Bloor streetcar line

The Toronto Transit Commission operated the Bloor streetcar line along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, extending at its longest from Jane Street in the west end of the city to Luttrell Avenue in the east. The line was abandoned in 1966 with the opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway line, except for two stubs of the line abandoned in 1968.[1][2]

Bloor streetcar in front of the old University Theatre, near Avenue Road.

Background

The Toronto Street Railway started a horsecar service on Bloor Street in 1890, which was taken over and converted to electric streetcars by the privately-owned Toronto Railway Company.[1] By 1921, the TRC's Bloor route operated from Broadview Avenue in the east to Lansdowne Avenue in the west;[3] the eastern section of the route from Sherbourne Street to Broadview Avenue opened in 1918 after completion of the Prince Edward viaduct over the Don Valley.[4]:30 The City-owned Toronto Civic Railways operated its Danforth route from Broadview Avenue to Luttrell Avenue in the east,[5]:31–36 plus its own Bloor route from Dundas Street West to Runnymede Road.[5]:38–43 In 1921, there were no streetcar tracks between Lansdowne Avenue to Dundas Street West, and hence no connection between the TRC's Bloor line and the TCR's Bloor line further to the west.[3]

In 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission (today's Toronto Transit Commission) took over and amalgamated the TRC and TCR, and would connect the TRC and TCR lines along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue.[6] The TTC joined the ex-TRC Bloor line to the ex-TRC Danforth line at Broadview Avenue, and on July 1, 1923, the TTC operated its new Bloor route from the newly built Luttrell Loop at Danforth and Luttrell avenues to Lansdowne Avenue in the west end. In 1921, the TTC extended the ex-TCR's Bloor line (renamed to Bloor West by the TTC) from Runnymede Road to Jane Street, opening the new Jane Loop on October 9, 1921.[5]:36 At Lansdowne Avenue, the TTC extended the Bloor line west to join with the ex-TCR Bloor line at Dundas Street West. Starting August 25, 1925, Peter Witt streetcars ran on the Bloor line from Luttrell Loop in the east end to Jane Loop in the west end.[5]:42

Operations
MU-train with a class A11 (former Cleveland) & A7 car on the Bloor route at Bathurst Street in 1965

A characteristic of the Bloor streetcar line was the use of multiple-unit (MU) PCCs running as two-car trains. PCC trains went into regular rush-hour service starting March 13, 1950. In 1949, the TTC had received 100 new MU PCCs (designated class A7) from Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William using shells made by the St. Louis Car Company. Because MU operation required special adjustment to the overhead to handle the two trolley poles on each train, MU operation was only possible on Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue at that time.[7]:76–77 Later in 1952, the TTC purchased 75 PCCs second-hand from the Cleveland Transit System. The TTC added couplers to the 50 ex-CTS cars built by Pullman-Standard (class A11), which were already wired for MU operation. However, the remaining 25 ex-CTS cars (class A12) were not so wired, and the TTC had to wire them from scratch for MU operation in addition to adding couplers. Thus, the TTC had 175 PCCs available for multiple-unit operation.[7]:82

On March 30, 1954, the TTC opened the Yonge subway to replace its busiest route, the north-south Yonge streetcar line.[7]:85 The new Bloor subway station had stairs allowing riders to walk up to a pair of platforms in the middle of Bloor Street, where they could board eastbound or westbound Bloor streetcars.[8]

There were two routes using the Bloor streetcar line, the Bloor route between Luttrell and Jane loops, and the Danforth tripper. From 1923 to 1954, the Danforth tripper ran from Luttrell Loop along Danforth Avenue and south on Church Street to loop downtown. After the opening of the Yonge subway in 1954, the tripper ran from Luttrell Loop to Bedford Loop running around buildings at the north-west corner of Bloor Street and Bedford Avenue.[1]

