504 King

504 King
Two 504 King cars push east of Yonge during the morning rush hour
Overview
Type	Streetcar Route
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	Broadview Station (East) Dundas West Station (West)
Stations	King St. Andrew Dundas West Broadview
Daily ridership	53,100
Operation
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s)	Russell and Roncesvalles[1]
Rolling stock	CLRV, ALRV
Technical
Line length	13.97 km (8.68 mi) [1]
Track gauge	4 ft 10 ^7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) - TTC Gauge
Electrification	600 VDC Overhead
Route number	504
Route map Legend Legend Transfer stop Sunday-only stop Carhouse Route:Connection  00  Terminus  00  Bloor–Danforth to Kennedy Station Dundas West Station  40   168   505  Bloor Street  505  Dundas Street 505 to Broadview Station Dundas Street West Roncesvalles Avenue Boustead Avenue  505  Hewitt Avenue Howard Park  506  Constance Street ↓ Geoffrey Street/Grenadier Road ↑ St. Vincent de Paul RC Church ↑ ↓ High Park Boulevard/Fermanagh Avenue ↑ Fern Avenue Garden Avenue Galley Avenue Marion Street Grafton Avenue Roncesvalles Carhouse Queen Street West Roncesvalles Avenue King Street West  501   508  Wilson Park Road Jameson Avenue Dunn Avenue Cowan Avenue Spencer Avenue Dufferin Street  29  Fraser Avenue Joe Shuster Way Atlantic Avenue CN Weston Subdivision Sudbury Street Shaw Street  63  Strachan Avenue  63  Niagara Street Tecumseth Street Bathurst Street  145   511  Portland Street Brant Street Spadina Avenue  510  ↓ Blue Jays Way/Peter Street ↑ John Street Simcoe Street University AvenueSt. Andrew Station  142  York Street Bay Street  6  Yonge StreetKing Station  97  Victoria Street Church Street Jarvis Street  141  Sherbourne Street  75  Ontario Street Parliament Street  65  Trinity Street Sackville Street Sumach Street 501 & 502 to downtown ↖ King Street East Queen Street East ↕ River Street  501   502  CN Bala Subdivision & CP Belleville Subdivision Don River Don Valley Parkway Carroll Street ↕ Queen Street East Broadview Avenue →  501   502  501 to Neville/502 to Bingham Dundas Street505 to Dundas West Station  505  Mt. Stephen Street Gerrard Street  506  St. John's Presbyterian Church Langley Avenue Withrow Avenue Bain Avenue Millbrook Crescent Wolfrey Avenue Danforth Avenue Erindale Avenue Broadview Station  8   62   87   100   505  Bloor–Danforth to Kipling Station

The 504 King is a streetcar route operated by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was grouped together with the 508 Lake Shore for accounting purposes until the latter was cancelled on June 19, 2015. In 2005-06, these routes carried 47,900 passengers on an average weekday (of which the vast majority were carried by 504 King), making 504 King the busiest TTC streetcar route in terms of number of passengers.^[2] As of September 6, 2015, this route operates 24 hours a day seven days a week. During weekday rush hours, daytime and early evenings, average service frequency is 4 minutes or less. Saturday daytime services have an average frequency of 4–5 minutes with Sunday daytime service frequency averaging 6–7 minutes. During overnight periods, streetcars operate every 30 minutes.

The route provides primary service along King Street in Toronto's downtown core. 504 cars used to provide additional service to the 508 route along Roncesvalles Avenue and Broadview Avenue until June 2015 when the 508 streetcar line was decommissioned. Both lines interchange mid-route with the Yonge-University-Spadina line at St. Andrew and King stations. The 504 King interchanges with the Bloor-Danforth line at its termini, Dundas West and Broadview stations, which the route shares with 505 Dundas streetcars.

