503 Kingston Rd

The 503 Kingston Rd is an east–west streetcar route in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. The 503 Kingston Rd travels on a route to the downtown financial district from the Bingham Loop along Kingston Road and shares much of its track with the 501 Queen and 504 King. Originally a rush-hour service, the route was upgraded in September 2019 to run weekdays excluding evenings after the consolidation of 502 Downtowner service into this route.[2]

503 Kingston Rd
A 503 Kingston Rd car proceeds east along
King Street, bound for Victoria Park Avenue
Overview
LocaleToronto, Ontario
TerminiVictoria Park Avenue (Bingham Loop)
Spadina Avenue (Charlotte Loop)
Stations King
St. Andrew
Service
TypeStreetcar route
Route number503
Operator(s)Toronto Transit Commission
Rolling stockFlexity Outlook
Technical
Line length10.37 km (6.44 mi)[1]
Track gauge4 ft 10 78 in (1,495 mm)
Electrification600 V DC overhead
Route map
Transfer stop
Sunday-only stop
Carhouse
Route:
Connection  00  Terminus  00 

York Street
Union Station
 6   6A 
King Station
 97B 
Victoria Street
Church Street
Jarvis Street
Sherbourne Street
 75 
Ontario Street
Parliament Street
 65 
Trinity Street
Sackville Street
Sumach Street
501 & 502 to downtown
King Street East
River Street
 501   502 
CN Kingston sub.
CP Bala sub.
Don Valley Parkway
Carroll Street
Broadview Avenue
 504 
↓ Saulter Street/Boulton Avenue ↑
CN Lakeshore sub.
Empire Avenue
↓ Booth Avenue
Logan Avenue
Carlaw Avenue
 72 
Pape Avenue
 72 
↓ Caroline Avenue/Brooklyn Avenue ↑
Jones Avenue
 83 
Leslie Street
↓ Laing Street/Alton Avenue ↑
Greenwood Avenue
 31 
Russell Carhouse
Connaught Avenue
↓ Woodward Avenue/Kent Road ↑
Coxwell Avenue
 22 
↓ Eastern Avenue/Queen Street ↑
 22B   501 
Woodbine Loop
↓ Dixon Avenue/Dundas Street East
Columbine Avenue
Rainsford Road
Woodbine Avenue
 92 
Elmer Avenue
↓ Waverly Road/Brookside Drive ↑
Lee Avenue
Main Street (Southwood Drive)
 64 
Walter Street
Glen Manor Drive
St. John Church
Malvern Avenue
Beech Avenue
Scarborough Road
Bingham Avenue
Victoria Park Avenue
Bingham Loop
 12   22A   502 

Route

Starting at the Bingham Loop on Victoria Park Avenue, the 503 runs southwest on Kingston Road then turns west along Queen Street. At the Queen Street Viaduct bridging the Don River, it then turns southwest along King Street, enters the King Street Transit Priority Corridor and continues to Spadina Avenue, where it turns on the Charlotte Loop (via Adelaide Street West and Charlotte Street).[3][4]

The 503 Kingston Rd runs weekdays excluding evenings.[2] Evening, weekend and holiday service is provided by the 22A Coxwell bus route replacing streetcar service along Kingston Road.[5] The section to the west of Queen and Coxwell is served by the 501 Queen and 504 King streetcars. Both of these routes provide all-day service.[6][7]

History

Two streetcar routes, 503 Kingston Rd and 502 Downtowner, serve Kingston Road. Route 502 Downtowner was originally named "Kingston Rd" while 503 Kingston Rd was originally named "Kingston Rd Tripper". The Kingston Rd route (today's 502 Downtowner) ran from the McCaul Loop to the Birchmount Loop until 1954 when it was cut back to the Bingham Loop.[8][9] By 1968, the rush-hour route Kingston Rd Tripper (today's 503 Kingston Rd) was appearing in TTC Ride Guides.[10] "Tripper" here means a rush-hour variant of a base route which in this case was the Kingston Rd route (today's 502 Downtowner).[11][12]

In 1973, the Kingston Rd route was renamed to "Downtowner" (today's 502 Downtowner) with a route extension to Bathurst station that was revoked in 1984. Also in 1973, with the renaming of "Kingston Rd" to "Downtowner", the Kingston Rd Tripper became simply "Kingston Rd" and ultimately the 503 Kingston Rd.[11]

