Last Sunday, May 31 was the last day that church-goers could wait for a TTC streetcar to take them home after mass or service on Gerrard Street East at Hiawatha Road, on Dundas Street West at Gladstone Avenue, on Broadview Avenue at Simpson Avenue, or at any one of 37 other “Sunday-only” stops in central Toronto.

Last year, the Toronto Transit Commission approved removing the stops as part of its ongoing effort to speed up streetcar service and to improve passenger safety. The second stage of this project will be to consolidate stops — remove stops that are too close to others and relocate stops to intersections with traffic signals or pedestrian crosswalks.

The TTC has been serving special Sunday stops since the 1920s, when most Torontonians attended weekly church services. Since so many people traveled by streetcar to worship, crowds often overwhelmed regular stops before and after church. The TTC installed special stops to accommodate these devout passengers, identifying the Sunday-only stops with special yellow markers.

Changing demographics have eliminated the need for these special stops. Fewer people attend church regularly. Today many Torontonians worship on other days of the week or attend synagogues, temples, mosques or gurdwaras that don’t have special streetcar stops.

In a news release, the TTC explains that “Sunday stops, which were established… [to] reduce walking distance to nearby churches, are too close to existing adjacent stops. Transportation best practices state that streetcar stops should be 250 to 350 metres apart, and no less than 200 metres to one another. Sunday stops are, on average, about 100 metres from an adjacent regular stop.”

These are the stops that the TTC is removing:

501 Queen

Eastbound:

• on Queen Street West across from Callendar Avenue and at Cowan and Walnut Avenues; and
• on Queen Street East at Power Street and Booth Avenue.

Westbound:

• on Queen Street East at Trefan Street; and
• on Queen Street West at Bellwoods Avenue.

504 King

Eastbound:

• on King Street West across from Close Avenue; and
• on Broadview Avenue at Simpson and Bain Avenues.

Westbound:

• on Broadview Avenue at Bain Avenue; and
• on King Street West at Cowan and Close Avenues.

505 Dundas

Eastbound:

• on Dundas Street West across from St. Clarens Avenue;
• on Dundas Street East at Bond and Regent Streets; and
• on Broadview Avenue at Simpson and Bain Avenues.

Westbound:

• on Broadview Avenue at Bain Avenue;
• on Dundas Street East across from Regent Street and at Bond Street; and
• on Dundas Street West at St. Clarens Avenue.

506 Carlton

Eastbound:

• on College Street at St. Clarens, Sheridan, Gladstone and Palmerston Avenues and beside Toronto General Hospital; and
• on Gerrard Street East across from Howland Road and at Hiawatha Road, Rhodes Avenue and Glenmore Road.

Westbound:

• on Gerrard Street East across from Glenmore Road, at Rhodes Avenue and Hiawatha and Howland Roads; and
• on College Street across from Toronto General Hospital and at Palmerston Boulevard and Gladstone, Sheridan and St. Clarens Avenues.

511 Bathurst

Northbound:

• on Bathurst Street across from #276.

The TTC’s staff report recommending that the TTC remove Sunday stops also lists two stops on Kingston Road, in both directions west of Malvern Avenue. Although 502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Rd cars do operate along this section of Kingston Road, they do not provide Sunday service. These are bus stops, serving passengers traveling on buses operating along the 22A Coxwell via Kingston Rd route. These stops will likely also disappear. (The TTC has a few other Sunday-only bus stops — for example, on the 63 Ossington route. We’re not sure of the status of those stops after this Sunday.)

The TTC is retaining two Sunday stops on the 501 Queen route:

• eastbound on Queen Street West at Beatty Avenue; and
• eastbound on Queen Street East at Glen Manor Drive.

Since these stops are at signals or crosswalks, the TTC will make them regular stops and streetcars will drop off or pick up passengers at all times every day.