A City of Toronto staff report is recommending that King Street continue to operate as a transit priority corridor. The report will go before Executive Committee on April 9, the TTC Board on April 11 and Toronto City Council on April 16 to 17.
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.
Since the pilot, TTC ridership on the 504 King streetcar is up nearly 17 per cent to 84,000 riders per day and afternoon peak period travel times have 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 have risen by less than a minute. On north-south streets, travel times are nearly the same.
The report also recommends making the transit stops that were relocated to the far side of most intersections permanent, including the relocation of transit shelters where feasible.
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
Watch a short video about the King Street Transit Pilot at https://youtu.be/371VPY6zxNo
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
“I firmly believe it is time to make this pilot project permanent so that 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 those who use transit along the street, the right thing for King Street, and the right thing for our city.”
– Mayor John Tory
“The neighbourhoods along King Street are growing rapidly. Part of sustaining this growth is providing reliable transit options and improving community spaces. This staff report shows that by prioritizing transit along this important downtown corridor, residents are experiencing dramatic improvements in both reliability and capacity.”
– Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York)
“The King Street Pilot is an excellent example of city-building, as it has moved transit riders faster, improved the public realm and we have been able to identify all the ways we can make the permanent installation even better for TTC riders, area businesses, and the wider community through a pilot phase. I look forward to voting for a permanent installation at Council this month.”
– Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 13 Toronto Centre)
This news release is also available on the City’s website:
https://www.toronto.ca/home/media-room/news-releases-media-advisories/?nrkey=64CF3B0DD582DB07852583D00057C750
Toronto is Canada’s largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of more than 2.9 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world’s most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cityoftoronto, on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/cityofto or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cityofto.
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