Toronto Mayor John Tory gives a speech to attendees of the 514 CHERRY opening ceremonies on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Photo by Chris Drew.

During a community meeting Tuesday, June 27, TTC staff presented the results of recent studies at several streetcar-track junctions throughout central Toronto. They measured noise and vibration at three intersections with similar track geometry in May: King East / Sumach; Bathurst / Fleet; and Queen East / Broadview.

The studies clearly indicated that the noise levels from streetcars operating through the intersection of King Street East and Sumach Street is often less than, or similar to, the other junctions.

TTC staff have recommended that regular streetcar service resume along the 514 Cherry route in July. (That means that streetcars start operating along Sumach and Cherry Streets between King Street East and Distillery Loop around 5:30 a.m. Mondays to Fridays, Saturdays and holidays and around 8 a.m. Sundays. Service would end after 1 a.m. every day.)

Mike Filey caught this image of Distillery Loop and Flexity LRV 4421 and PCC 4500 waiting for the opening ceremonies for the 514 CHERRY streetcar on the morning of Saturday, June 18, 2016.

According to residents, signs are now appearing in Distillery District buildings announcing that the first day of regular streetcar service is next Saturday, July 15. The last day for the Wheel-Trans shuttle buses that have served the area late nights and early mornings since last August is Friday, July 14.

You can view the entire TTC presentation from the June 27 meeting here. (.pdf)

The TTC launched its new 514 Cherry route just over one year ago — June 19, 2016. The cars operate on brand new tracks south of King Street East on Sumach and Cherry Streets and over a new track junction at King East and Sumach.

Unfortunately, residents living near the junction complained about loud noises resulting from streetcars turning from King to Sumach and the reverse — particularly when older Canadian light rail vehicles (CLRVs) passed across the switches and curves.

In August, 2016, the TTC agreed to withdraw all streetcars from serving the new route late evenings and early mornings until it could resolve the issue. Instead, it operated Wheel-Trans shuttle buses between King Street East / Parliament Street and Distillery Loop between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Mondays to Fridays, and between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m.Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, as a temporary measure to reduce streetcar noise for residents.

Current late-night and early-morning detour for 514 Cherry and Wheel-Trans shuttle buses.

In November, 2016, the TTC hosted a meeting to discuss the issues. During that event, it agreed to:

• continue to divert the 514 Cherry route off Sumach and Cherry Streets until it could operate the route entirely with new, low-floor Toronto Flexity cars.
• wait until streetcar wheels wore a path through the new junction to see if that further reduced noise.
• conduct more noise measurements.
• operate the Wheel-Trans shuttle bus late-evenings / early mornings until it had fully deployed the new streetcars along the 514 route.

The TTC has been operating only Toronto Flexity cars along the route since May.

According to the TTC, “The 514 route improves service to 40,000 customers/day supporting the heavily travelled 504 King streetcar service that carries 65,000 riders daily.”

Official TTC map of 514 Cherry route, starting June 19, 2016.