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| - There's lots to say about this being a scenic streetcar route, how it covers lots of different areas of Toronto, and so on. That's at least somewhat true.
The fact of the matter is, this streetcar route simply doesn't work.
Imagine this...
Take one of the busiest streets in Canada. Then put a streetcar track in the middle of it. Not a dedicated lane for that streetcar, but a track in the street, in the middle of a lane on both sides.
Then have people parking, or cabs stopping, in the other lane.
Then set it up so that every time the streetcar stops to load/unload people, they have to cross the other lane. You're now blocking both lanes.
Next, put the stops right at busy intersections. That way, the streetcar can't stop beside them, because there are already cars waiting at the light. Don't let people on and off if you have to be 2 car lengths away from the stop - that would be too obvious.
Finally, if you get behind schedule and multiple streetcars start to bunch up together, don't do the easy thing and send one streetcar ahead. Instead, have the lead streetcar continue to take every stop, while the other streetcars build up behind it, completely empty. What's cooler than traveling convoy style?
THAT'S the 501 Queen streetcar.
Yesterday I rode this thing. When I exited, I noticed that there were SEVEN streetcars traveling together. Four of them were double streetcars. That's eleven traveling together in a convoy. What a waste.
This route is too easily caught in traffic jams. The route CAUSES traffic jams. This route should be underground. If successive governments had any sort of vision - if they ever actually rode the streetcar - this route would have been turned into an underground subway a long time ago.
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