501 Queen

1875–1999

In 1875, the Kingston Road Tramway operated a horsecar service along what would become today's Queen Street East. This line was abandoned in the mid 1880s, at about which time the Toronto Street Railway extended its King horsecar line onto Queen Street East to Lee Avenue in the Beaches district. In 1893, the Toronto Railway Company electrified the line. In 1921, the TTC took over streetcar service.^[6]

From 1923 to 1928, the Beach streetcar line ran along Queen Street from Neville Park Boulevard to the Humber River similar to today's 501 Queen. At about this time, there was also a route named "Queen", but it ran along Kingston Road to McCaul and Queen streets much like the 502 Downtowner that ran until 2019.^[6]

From 1928 to 1937, service to the eastern and western ends of Queen Street was handled by separate routes. Thus, one would need to transfer streetcars in the downtown area to travel the full length of Queen Street.^[6][7]

On August 2, 1937, a new Queen route served all of Queen Street between Neville Park Loop and Parkside Loop.^[6] (The Parkside Loop was located at the northeast corner of Lakeshore Boulevard and Parkside Drive, south of the rail corridor, which was crossed by a bridge.^[8]) East of Roncesvalles Avenue, the Queen route resembled today's 501 Queen.^[9]

On September 14, 1940, the PCC streetcar was introduced on the Queen route on Sundays, displacing Peter Witt streetcars.^[10]: 42 PCCs were placed in Queen night service on October 3, 1940,^[10]: 43 and in regular daily service on May 1, 1941.^[10]: 44

By 1954, when the Yonge subway (today part of Line 1 Yonge–University) opened, an underground streetcar station was partially built at Queen station to eventually allow streetcars to cross under the subway tracks. The plan was to put the Queen streetcar line in a tunnel under Queen Street between Logan Avenue and Trinity Park. However, because of changing ridership patterns, the plan was dropped in favour of east–west subway line along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue (today's Line 2 Bloor–Danforth). Today, Lower Queen remains a ghost station.^[11]

In 1957, to accommodate construction of the Gardiner Expressway, the streetcar tracks were removed from Lake Shore Boulevard between Roncesvalles Avenue and the Humber River, and the bridge crossing the rail corridor was demolished. As a replacement, a new private right-of-way was built along the Queensway from the Sunnyside Loop to the Humber Loop. At the Humber Loop, passengers could transfer to the Long Branch streetcar which shuttled between the Humber and Long Branch loops.^[6][12]

Between 1967 and early 1977, two-car multiple-unit PCC trains served the Queen streetcar route.^[6]

Around early 1978, the TTC announced plans to number all of its streetcar routes (which had been known only by names), and the Queen Street route was to be number 501.^[13] The route number 501 began being displayed on streetcars' destination signs on February 4, 1980, when the Queen route was still operated entirely by PCC streetcars.^[14]

On March 26, 1995, the 507 Long Branch route was replaced by a westward extension of the 501 Queen route,^[6] resulting in the Queen route attaining a length of 24.6 kilometres (15.3 mi).^[3] In 2010, National Geographic described 501 Queen as one of the longest streetcar lines in North America.^[15] In 2012, a National Post article made a similar claim.^[16] In late 2023, a reinstated 507 route would be carved out of the 501 route, reducing the length of the latter except in late evening.^[4]

2000–present

In 2013, the TTC considered setting up a transit mall on the downtown portion of either Queen or King Street. TTC CEO Andy Byford wanted a car-free corridor along one of the city's two busiest streetcar lines (either 501 Queen or 504 King) to prevent bunching, gaps and service delays. Byford would ban general automobile traffic along the streetcar corridor but allow cyclists, taxicabs and delivery trucks. Byford preferred King Street for the transit mall because of recent condominium development along that street. There were similar proposals for a transit mall in 2001 and 2007.^[17] Ultimately, the King Street Transit Priority Corridor was established in late 2017.

On January 3, 2016, the 501 Queen route was split into two sections at Humber Loop in order to make its service more reliable. Effectively, the section west of Humber Loop became the 507 Long Branch route in all but name.^[18]

In January 2017, construction began for approximately 15 months on various projects west of Roncesvalles Avenue, including rebuilding the bridge over the Humber River carrying streetcar tracks.^[19] Other work included replacing track and overhead along portions of the Queensway and Lake Shore Boulevard as well as at the Humber Loop. Also at the Humber Loop, a new substation was built, platforms were made accessible to accommodate Flexity streetcars and a siding on the west-to-east loop was modified.^[20][21][22] In April 2018, streetcar operations resumed between Sunnyside Loop and Humber Loop.^[23][24] Streetcar service between Humber Loop and Long Branch Loop resumed in June 2018.^[25]

