512-St. Clair

The St. Clair route is the only TTC streetcar route that does not run into downtown (except to get to and from the carhouse). It runs along St. Clair Ave. from St. Clair station on the Yonge subway line to Gunn's loop, just west of Keele St., a distance of just over 4 miles. The round trip is scheduled for just over an hour in peak periods and 50 minutes Sunday mornings. St. Clair uses CLRVs exclusively and runs on fairly tight headways at all times and never over 10 minutes.

St. Clair is all street-running and subject to the bunch ups and delays that trouble other streetcar lines - but less so than most. For the bulk of the route, St. Clair Avenue is six lanes wide, allowing the traffic and streetcars to move along. There are also four points where a short turn can be made mid-route (all off street loops), allowing the 512-St. Clair more flexibility than most routes. The route is quite well managed and short turns are regularly made to keep service as even as possible. The biggest problem for St. Clair streetcars is that autos have to turn left from the streetcar tracks and the city of Toronto has not seen fit to install advanced greens at these intersections, so the streetcars wait and wait for the autos to turn.

The St. Clair night car (312) was recently replaced by buses and nervous railfans fear that the same fate may one day condemn day service to buses. However, the reason the 312 night car was converted to buses was so its route could be extended to improve the interconnectivity of the Blue Night Network.

St. Clair is a heavily used route, but it is miles from the carhouse. To come into service, cars travel from Queen and Roncesvalles, along King to Bathurst, and up Bathurst to St. Clair. Depending on the time of day, the trip from Roncesvalles to St. Clair can take over an hour. St. Clair carhouse on Wychwood Ave. was closed in 1978 after the Rogers Rd. and Mt. Pleasant routes were abandoned.

It would be a shame if 512 were abandoned, as it is the author's favourite route. It is so for three reasons - 1) the neighborhoods it passes through 2) the speed at which it travels and 3) St. Clair West Station.

St. Clair is mainly known for being the "corso Italia." From Dufferin to Lansdowne, Italian shops, restaurants and cafes abound. The street is practically shut down every time Italy wins a world cup soccer match. Also the finest gelato can be found at La Paloma beside Lansdowne loop. The section of St. Clair from Yonge to Bathurst is for the well off - with the stylish Forest Hill neighborhood to the north and Casa Loma to the south. There are lots of nice condos on this stretch. From Lansdowne to Keele, the street is somewhat industrial and run down - but a resurgence seems to be occurring - even at the former slaughterhouse lands by Gunn's loop.

St. Clair is well laid out for streetcars in that there is a long distance between traffic lights (and therefore streetcar stops). Outside of rush hour, the cars really have a chance to get up to speed (even more so than on Spadina where the lights are closer together). For the true feel of being on a streetcar - St. Clair is unmatched (the Queens Quay part of the 510 is second best).

St. Clair West Station is possibly the best part of the route. Eastbound and Westbound cars descend below street level to an underground loop, midway between Spadina and Bathurst. Seeing cars from both directions in one loop is an eyeful and more of an earful. There are also four bus routes that loop here, one level above the Spadina subway platforms.