At its Jane and Luttrell Avenue termini the TTC operated the Jane Loop and the Luttrell Loop, stops shared with suburban bus routes, allowing passengers to transfer to the other vehicles.[9][1]

Demise
An A11-class PCC on the Danforth shuttle at Luttrell Loop in 1966

On February 26, 1966, the Bloor-Danforth subway opened, replacing the Boor streetcar line. In addition to the Bloor and Danforth tripper streetcar routes, the Harbord, Coxwell and Parliament streetcar routes were also abandoned at the same time, and the Fort streetcar route was replaced by a shorter Bathurst route.[7]:107

However, two temporary streetcar routes were created: the Bloor and Danforth shuttles. By 1966, new streetcar loops had been added at the new Woodbine and Keele subway stations. The Danforth shuttle ran between Woodbine station and Luttrell Loop, and the Bloor shuttle, between Keele station and Jane Loop.[7]:112 On May 11, 1968, the Bloor-Danforth subway was extended east to Warden station and west to Islington station. With these two subway extensions, the Bloor and Danforth shuttle streetcar routes were abandoned, thus fully ending the Bloor streetcar line.[7]:116,119

References
  1. James Bow (2013-07-07). "The Bloor Streetcar (Deceased)". Transit Toronto. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2014-02-17. Starting out at Luttrell Loop at the eastern city limits of Toronto's Danforth Avenue, the Bloor Streetcar picked up passengers deposited by suburban buses stopping at the terminal. There, the car trundled west along Danforth Avenue, across the Prince Edward Viaduct and along Bloor Street to the western city limits at Jane Street. There, cars turned at Jane Loop, another terminal where passengers from west suburban buses disembarked to transfer for the journey east.
  2. Mike Filey (2008). Toronto: The Way We Were. Dundurn Press. p. 168. ISBN 9781550028423. Retrieved 2014-02-17. Many long-time Torontonians will remember when streetcars--often in the form of so-called M-Us (multiple-units consisting of a pair of coupled PCC streamliners)--would shuttle between the two legendary streetcar loops, Jane on the west and Luttrell on the east. They were usually jammed to the doors. The Jane-Luttrell (or if you were headed in the other direction, Luttrell-Jane) service was introduced in the mid-1920s and remained in its entirety until the Bloor-Danforth subway opened in 1966.
  3. John F. Bromley and Jack May (1973). 50 Years of Progressive Transit. Electric Railroaders' Association. pp. Supplement – Maps and Charts. ISBN 9781550024487.
  4. Pursley, Louis H. (1958). Street Railways of Toronto: 1861–1921. Los Angeles: Interurbans Press.
  5. J. William Hood (1986). The Toronto Civic Railways. Upper Canada Railway Society. ISBN 0-921429-07-X.
  6. Mike Filey (1997). The TTC Story: The First Seventy-five Years. Dundurn Press. p. 92. ISBN 9781770700796. Retrieved 2014-02-17. To serve communities at the extremities of both Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, the city constructed and operated two lines as part of its Civic Railways system. Bloor West operated between Dundas Street West and, ultimately, Runnymede Road; Danforth between Broadview and Luttrell avenues. With the creation of the Toronto Transportation Commission these two "stub" lines were eventually merged into the cross-city route that followed Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue.
  7. John F. Bromley and Jack May (1973). 50 Years of Progressive Transit. Electric Railroaders' Association. pp. Supplement – Maps and Charts. ISBN 9781550024487.
  8. Bill Hood. "The Bloor-Danforth line, from streetcar to subway". GPS Video. Retrieved 2014-02-18. In 1938 PCC service began and ran until the E-W subway was opened in 1966.
  9. Mike Filey (1996). From Horse Power to Horsepower: Toronto: 1890-1930. Dundurn Press. p. 74. ISBN 9781554881734. Retrieved 2014-02-17. Over the years this route was extended westerly, first to Runnymede Road, then, two years after the TTC was formed, the new JANE loop that opened on the last day of 1923.
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