – 335 Jane Blue Night bus
*
Dundas West station
Dundas West is a subway station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located just north of Bloor Street West at the corner of Dundas Street and Edna Avenue. The station is about 200 metres west of Bl ...
– 300 Bloor–Danforth Blue Night bus, 304 King Blue Night car, 306 Carlton Blue Night car
See also
*
Toronto streetcar system
*
Toronto Transit Commission
*
Rogers Road streetcar line
References
Bibliography
* Bromley, John F., and Jack May. ''Fifty Years of Progressive Transit'', Electric Railroaders' Association, New York (New York), 1978.
* Filey, Mike. ''Not a One-Horse Town: 125 Years of Toronto and its Streetcars'', Gagne Printing, Louiseville (Quebec), 1986.
*
*
External links
TTC official websiteTTC route page for 512 St. ClairRoute 512 – The St Clair Streetcar(Transit Toronto)
{{TTC
Streetcar routes in Toronto
4 ft 10⅞ in gauge railways