514 Cherry

514 Cherry
Overview
Type	Streetcar route
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	Dufferin Gate Loop (West) Distillery Loop (East)
Stations	King St. Andrew
Operation
Opened	June 19, 2016
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s)	Leslie Barns, Roncesvalles, Russell
Rolling stock	CLRV, Flexity Outlook
Technical
Line length	7.0 km (4.35 mi)
Track gauge	4 ft 10 ^7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) - TTC Gauge
Electrification	600V DC Overhead
Route map Legend Dufferin Gate Loop  29  Liberty Street  63  King Street  29  504 King to Dundas West 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  ↑ Peter Street ↓ Blue Jays Way John Street University Avenue St. Andrew Station  142  Bay Street  6  Yonge Street King Station  97  Church Street Jarvis Street  141  Sherbourne Street  75  Ontario Street Parliament Street  65  Trinity Street Sackville Street Sumach Street 504 King to Broadview Front Street East  121  Mill Street Distillery Loop

The 514 Cherry is a streetcar route of the Toronto streetcar system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[1][2] The 514 operates through the financial district and downtown Toronto between Dufferin Gate Loop and the Cherry Street Loop.^[1] This route supplements the 504 King service along King Street, specifically to the dense residential areas in Liberty Village,^[3] Canary District and Distillery District. The City of Toronto's "King Street Visioning Study" proposes a transit and pedestrian corridor through which this route would operate.^[4] Transit congestion had become so bad that UberHop launched a rush-hour service for the corridor in December 2015.^[5]

History

In November 2015, as part of a proposal to revise service in the areas of Cherry Street and Queens Quay East, the TTC proposed a new 514 streetcar route that would run from the Distillery streetcar loop on Cherry Street via King Street to the Dufferin Gate Loop.^[6] It was mainly to increase capacity to conveniently serve the growing ridership along the 504 King corridor, and accessibility concerns.^[7] It was also proposed to run all day, everyday, while maintaining 504 King streetcar service.^[7]

Service Initiatives in the Preliminary 2016 TTC Operating Budget called for dedicated resources to implement a new service at an operating cost in 2016 of $0.8 million and $2.1 million annually thereafter.^[8] No additional funding was provided in the 2016 budget.^[9] The TTC proposed no change in operating costs to operate route 514 as it will reallocate existing service along the 504 King streetcar route.^[10]

Service runs every 8 to 9 minutes in the rush hours and every 15 minutes in the off-peak.^[11] The line is projected to attract 51,000 new riders annually and could provide up to 15 per cent more capacity along King Street where the 504 and 514 routes would overlap. The busiest section of the 504 King route is between Bathurst Street and John Street which carries 40,000 of the route’s 65,000 daily riders. The new Cherry streetcar line allows the TTC to redeploy some of the 17 morning and nine afternoon buses it has been using to accommodate 504 King crowds during rush hours. The 514 service opened with a mix of old high-floor CLRV and new low-floor Flexity Outlook streetcars. ^[12]

On March 23, 2016, the TTC approved the new route, and service began on June 19, 2016.^[2][11]

Route

Westbound displays "504 Dufferin" with additional card showing that it is actually "514 Dufferin Gate"

On March 23, 2016, James Bow, writing in Transit Toronto, reprinted several maps, showing earlier proposed alignments.^[13] An alignment under consideration in 2008 had the 514's western terminus at Spadina Avenue, had it briefly turn south at Parliament, where it would turn east on Front Street, to Cherry. But instead of terminating at the railway embankment, the route tunneled through the embankment, crossed the Keating Channel, and turned east on Commissioners Street, terminating at Commissioners and Leslie.