The line is operated primarily with Toronto's single-length CLRV streetcars, which is sometimes shared with the double-module ALRV streetcars (for instance: during rush hour periods). In 2006 the TTC briefly considered adding couplers to its streetcars in order to run the King route with trains of two or three units, as was common on busy routes until the opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway; the hope was that this would keep them from bunching and becoming stuck in traffic. This plan was rejected,^[3] and the TTC is replacing the CLRVs and ALRVs with brand-new fully accessible low-floor Flexity Outlook vehicles, the first of which entered service on the 510 Spadina streetcar route in September 2014 and are scheduled to be deployed on the 504 King route in 2017. Since November 2014, streetcar shortage has forced the TTC to supplement some streetcar service with buses during peak periods.^[4]

Proposed right-of-way

On March 22, 2007, the TTC proposed a pilot project for right-of-way dedicated lanes along the 504 King Streetcar in the summer of 2007. The proposal suggested there would only be a single lane available to cabs, cars and deliveries in that designated area in each direction. The street would have been closed entirely to through traffic and streetcars would run at ground level, not in a raised median. The TTC was trying to implement a trial transit mall on King from Yonge to University, with hopes of eventually closing King to cars from Dufferin to Parliament. It was also hoped that traffic on King would be partially alleviated by the proposed Waterfront West LRT and the planned network of streetcar routes for the Port Lands. The pilot project was not implemented. It was revived in 2016 when the city of Toronto's "King Street Visioning Study" proposed a transit and pedestrian corridor on King Street through downtown.^[5]

Sites along the line (from east to west)

• George Brown College
• St. Lawrence Hall
• Commerce Court
• Scotia Plaza
• Toronto-Dominion Centre
• First Canadian Place
• Royal Alexandra Theatre
• Roy Thomson Hall
• Princess of Wales Theatre

Cherry Street extension

The first element of the Port Lands streetcar right-of-way network will be a short stretch of track on the east side of Cherry Street from King Street south to the north side of the railway corridor. This segment would only add three stops to the TTC network. The original plan calls for future expansion to Queen's Quay and once constructed, every third or fourth eastbound 504 King streetcar will be turned down Cherry Street instead of going to Broadview Station. The re-construction of Cherry Street started in 2011 but the new streetcar line will not go into service until spring 2016. It is being delayed until after the Pan American Games when the athletes' village is converted into condos.^[6] The revised plan will create a new streetcar line (514 Cherry) with majority of the new line superimposed on 504 King line to alleviate crowding during rush hour.

Roncesvalles Avenue redesign

Bumpout on Roncesvalles Avenue serving as both a streetcar loading platform as well as a bicycle lane.

On December 19, 2010, 504 streetcar service returned to Roncesvalles Avenue after a service suspension in order to rebuild the street to a new design and to replace the tracks. As part of the redesign, a widened sidewalk "bumpout" was added to each stop to allow riders to board the streetcar directly from the curb. To accommodate a bike lane at a TTC stop, the bike lane gently rises from the main road to run on top of the bumpout. When the streetcar is boarding, cyclists are required to stop and allow riders on and off.^[7][8]

Blue Night service

From 1987 to 1992, the 304 King provided overnight service on that route. After the route was eliminated in February 1992, the Broadview and Roncesvalles segments were replaced by portions of other night bus routes.

On September 6, 2015, overnight service was restored on this route as part of the expanded Blue Night Network services as part of a $95 million investment from Toronto City Council. Streetcars operate every 30 minutes during overnight periods.^[9]

See also

• 503 Kingston Road
• Toronto streetcar system
• Toronto Transit Commission

References

1. Toronto Transit Commission (September 18, 2009). "TTC Service Summary" (PDF).
2. Ridership cost stats bus streetcar. Toronto Transit Commission
3. Kevin McGran. All aboard for the King St. choo-choo. Toronto Star. April 15, 2006.
4. Steve Munro (November 15, 2014). "The Creeping Presence of Buses on 504 King".
5. Edward Keenan (18 January 2016). "Plan in the works to redesign King Street — and quickly: Keenan". Toronto Star. Retrieved January 2016. Picture King, just one year from now, from Liberty Village to the Distillery District, as a transit and pedestrian corridor
6. Steve Munro (2014-09-21). "King & Sumach: Connecting to Cherry Street". Steve Munro. Retrieved 2014-09-21.
7. "Lanes, tracks and bikes". Roncesvalles Village BIA.
8. Steve Munro (2010-12-19). "Parliament and Roncesvalles 2010 Track Work". Steve Munro. Retrieved 2010-12-19.
9. Steve Munro (8 August 2015). "Blue Night Service Expansion: Fall 2015". Retrieved 2016-03-28. All (night) services will operate on 30 minute headways...304 King (will provide) all night service on the 504 King route.

External links

• Media related to 504 King at Wikimedia Commons
• Toronto Transit Commission official site
• 504 King (Transit Toronto)
• 504 King map