514 Cherry

514 Cherry
Overview
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	Dufferin Gate Loop (West) Distillery Loop (East)
Stations	King St. Andrew
Service
Type	Streetcar route
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s)	Leslie Barns, Roncesvalles, Russell
Rolling stock	Flexity Outlook
History
Opened	June 19, 2016 (2016-06-19)
Technical
Line length	7.0 km (4.35 mi)
Track gauge	4 ft 10+7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) - TTC Gauge
Electrification	600V DC Overhead
Route map Dufferin Gate Loop  29  Liberty Street  63  504 King to Dundas West King Street  29  Fraser Avenue Joe Shuster Way Atlantic Avenue Metrolinx Galt Subdivision & Weston Subdivision Sudbury Street Shaw Street  63  Strachan Avenue  63  Niagara Street Tecumseth Street Bathurst Street  145   511  Portland Street Spadina Avenue  510  ↓ Blue Jays Way/Peter Street ↑ John Street University Avenue – St. Andrew station  142  Bay Street  6  Yonge Street – King station  97  Church Street Jarvis Street  141  Sherbourne Street  75  Ontario Street Parliament Street  65  Sackville Street Sumach Street 504 King to Broadview Front Street East  121  Mill Street Distillery Loop Port Lands Extension Port Lands Extension Union Station Rail Corridor Gardiner Expressway East Bayfront LRT Queens Quay Keating Channel Commissioners Street East Bayfront LRT New Don River mouth Polson Street Loop

The 514 Cherry is a streetcar route of the Toronto streetcar system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 514 operates through the financial district and downtown Toronto between Dufferin Gate Loop and the Cherry Street Loop. This route supplements the 504 King service along King Street, specifically to the dense residential areas in Liberty Village, Canary District and Distillery District. The City of Toronto's "King Street Visioning Study" proposes a transit and pedestrian corridor through which this route would operate. Transit congestion had become so bad that UberHop launched a rush-hour service for the corridor in December 2015.

History

In November 2015, as part of a proposal to revise service in the areas of Cherry Street and Queens Quay East, the TTC proposed a new 514 streetcar route that would run from the Distillery streetcar loop on Cherry Street via King Street to the Dufferin Gate Loop. It was mainly to increase capacity to conveniently serve the growing ridership along the 504 King corridor, and accessibility concerns. It was also proposed to run all day, everyday, while maintaining 504 King streetcar service.

Service Initiatives in the Preliminary 2016 TTC Operating Budget called for dedicated resources to implement a new service at an operating cost in 2016 of $0.8 million and $2.1 million annually thereafter. No additional funding was provided in the 2016 budget. The TTC proposed no change in operating costs to operate route 514 as it will reallocate existing service along the 504 King streetcar route.

On March 23, 2016, the TTC approved the new route, and service began on June 19, 2016. This coincided with the conversion of the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village to apartments and the opening of a George Brown College student residence..

Route

Westbound displays "504 Dufferin" with additional card showing that it is actually "514 Dufferin Gate"

On March 23, 2016, James Bow, writing in Transit Toronto, reprinted several maps, showing earlier proposed alignments. An alignment under consideration in 2008 had the 514's western terminus at Spadina Avenue, had it briefly turn south at Parliament, where it would turn east on Front Street, to Cherry. But instead of terminating at the railway embankment, the route tunneled through the embankment, crossed the Keating Channel, and turned east on Commissioners Street, terminating at Commissioners and Leslie.

Eastbound cars start their trips in Dufferin Gate Loop, then proceed north along Dufferin Street to King Street, then turn east and proceed along King through downtown to Sumach Street where they turn south to the loop on Cherry Street south of Mill Street. Westbound cars start their trips in the Cherry Street Loop, then proceed north along Cherry and Sumach Streets to King Street where they turn west. The cars proceed along King through downtown to Dufferin Street where they go south and loop by way of Springhurst Avenue and Fort Rouille Street to end their trips at Dufferin Gate Loop. On Cherry Street, both streetcar tracks run on the east side of the street with a tree-lined median separating them from two automobile lanes and bike lanes on either side of them. The entire width is 32.5 metres, including sidewalks 5 metres wide.

Because the overhead route number and destination roll signs on the TTC's older CLRV streetcars are not available for this route, they often use blank signs, but sometimes they use signs supplemented from the 504 King streetcar line such as, "504 Dufferin" for cars heading westbound to Dufferin Gate Loop and "504 Parliament" for cars heading eastbound to the Distillery Loop respectively. As such, the TTC uses improvised magnetic dashboard route signs (often placed on the short turn flap below the vehicle's windshield) - "514 Dufferin Gate" and/or "514 Distillery" respectively.

Distillery Loop

Distillery Loop
General information
Location	Cherry Street, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Coordinates	43°39′02″N 79°21′24″W
Operated by	Toronto Transit Commission
Line(s)	514
Construction
Structure type	Streetcar loop
Accessible	Yes
History
Opening	June 19, 2016

Distillery Loop, the southerly terminus of the line, is located south of Mill Street north of the railway viaduct on the east side of Cherry Street. It is across the street from Distillery Lane in the Distillery District.

The loop runs anticlockwise. With the junction at Sumach Street and King Street, the loop can turn streetcars coming from either direction along King Street.

Decorative features at the loop include paving blocks, a small grove of young trees, and a small flower bed between the track and the street. At the railway viaduct on the southern side of the loop stands the Cherry Street Tower which the Toronto Terminals Railway uses to control the eastern approach to Union Station.

The southbound approach to Distillery Loop has a wheel greaser that is automatically activated by GPS; however, the greaser can only work with the Flexity streetcars.

Service

Service runs every 8 to 9 minutes in the rush hours and every 15 minutes in the off-peak. The line is projected to attract 51,000 new riders annually and could provide up to 15 per cent more capacity along King Street where the 504 and 514 routes would overlap. The busiest section of the 504 King route is between Bathurst Street and John Street which carries 40,000 of the route’s 65,000 daily riders. The new Cherry streetcar line allows the TTC to redeploy some of the 17 morning and nine afternoon buses it has been using to accommodate 504 King crowds during rush hours. The 514 service opened with a mix of old high-floor CLRV and new low-floor Flexity Outlook streetcars.

A few problems were reported within several months of the line's opening. Traffic lights were poorly timed at the intersections at Cherry & Front streets and Cherry Street & Eastern Avenue. As happened along Queens Quay, painted turn lane lines were not clear enough to discourage motorists from accidentally getting onto the streetcar right-of-way and then being trapped there. Because of complaints of squealing wheels at the corner of Sumach and King streets as well as at the Distillery Loop, streetcars were replaced by buses overnight along the Cherry Street line. Late night streetcar service was restored on July 15, 2017 as TTC riders found the transfer between the night bus and streetcar to be inconvenient. To address the reported problems, the TTC:

• Added extra signage to discourage motorists from driving on the tracks.
• Imposed a maximum speed of 10 km/h at Sumach and King.
• Use only Flexity streetcars which have an on-board wheel lubrication system.
• Enhanced the on-board wheel lubrication system for higher lubricant output.

See also

• Cherry Street streetcar line
• 504 King

External links

Template:Attached KML/514 Cherry

KML is not from Wikidata

• Map of proposed TTC service changes
• 514 Cherry map