Eastbound cars start their trips in Dufferin Gate Loop, then proceed north along Dufferin Street to King Street, then turn east and proceed along King through downtown to Sumach Street where they turn south to the loop on Cherry Street south of Mill Street.^[1][14] Westbound cars start their trips in the Cherry Street Loop, then proceed north along Cherry and Sumach Streets to King Street where they turn west. The cars proceed along King through downtown to Dufferin Street where they go south and loop by way of Springhurst Avenue and Fort Rouille Street to end their trips at Dufferin Gate Loop.^[1]

Because the destination roll signs on the TTC's older CLRV streetcars are not available for this route, they either display blank signs or use signs supplemented from the 504 King streetcar line such as, "504 Dufferin" for cars heading westbound to Dufferin Gate Loop and "504 Parliament" for cars heading eastbound to the Distillery Loop respectively. As such, the TTC provided special magnetic cards - "514 Dufferin Gate" and "514 Distillery" respectively - below the vehicle's windshield where the "Short Turn" sign is used.^[15][16]

See also

• Cherry Street streetcar line
• 504 King

References

1. Robert Mackenzie (November 15, 2015). "New streetcar route 514". TTC surveying passengers: 72 Pape / 172 Cherry St route changes. Transit Toronto. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
2. "TTC approves new 514 Cherry streetcar to run alongside 504 King route". CBC News. March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
3. Sunil Johal (December 16, 2015). "Uber ups the ante. So what's the TTC going to do about it?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 22, 2016. Overburdened transit lines downtown can barely keep up with demand in dense new residential areas like Liberty Village.
4. Edward Keenan (January 18, 2016). "Plan in the works to redesign King Street — and quickly: Keenan". Toronto Star. Retrieved January 22, 2016. Picture King, just one year from now, from Liberty Village to the Distillery District, as a transit and pedestrian corridor
5. Steve Munro (December 14, 2015). "UberHop symptom of Toronto's transit woes". Toronto Sun. Retrieved January 22, 2016. This week, Uber launched a rush-hour service between the financial district downtown and four nearby neighbourhoods: The Distillery District, City Place, Fort York, and Liberty Village.
6. Steve Munro (November 23, 2015). "TTC Proposes Cherry Street Service Revision / Surveys Riders". Retrieved November 30, 2015.
7. "Improved_Transit_Service_in_EastCentral_Downtown_514_Cherry_.pdf" (PDF). TTC. March 23, 2016. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
8. "Proposed Service Improvements for the 2016 Operating Budget" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. November 9, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2016. This service initiative would benefit approximately 11 million customer-trips each year, requires operating resources only, and could be implemented in 2016
9. "2016 TTC and Wheel-Trans Operating Budgets" (PDF). STAFF REPORT: Impact of TTC Budget Committee Recommendations. Toronto Transit Commission. November 23, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2016. New Streetcar Service on Cherry Street
10. "Improved Transit Service in East/Central Downtown: 514 CHERRY – Streetcar Service on King Street" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
11. TTC 514 Cherry - New service
12. Tess Kalinowski, Transportation reporter (March 17, 2016). "TTC touts Cherry trolley as 'creative and ingenious solution' to crowding on King St.". Toronto Star. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
13. James Bow (March 23, 2016). "Route 514 - The Cherry streetcar". Transit Toronto. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016. Suggestions included extending streetcar tracks south of King via Parliament to the rail corridor, via Cherry to the rail corridor, or via Parliament, Front and Cherry to the rail corridor. Cherry was selected as the preferred corridor because it was closer to new development, and it avoided potential delays by having streetcars negotiating turns at Parliament and Front.
14. "Relief could be coming to King streetcar in June". CBC News. March 16, 2016. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016. A report made public Wednesday recommends that the new route begin service on June 19. It would operate between the Distillery Loop in the east and the Dufferin Gates loop in the west via Cherry, King and Dufferin streets.
15. Bow, James (June 18, 2016). "ROUTE 514 - THE CHERRY STREETCAR". Transit Toronto. Retrieved July 6, 2016.
16. http://transit.toronto.on.ca/photos/images/ttc-4113- dufferin-loop-driver-20160619.jpg TTC CLRV #4113 was the first scheduled vehicle to depart Dufferin loop in 514 Cherry service, at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, June 19, 2016. The driver posed for this shot. Rollsigns were not ready for the route, so the TTC used 504 KING exposures and special cards fastened to the SHORT TURN flap instead.

External links

• Map of proposed TTC service changes