Toronto has the only existing street railway/"light rail" gauge in Ontario.

Track gauge is a finer detail in the technology of rail-based transportation.  It is defined as the distance between the inside edges of the heads of the running rails.  It’s an important detail since this decides the distance between wheels on the trucks/bogies of rail cars, which can impact what systems on which said rail cars can and cannot run.

What makes this topic interesting in Toronto and the GTA is that the TTC has its own unique gauge: 1495mm.  This applies to both the streetcar and the subway networks of the TTC, but excludes the SRT (which is currently standard gauge. However, if the SRT is converted to LRT, as is widely expected, it would be changed to TTC gauge).  The TTC is expected to apply their unique gauge to Transit City as well, as it keeps the system flexible and has maintenance efficiencies.

Standard gauge, however, is 1435mm, and is used by the freight railways, which would include GO Transit’s rail fleet.  If one goes back in Toronto’s history, one will find two streetcar companies operating on Toronto’s streets, one at standard gauge and the other at the TTC’s, a result of meeting a legal requirement at the time.

There are now many communities in Ontario talking about LRT in their future networks.  These include not only Toronto, but also Hamilton, York Region, Region of Peel, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa, and even London. (more…)

Taking the King streetcar back to the subway last week because of the rain.

Thought I’d share this older photo taken a couple of years ago. It’s the Queen Streetcar at Spadina.

Do you have any interesting transit related photos? Why don’t you add them to the Metronauts flickr group.

Photo by Dylan Passmore

As comments by Ian Milligan raised the subject of an ever ongoing perception among people that use public transit in Sameer Vasta’s “Pulling Parking Perks” post, I thought about the reasons that this perception exists.  What could be responsible for people preferring rail vehicles to the bus?

Toronto has a rich history of public transit going back to the mid-1800s.  The first bus service started in the early 1850s, but streetcars have been on Toronto’s streets since as early as 1861.  They were horse-drawn originally, but they introduced electric cars in the early 1890s, starting with Church St.  Subway proposals have been floated since around 1910. (more…)

You know Labour Day is just around the corner when the Canadian National Exhibition opens it’s gates for business during the last two weeks in August. With gas prices rising and parking being a premium in the area, transit tends to be one of the better ways of getting down there. Routes are posted after the jump.

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