509 Harbourfront

509 Harbourfront
A CLRV and PCC 4500 streetcar at Exhibition Loop
Overview
Type	Streetcar Route
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	Union Station (East) Exhibition Loop (West)
Stations	Union Queens Quay Exhibition Loop
Operation
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s)	Leslie Barns, Russell [1]
Rolling stock	CLRV, Flexity Outlook
Technical
Line length	4.65 km (2.89 mi) [1]
Track gauge	4 ft 10 ^7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) - TTC Gauge
Electrification	600 VDC Overhead
Route number	509
Route map Legend Legend GO Transit & VIA Rail Yonge–University–Spadina line Union Station  510  Queens Quay Station  510   6  Bay Street Queen's Quay York Street Lower Simcoe Street Rees Street Lower Spadina Avenue  510  510 to Spadina Station Dan Leckie Way Queen's Quay Bathurst Street Bathurst & Queen's Quay Bathurst & Fleet  511  Bathurst Street Fleet Street Bastion Road(Lake Shore Boulevard) Fleet Loop Fort York Boulevard Strachan Avenue Fleet Street Private Right-of-Way Exhibition Loop  511   521   29

509 Harbourfront is a streetcar route in Toronto,^[2] Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission.

History

The Harbourfront LRT, originally designated 604 Harbourfront, began service in 1990. It was the first new Toronto streetcar route in many years, and the first to employ a dedicated tunnel, approximately 600 metres long. This starts with an underground loop at Union Station, runs south along Bay Street to the underground Queens Quay station, then turns west and emerges onto Queens Quay. The line's original terminus was Queens Quay and Spadina Loop, at the foot of Spadina Avenue; beyond this point non-revenue trackage ran north on Spadina to King, as otherwise the new line would have been disconnected from the rest of the network.

Numbers in the 600-series were used at that time within the TTC for rapid transit routes (i.e., subways and the Scarborough RT) rather than low numbers as is the case today, and the Harbourfront LRT was given a number in this series to indicate that it was different from other streetcar routes; it was also shown like a subway line on the TTC map. Since the route is not grade-separated, this was later felt to be misleading and it was treated like other streetcar lines, taking the number 510.

In 1997, the completion of a dedicated right of way on Spadina Avenue resulted in the Harbourfront route being relaunched as the 510 Spadina. The "Harbourfront" route name disappeared until 2000, when the Queens Quay streetcar tracks were extended west to Bathurst and Fleet Streets. The Harbourfront was then reinstated with the new number 509, and extended to Exhibition Loop at Exhibition Place, sharing its route with the 510 from Union to Spadina and with the 511 Bathurst from Bathurst onwards. The Fleet Street portion of Route 509 has since been converted to a parallel private right-of-way, so that the entire route operates entirely separate from road traffic.

A proposed Waterfront West project would have extended the Harbourfront line farther west to join the existing right-of-way along the Queensway, however this project was shelved by the city in 2013.^[3]

In June 2015, a streetcar runs along the new right of way on Queens Quay, between the bicycle path and the street

In July 2012 Waterfront Toronto began a major reconstruction of Queen's Quay West, requiring the 509 streetcar to be replaced with buses for the duration of the construction.^[4] On October 12, 2014, streetcar service resumed on 509 Harbourfront route after an absence of over two years in order to rebuild the street to a new design as well as to replace tracks. With the new street design, two auto lanes south of the streetcar tracks were eliminated from Spadina Avenue to York Street in order to extend Harbourfront parkland to the edge of the streetcar right-of-way. Thus, streetcars now effectively run on a roadside right-of-way instead of a mid-street median. A bicycle path and rows of trees are located on the immediate south side of the right-of-way.^[5]

Operation

Despite its political image as a ‘modern, rapid transit’ streetcar line, the 604 Harbourfront route was originally operated using rebuilt PCC streetcars, which were referred to as "Red Rockets" in a branding effort. These were soon replaced by Toronto's CLRV streetcars, which form the majority of the city's current fleet. Because of the amount of shared track, the Toronto Transit Commission has grouped the 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina routes together for accounting and measurement purposes.

The 509 Harbourfront streetcar line is operated primarily using standard CLRV streetcars, although since March 29, 2015, the line had been shared with the new Flexity Outlook low-floor vehicles. Since then, all 509 streetcars have operated using a proof-of-payment (POP) all-door boarding system.^[6]

Route

Most stops along the 509 route are surface stops with islands separating the regular traffic from the streetcar tracks. Streetcars begin underground at Union Station and pass through a dedicated underground streetcar station at Queens Quay before climbing to the surface.^[2]

Points of interest

Location	Stops
Harbourfront Centre & Islands ferry docks	Queens Quay Station
Queen's Quay Terminal	Queens Quay Station, York Street
CN Tower	Lower Simcoe Street
Rogers Centre & Toronto Waterfront WaveDecks	Simcoe Street – Spadina Avenue
HTO Park	Rees Street
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport	on the Islands, a block south of Bathurst Street & Queen's Quay
Old Fort York	Bathurst & Fleet Streets, Fort York Boulevard
HMCS York	Bastion
Fort York Armoury	Fort York Boulevard
Exhibition Place & Canadian National Exhibition	Strachan Avenue, Exhibition Loop
Ricoh Coliseum & Exhibition GO Station & BMO Field	Exhibition Loop

References

1. http://www3.ttc.ca/PDF/Transit_Planning/Service_Summary_2009_10_18.pdf
2. "509 Harbourfront". Streetcar Routes. Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
3. "Residents share wishlist for Toronto budget". InsideToronto.com. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
4. "Buses to replace TTC’s 509 Harbourfront streetcar during Queens Quay revitalization". TTC. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
5. Steve Munro (2014-10-12). "Streetcars Return to Queens Quay". Steve Munro. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
6. "Proof-of-Payment (POP)". Fares & Passes. Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved March 2015.

External links

Media related to 509 Harbourfront at Wikimedia Commons

• Route 509 - Harbourfront Streetcar (Transit Toronto)