You’ve felt it before: If you’re at a streetcar stop, and you don’t see a train on the horizon, you might as well start walking. But it doesn’t have to be this way – if the 506 was as fast as the streetcars in Melbourne, you could get from Yonge Street to Manning Avenue in less than 10 minutes.
By shifting from passive signage and no enforcement, to active and enforced transit priority, Little Italy, Chinatown, UofT – everyone can benefit from a fast and safe 506.
Let’s get to College Street 2.0: Thriving businesses, functional roadways, and a fast streetcar. The 506 needs real signal priority, 21st century track infrastructure, and a dedicated lane from Yonge Street to Manning Avenue.
Make Transit & Road Safety a True Priority
Speed Up the 506 Streetcar:
The plan includes fast-tracking the College Streetcar:
- Make room for transit riders:
- Priority transit lanes between Yonge Street and Manning Avenue
- Removal of street parking
- Designation of off-street loading zones
- Restricting vehicular left-hand turns
- Full unconditional transit signal priority
- Accessible and comfortable streetcar stops:
- Digital signs with wait times and benches at every stop
- Level boarding platforms for improved accessibility
- End speed restrictions through intersections:
- Proactively upgrade intersections with double-point switches
- Add cab signals so operators know which way switches are pointing
A Call to Speed Up the 506 Streetcar:
By treating College Street as a dedicated transit vein rather than a mixed-traffic free-for-all, the TTC can eliminate the erratic scheduling that leaves its on-time performance lagging.
If the King Street metrics are any indication, prioritizing the 506 could trigger a 16% surge in ridership, over 14,000 minutes of travel time saved every day, and get 85% of streetcars to arrive within a predictable, reliable window.
We don’t need to reinvent Toronto transit to save the 506; we just need to copy what already works. Together, we can Fix the 506 – and get Toronto moving.
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