From July 31, 2017, until February 16, 2018, the 503 Kingston Rd route was temporarily operated using buses due to a shortage of streetcars resulting from the late delivery of the new Bombardier Flexity Outlook streetcars.[13][14]

On February 20, 2018, the 502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Rd routes reversed roles. Prior to that date, route 502 provided base workday service supplemented by route 503 in the rush hours. Since that date, route 503 provides base service while route 502 provides rush-hour-only service. These changes were to support the King Street Pilot Project[14] which resulted in increased ridership along downtown King Street.[15] However, effective September 2, 2018, these changes were reversed.[16]

On January 7, 2019, the 503 route returned to shuttle bus operation to accommodate construction along Wellington Street.[17][18] Effective September 3, 2019, the 502 Downtowner service was suspended and replaced with the 503 Kingston Rd service to accommodate some construction projects. Route 503 service was upgraded to operating weekdays excluding evenings instead of just during rush hours.[2][19] The construction projects ended in November 2019; however, the consolidation of Kingston Road service into 503 Kingston Rd remained in effect.[20]

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a loss of ridership on the TTC. As a result, on March 24 the TTC shortened the 503 Kingston Rd route to run only along Kingston Road between Bingham Loop and Woodbine Loop.[21] Then, effective May 11, the 22A Coxwell bus replaced the remainder of the 503 route full-time[22][23]

On June 22, 2020, streetcar service returned to the route, running from Bingham Loop (Victoria Park and Kingston Road) to Spadina Avenue (Charlotte Loop). Service was provided by the low-floor, accessible Flexity Outlook streetcars.[3] The return of streetcars along 503 Kingston Rd coincided with the withdrawal of streetcars on 506 Carlton due to construction projects.[24]

Sites along the line

From east to west:

References

  1. "Service Summary - February 18, 2018 to March 31, 2018" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission.
  2. "503 Kingston Rd - Route update". TTC. Archived from the original on August 31, 2019. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  3. "Seasonal service changes and improvements". Toronto Transit Commission. June 18, 2020. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  4. "503 Kingston Rd – Roure Description". Toronto Transit Commission. February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  5. "Toronto Transit Commission route 503 'Kingston Rd' - CPTDB Wiki". cptdb.ca. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  6. "Toronto Transit Commission route 504 'King' - CPTDB Wiki". cptdb.ca. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  7. "Toronto Transit Commission route 501 'Queen' - CPTDB Wiki". cptdb.ca. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  8. "TTC System Map - September 1, 1938". Toronto Transportation Commission. September 1, 1938. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  9. "TTC System Map - July 1, 1954". Toronto Transit Commission. July 1, 1954. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  10. "TTC Ride Guide - May 11, 1968". Toronto Transit Commission. May 11, 1968. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  11. Bow, James (January 17, 2018). "Route 502 And 503 - The Kingston Road Streetcars". Transit Toronto. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  12. "TTC System Maps". Transit Toronto. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  13. "Accessible streetcar service updates". Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on January 14, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
  14. "503 Kingston Rd - Service change - King Street Transit Pilot". Toronto Transit Commission. February 19, 2018. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018.
  15. Moore, Oliver (January 11, 2018). "Toronto's King streetcar sees 'spectacular' rise in ridership". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
  16. "TTC service improvements and changes". Toronto Transit Commission. September 2, 2018. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  17. "Accessible streetcar service updates". ttc.ca. Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  18. "TTC service improvements and changes". ttc.ca. Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  19. "Editorial – September Board Period Service Changes". The Coupler. Toronto Transit Commission. July 31, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-09-01. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  20. "Editorial – November Board Period Service Changes". The Coupler. Toronto Transit Commission. October 27, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  21. "Coronavirus update". Toronto Transit Commission. April 20, 2020. Archived from the original on April 9, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  22. "Bingham Loop". Toronto Transit Commission. May 10, 2020. Archived from the original on May 10, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  23. Munro, Steve (May 3, 2020). "TTC responds to coronavirus with historic service cuts". Now. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  24. "506 Carlton - Temporary route change during infrastructure renewal". Toronto Transit Commission. June 21, 2020. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.

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