508 Lake Shore

The 508 Lake Shore is an east–west streetcar route in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The route serves the downtown financial district from the western limit of the city, and operates as a weekday rush hour service only. The route was started as an experiment in 1992, suspended in June 2015 due to a streetcar shortage, and reintroduced in September 2019.

508 Lake Shore
Overview
Type	Streetcar Route
Status	Service temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	Long Branch Loop to Parliament St. (a.m.) Parliament St. to Long Branch Loop (p.m.)
Stations	St. Andrew King
Operation
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Depot(s)	Roncesvalles Carhouse [1]
Rolling stock	Flexity Outlook
Technical
Line length	Eastbound: 18.88 km (11.73 mi) Westbound: 19.95 km (12.40 mi)[1]
Track gauge	4 ft 10 ^7⁄8 in (1,495 mm)
Electrification	600 V DC overhead
Route number	508
Route map Transfer stop Sunday-only stop Carhouse Route:Connection  00  Terminus  00  Long Branch GO Station Long Branch Loop  110A/110B   123B/123C   508  MiWay:  5/5B   23  ↓ Browns Line/39th Street ↑  110A   123B/C  37th Street Long Branch Avenue ↓ 31st Street/30th Street ↑ ↓ 28th Street/29th Street ↑ ↓ 27th Street/26th Street ↑ 22nd Street Kipling Avenue Kipling Loop  44  15th Street 13th Street 10th Street Islington Avenue (7th Street)  110C  5th Street 3rd Street 1st Street Royal York Road  76A  ↓ Miles Road/Symons Street ↑ Douglas Boulevard ↓ Norris Crescent/Hillside Avenue ↑ Mimico Avenue  76A  Superior Avenue Burlington Street Louisa Street Legion Road ↓ Marine Parade Drive/Park Lawn Road ↑  66B   145  2155 Lake Shore Boulevard West 2095 Lake Shore Boulevard West Lake Shore Boulevard Private Right-of-Way Gardiner Expressway CN Oakville sub. Humber Loop  66A  The Queensway PRW The Queensway Humber River South Kingsway Windermere Avenue  77  Ellis Avenue Colborne Lodge Drive Parkside Drive  80A  Glendale Avenue Sunnyside Loop The Queensway Queen Street West Roncesvalles Carhouse Roncesvalles Avenue to Dundas West Station Roncesvalles Avenue  501   504  Queen Street West: 501 to downtown Queen Street West King Street Wilson Park Road Jameson Avenue Dunn Avenue Cowan Avenue Spencer Avenue Dufferin Street 504B to Dufferin Gate Loop  29   929  Fraser Avenue Joe Shuster Way Atlantic Avenue CN Weston sub. & CP MacTier sub. Sudbury Street Shaw Street  63  Strachan Avenue  63  Niagara Street Tecumseth Street Bathurst Street 511 to Exhibition & Bathurst Stn.  145   511  Portland Street Spadina Avenue 510 to Union Stn. & Spadina Stn.  510  ↓ Blue Jays Way/Peter Street ↑ John Street St. Andrew Station  142  Bay Street  6   6A  King Station  97B  Victoria Street Church Street Church Street (looping discontinued 2015) King Street Adelaide Street Richmond Street Queen Street East  501   502  Jarvis Street Sherbourne Street  75  Ontario Street Parliament Street  65  ↓ King Street  503   504

On March 24, 2020, the 508 Lake Shore route was suspended until further notice due to lower ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

Route description

The route shares much of its track with the 501 Queen and 504 King routes, following in the path of the 501 from the Long Branch Loop along Lake Shore Boulevard West and The Queensway as far as Roncesvalles Avenue, where it turns from The Queensway onto King Street, served by 504 King. The route passes through the King Street Transit Priority Corridor and terminates at Parliament St in the morning and originates there in the afternoon.[3]

The 508 streetcars have a few unofficial routings. Upon reaching Parliament Street, the morning eastbound streetcars turn north on that street and then west at Gerrard Street to follow and supplement the 506 Carlton route before returning to the Roncesvalles Carhouse. From the Roncesvalles Carhouse, the afternoon 506 streetcars travel east on King Street past Parliament Street to Queen Street East, and loop via Broadview Avenue, Dundas Street East and Parliament Street before starting the published route via King Street, the Queensway and Lake Shore Boulevard West to Long Branch Loop.[4][5]

On weekdays (excluding holidays), five eastbound 508 streetcars are scheduled to leave Long Branch Loop between 6:40 and 8:10 AM, and five westbound streetcars are scheduled to leave Parliament Street between 4:20 pm and 5:40 pm.[4][5]

History

On January 6, 1992, the route began as an experiment to test how attractive it would be to riders. The TTC scheduled 3 runs for each of the morning and afternoon rush hours, signing eastbound streetcars as "504 Parliament" and westbound as "507 Long Branch". By February 1994, the experiment was deemed a success and additional afternoon rush-hour trips were added. On Sunday, March 26, 1995, the same date when route 507 Long Branch was merged into 501 Queen, the route received its 508 number, but rollsigns would not be updated until about 1999.[6]

Due to the streetcar shortage caused by the delayed deliveries of Bombardier Flexity Outlook streetcars, the route ceased operations entirely after the morning rush on June 19, 2015. As a result, streetcar service on Lake Shore Boulevard was operated exclusively by the 501 Queen streetcar, while service on King street was operated by the 504 King streetcar.[7] Before the route was suspended in 2015, the westbound evening runs started at Church Street rather than Parliament Street.[8]

At the time of its cancellation, there were only three eastbound trips during the morning rush hour, and no service in the afternoon. Prior to January 2015, there were also four westbound trips in the afternoon rush hour.

In July 2019, the TTC scheduled the reintroduction of 508 service for September 3, 2019, with five eastbound trips during the morning rush hour and five westbound trips during the afternoon rush hour, using low-floor Flexity streetcars.[4][5][9]

See also

• Toronto streetcar system
• Toronto Transit Commission

References

1. "February 16, 2020 to March 28, 2020" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission.
2. "Coronavirus update". Toronto Transit Commission. April 20, 2020. Archived from the original on April 9, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
3. "Detailed description for 508 Lake Shore". Toronto Transit Commission.
4. Munro, Steve (July 29, 2019). "Streetcar Network Changes Coming in September 2019". Retrieved July 29, 2019.
5. toronto.com (August 27, 2019). "TTC's 508 Lake Shore streetcar returns Tuesday". Toronto Star. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
6. Bow, James (March 17, 2017). "Route 508 – The Lake Shore Streetcar". Transit Toronto. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
7. "508 Lake Shore – All service removed After June 19, 2015". Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016.
8. "508 Lake Shore". Toronto Transit Commission. March 25, 2015. Archived from the original on March 25, 2015. Archived REF from 2015.
9. "Editorial". The Coupler. Toronto Transit Commission. September 2019. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019. Retrieved September 1, 2019.

External links

• Map of 508 Lake Shore