504 King

504 King
Overview
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	Broadview Station (East) Dundas West Station (West)
Stations	King St. Andrew Dundas West Broadview
Service
Type	Streetcar
Route number	504
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s)	Russell and Roncesvalles
Rolling stock	CLRV, ALRV
Technical
Line length	13.97 km (8.68 mi)
Track gauge	4 ft 10+7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) - TTC Gauge
Route map Template:Infobox rdt

The 504 King is a streetcar route operated by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was grouped together with the 508 Lake Shore for accounting purposes until the latter was cancelled on June 19, 2015 and has since been replaced by the new 514 Cherry streetcar line which launched one year later. In 2005-06, these routes carried 47,900 passengers on an average weekday (of which the vast majority were carried by 504 King), making 504 King the busiest TTC streetcar route in terms of number of passengers. As of September 6, 2015, this route operates 24 hours a day seven days a week. During weekday rush hours, daytime and early evenings, average service frequency is 4 minutes or less. Saturday daytime services have an average frequency of 4–5 minutes with Sunday daytime service frequency averaging 6–7 minutes. During overnight periods, streetcars operate every 30 minutes.

The route provides primary service along King Street in Toronto's downtown core. 504 cars used to provide additional service to the 508 route along Roncesvalles Avenue and Broadview Avenue until June 2015 when the 508 streetcar line was decommissioned, and now overlaps with the newly replaced 514 Cherry streetcar line. Both lines interchange mid-route with the Yonge-University-Spadina line at St. Andrew and King stations. The 504 King interchanges with the Bloor-Danforth line at its termini, Dundas West and Broadview stations, which the route shares with 505 Dundas streetcars.

The line is operated primarily with Toronto's single-length CLRV streetcars, which is sometimes shared with the double-module ALRV streetcars (for instance: during rush hour periods). In 2006 the TTC briefly considered adding couplers to its streetcars in order to run the King route with trains of two or three units, as was common on busy routes until the opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway; the hope was that this would keep them from bunching and becoming stuck in traffic. This plan was rejected, and the TTC is replacing the CLRVs and ALRVs with brand-new fully accessible low-floor Flexity Outlook vehicles, the first of which entered service on the 510 Spadina streetcar route in September 2014, and were deployed on the 514 Cherry streetcar route upon its launch on June 19, 2016, and will be introduced on the 504 King route in 2017.

Proposed right-of-way

On March 22, 2007, the TTC proposed a pilot project for right-of-way dedicated lanes along the 504 King Streetcar in the summer of 2007. The proposal suggested there would only be a single lane available to cabs, cars and deliveries in that designated area in each direction. The street would have been closed entirely to through traffic and streetcars would run at ground level, not in a raised median. The TTC was trying to implement a trial transit mall on King from Yonge to University, with hopes of eventually closing King to cars from Dufferin to Parliament. It was also hoped that traffic on King would be partially alleviated by the proposed Waterfront West LRT and the planned network of streetcar routes for the Port Lands. The pilot project was not implemented. It was revived in 2016 when the city of Toronto's "King Street Visioning Study" proposed a transit and pedestrian corridor on King Street through downtown.

Sites along the line (from east to west)

• George Brown College
• St. Lawrence Hall
• Commerce Court
• Scotia Plaza
• Toronto-Dominion Centre
• First Canadian Place
• Royal Alexandra Theatre
• Roy Thomson Hall
• Princess of Wales Theatre

Overlapping routes

The 503 Kingston Road route overlaps 504 King from the intersection of Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue to King Street West and York Street. From Church Street to York Street, the eastbbound 503 runs along King Street but the westbound 503 runs 100 metres further south along Wellington Street. The 503 route runs only during rush hours.

The 514 Cherry route overlaps the 504 King route from Sumach Street to Dufferin Avenue. The route increases capacity to serve the growing ridership along the 504 King corridor through the downtown area, and addresses accessibility concerns by introducing new low-floor Flexity Outlook streetcars.

Roncesvalles Avenue redesign

Bumpout on Roncesvalles Avenue serving as both a streetcar loading platform as well as a bicycle lane.

On December 19, 2010, 504 streetcar service returned to Roncesvalles Avenue after a service suspension in order to rebuild the street to a new design and to replace the tracks. As part of the redesign, a widened sidewalk "bumpout" was added to each stop to allow riders to board the streetcar directly from the curb. To accommodate a bike lane at a TTC stop, the bike lane gently rises from the main road to run on top of the bumpout. When the streetcar is boarding, cyclists are required to stop and allow riders on and off.

Blue Night service

From 1987 to 1992, the 304 King provided overnight service on that route. After the route was eliminated in February 1992, the Broadview and Roncesvalles segments were replaced by portions of other night bus routes.

On September 6, 2015, overnight service was restored on this route as part of the expanded Blue Night Network services as part of a $95 million investment from Toronto City Council. Streetcars operate every 30 minutes during overnight periods.

External links

• Media related to 504 King at Wikimedia Commons
• Toronto Transit Commission official site
• 504 King (Transit Toronto)
• 504 King map