From May to September 2017, all streetcar service along the entire 501 Queen route was replaced by buses to permit multiple construction projects along Queen Street to take place, including the replacement of an overhead pedestrian walkway at the Eaton Centre, which required overhead wires to be removed. According to a TTC spokesperson, it took 65 buses to replace the 50 streetcars then operating east of the Sunnyside Loop.^[19]

Since March 31, 2021, the 501 Queen route has been partially closed due to construction activity, including track replacement and the extension of the exclusive streetcar right-of-way on the Queensway west of Roncesvalles Avenue. Also, the TTC was upgrading the streetcar overhead for pantographs.^[26] The result was that streetcar service was temporarily replaced by buses from Parliament Street to Long Branch Loop, with a diversion along King and Bathurst Streets to Wolseley Loop.^[27] Streetcar service was restored along Queen Street between Parliament and Bathurst Streets on February 13, 2022,^[28] to Dufferin Street on September 4, 2022,^[29] to Roncesvalles Avenue (Sunnyside Loop) on January 25, 2023^[30] and to Humber Loop on October 29, 2023. Route 501 service to Long Branch Loop was scheduled to resume on November 19, 2023.^[31]

On May 1, 2023, an estimated 4.5-year closure of Queen Street between Victoria and Bay Streets began to allow construction of the Ontario Line at Queen station. Initially, the TTC diverted 501 streetcars via McCaul Street, Dundas Street and Broadview Avenue.^[32] On September 3, 2023, the TTC split Queen streetcar service into eastern and western segments; 501A streetcars would run between Sunnyside Loop and McCaul Loop, and the diverted 505 Dundas streetcar route would be extended from Broadview Avenue to Neville Park Loop.^[33] On October 8, 2023, the TTC replaced the eastern segment of the split route with the 501D streetcar which would run east on Queen Street from Neville Park Loop, south on Church Street looping via Church, Wellington and York Streets, returning via King Street to Church Street.^[34] The TTC was planning to rejoin the two segments of the line using a new diversion between Church and York Streets, via Richmond Street westbound and Adelaide Street eastbound.^[32] By October 6, 2024, the TTC had published schedules for such a diversion.^[35] However, on that date, the TTC decided to provide a temporary diversion in both directions via Spadina Avenue, King Street and Church Street.^[36] On November 10, 2024, the TTC started operating the planned diversion route via Richmond and Adelaide Streets, with eastbound streetcars using new track on York and Adelaide Streets.^[37]

Effective November 19, 2023, the TTC reinstated route 507 Long Branch to run between Humber and Long Branch Loops, replacing the 501 Queen along Lake Shore Boulevard but only until late evening.^[4]

On March 31, 2024, 301 Queen night streetcar service resumed, ending replacement bus service between Long Branch and Neville Park Loops. However, due to Ontario Line construction, 301 streetcars had to divert via Spadina Avenue, King Street and Church Street.^[38]

Rolling stock

Route 501 Queen was once served mainly by Articulated Light Rail Vehicles (ALRVs) and occasionally supplemented with some of the shorter Canadian Light Rail Vehicles (CLRVs).^[39] However, by 2018, the route was mainly served by CLRVs.^[40] This was due to the declining reliability and accelerated retirement of the ALRV fleet.^[41]

Flexity Outlook streetcars were introduced on the 501 Queen route in phases; weekend service using the Flexity vehicles along the route began in September 2018^[42] and moved to full-time on January 6, 2019. The TTC had to address rush-hour crowding due to the accelerated retirement of the ALRV fleet, the last of which made their final voyages on September 2, 2019.^[43][44]

By June 23, 2019, the main portion of the route (along Queen Street and the Queensway between Humber Loop and Neville Park Loop) was the first to be fully served by Flexity Outlook streetcars; the southwest portion of the route (along Lake Shore Boulevard between Humber and Long Branch Loop) followed suit on September 1, 2019.^[45][46]

Route splitting

507 Long Branch

Route 507 Long Branch is a streetcar route running along Lake Shore Boulevard West between Humber Loop and Long Branch Loop. It was created on October 28, 1935, merged into an extended 501 Queen on March 26, 1995^[59] and reinstated as a separate route on November 19, 2023.^[4]

Route 507 Long Branch operates daily until late evening, when 501 Queen service is extended west from Humber Loop to Long Branch Loop, replacing 507 service. Overnight, night route 301 Queen replaces both 507 Long Branch and 501 Queen.^[4][38]

Sites along the line

From east to west: