Toronto City Council today voted 22-3 in favour of making the King Street Transit Pilot permanent. King Street will continue to operate as a transit priority corridor.
The King Street Transit Pilot launched on November 12, 2017 to improve transit reliability, speed, and capacity on the TTC’s busiest surface route, the 504 King streetcar, between Bathurst and Jarvis Streets.
During the pilot, TTC ridership on the 504 King streetcar was up nearly 17 per cent to 84,000 riders per day and afternoon peak period travel times for transit improved by approximately four to five minutes (from about 25 minutes down to 20 minutes). In addition, vehicle travel times during both the morning and afternoon peak periods on east-west streets parallel to King Street, and north-south streets were generally the same (+/- less than a minute).
Going forward, transit stops that were relocated to the far side of most intersections will be made permanent, including the relocation of transit shelters where feasible. Improvements will also be made to street furniture and patios lining the corridor.
Read the complete staff report https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2019/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-131188.pdf
The King Street Transit Pilot annual summary is available at
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8fb5-TS_King-Street-Annual-Dashboard_Final.pdf
King Street is a significant east-west corridor in the downtown, serving the largest concentration of jobs in Canada. The neighbourhoods along King Street have experienced tremendous growth in the last 10 years, and will continue to grow in the future. King Street is also a key destination for culture, heritage, entertainment and retail.
QUOTES
“King Street is the busiest surface transit route in North America and the third busiest transit route overall in Toronto, after our two main subway lines. Today’s decision by Council to make this pilot project permanent will ensure we can further build up and improve King Street into the excellent dedicated transit corridor that our city needs.
By proceeding with this giant step forward and investing in King Street’s future, we are doing the right thing for our residents – especially the 84,000 daily riders who use transit along the street, the right thing for King Street, and the right thing for our city.”
– Mayor John Tory
“The King Street Transit Pilot was an experiment in city-building. It demonstrated that with bold action, we can make the city work better. Now we can get to work on making it even better.”
– Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York)
“The King Street pilot project has shown us that a more vibrant, connected, and successful downtown is possible. I am glad that Council agrees and I look forward to King Street’s future.”
– Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 13 Toronto Centre)
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