TTC CLRV #4190 picks up passengers at the newly rebuilt Gunns’ Loop on the morning of September 17, 2010. Photo by James Bow.

Since 2005, the TTC has offered passengers on St. Clair Avenue the opportunity to use time-based transfers when traveling along the 512 St Clair route.

The pilot program allows you to board and ride streetcars or buses serving the route for as long as two hours. You can board the transit vehicles at any stop, in any direction, until the expiry time on the transfer.

The program is ideal for short-distance commuters who wished to travel, for example, for a just few stops between their homes and a store, and then return home within the two-hour window.

Now the TTC has announced that the last day for the pilot is Saturday, September 2.

Starting Sunday, September 3, it’s introducing its new Toronto Flexity low-floor streetcars to the 512 St. Clair route. According to the TTC, it’s eliminating “two-hour time-based transfers on the route, as operators on the new streetcars cannot issue paper transfers to customers.”

The TTC expects the route to be fully accessible — meaning only the Flexity cars will operate along the route — by early 2018.

TTC Flexity LRV #4436 pulls into St. Clair station as part of its break-in run on Sunday, May 28, 2017. Photo by Mark Pompeo.