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Streetcar Warrior

By Stephen Michalowicz

20100105simonpulsifer.jpg
Simon Pulsifer on the Queen East streetcar line. Photo by Oliver Archer-Antonsen.


For some people a day off is a time to relax, but for Simon Pulsifer, Wikipedia’s former number-one contributor, it’s “a chance to explore the city, spend a day with friends, see the new St. Clair line, salute the soon to be retired CRLVs, [and] do something that has (probably) never been done before.”
Last Sunday, Pulsifer, his brother (and former Torontoist contributor) Andrew, and two of their friends rode all of the TTC streetcar lines in a day (minus the sections of the St. Clair and Roncesvalles lines that are still under construction and the Kingston Road Tripper, which doesn’t run on weekends). In total, the foursome travelled approximately 104 kilometres in eight hours and rode on twenty different cars.


“I’d seen a Discovery Channel program about people in New York who tried to visit every single subway station in one day,” Pulsifer told Torontoist. “The problem is in Toronto that would be kind of straightforward and boring…so I got the idea that you could do the entire streetcar network in a day.”
The meticulously planned trip started at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue West at 10:37 a.m. and finished at Queen Street West and Roncesvalles Avenue at 7:15 p.m.
“I budgeted eight hours if everything went well, with the expectation that at some point we’d get caught behind a broken down car or on a streetcar that was having problems, or something like that,” explained Pulsifer. “But nothing like that happened; it worked out really well, despite a fair amount of snow…but in terms of the timing, the streetcars were a bit slower than I budgeted for.”

20100105simonpulsifer2.jpg
The group’s prepared itinerary.


The average streetcar reportedly travels at about 18 km/h, but according to Pulsifer’s—admittedly unscientific—data, the average speed was closer to 15 km/h. The slowest line, due to excessive idling, was Harbourfront, clocking in at 12 km/h, and the fastest line was College, at 15.9 km/h. The average wait time for a streetcar was about three minutes, and the longest wait was fifteen minutes at Main Station for the Carlton streetcar.
Surprisingly, the recently rebuilt St. Clair line, with its right-of-way, wasn’t very fast. “It was about average really,” said Pulsifer. “It was also one of the emptier ones. It probably had about as many people as Dundas and Carlton. I’m not sure why it didn’t go faster. There were no major stops or delays on the route. It took a minute or so to navigate around the tunnels of St. Clair West Station, which aren’t accounted for in my length estimates, but that’s it.” (These results differ from Pulsifer’s original post at Urban Toronto, as he hadn’t completed his calculations yet.)
Except for a few minor incidents, including a broken door and a missed stop, the trip went off without a hitch. “By the end I was sort of disappointed that it was all coming to a close,” Pulsifer told us. “It was a great way to see the city. We got to see all sorts of neighbourhoods, like Long Branch and Roncesvalles, places where I’d never really spent much time before.”

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  • http://undefined Bubba

    The St.Clair line is slow now that it travels to Lansdowne, before the right of way it was terrible, it would take 30 to 40 min’s to get to Yonge from St. Clair West Stn. Also it seems to be the timing between streetcars varies between 3 min’s and 15 min’s. Sometime the drivers sit and wait at the subway stations for some reason as other streetcars get backlogged behind them. There are days when there are no supervisors at the St. Clair West stn and that’s when it seems to go awry.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Wow…the St. Clair line which helps only those people travelling east to Yonge, and nothing further. Because in this city we want to perpetuate the notion that our subway stations need also be spokes for split surface routes.

  • TokyoTuds

    Darren, only the Harbourfront and Bathurst Lines really “spoke out” from a single subway station. All the other lines start and finish at two different subway stations, or intersect 2 stations. I am not sure I understand your complaint.
    That being said, it’d be brilliant if the St. Clair extended east of Yonge and then turned north up Mt. Pleasant, reviving part of the defunct Mt. Pleasant line.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Tokyo,
    Im referring to Eg West, and a seperate Eg east, the same on Lawrence, the same on Finch, and possibly what may happen with the Queen car.
    The St. Clair streetcar would be better if it ran further east past Yonge and replaced one or two of the bus routes that operate northeast of there (74 and 88)
    The TTC likes split routes, and it does not encourage ridership on what can potentialy be excellent crosstown routes. That means our subway stations need also be bus terminals with busbays, instead of curbside loading right from the sidewalk as in NYC and most of Montreal. I also believe that busbays are a huge source of fare evasion. A lot of operators I have spoken to confirm that as well.

  • http://undefined TokyoTuds

    I see … it seemed above you were speaking specifically of streetcar lines. You are right that real, through-service crosstown bus routes (and streetcar routes) are a big advantage to a huge number of passengers.
    With the forthcoming electronic ticketing, fare evasion should become a rarer offense. But I like dedicated off-street loading in subway stations, although curbside near the station too is good so one doesn’t have to go all the way into the station. Each subway station has different geography, however.

  • http://undefined leftist

    It kills me to say this, but if you put this much effort into your endeavour… why the hell didn’t you do it on a weekday so that you could take the 503 Road Tripper?
    All you can really say is that you did almost every route.

  • http://undefined mboadway

    It’s not just a Yonge feeder line. The St Clair W streetcar also feeds a ton of riders to St Clair West station. The transfers to the bus lines at Bathurst and Dufferin are sizeable.
    I don’t see the need for continuation of the streetcar east of Yonge on either route. The ridership and density don’t merit it. The amount of passengers who transfer from the 512 to a bus route at St Clair is marginal. Given the scarcity of resources, there are a ton of bus routes that would benefit from being replaced by a LRT/Streetcar before those two routes. Dufferin 29 comes to mind.
    Plus with the planned Eglinton line. Crosstown options will be a two subway stops north or a couple south of St Clair. The only dense part of the routes you mention will have much better connectivity to an Eglinton, Don Mills or possible DRL

  • http://undefined Darren

    “Given the scarcity of resources”
    Then why are we spending 177 million dollars (probably to balloon to more) on just one subway station surrounded by parking lots in Vaughan, and why are we spending millions on rebuilding (not maintaining) subway station on BD to make them larger and artsier? And why are we spending god knows how much money placing artsy bus shelters ACROSS THE STREET from these same subway busbay/terminals??
    I dont like the St. Clair streetcar, or anyother streetcar as I believe articulated buses would be just as fine with less hassle and maintenance, but if they’re there then they should be used to their potential. The St. Clair streetcar would attract more ridership if it was more of a crosstown route and could connect to a futre DRL subway station north of Pape.

  • http://undefined David

    I did some thing similar… about 3 years ago I took a day to go to every subway and RT station and get a transfer from each included doubles from such stations as bloor, st george ect. it took me 12 hours.

  • http://undefined davidcreed

    There is a book called “The Toronto Guide” published in 1990 for the Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers.
    There is a book called “The Toronto Guide” published in 1990 for the Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers. Part of it documents a trip on the the 506 from Queen’s Park to Main station, followed by a subway ride to Kennedy and a last phase to Scarborough Town Centre on the Scarborough RT.
    The other sections the book are fun for those interested in Toronto geography.

  • http://undefined Eric26

    More importantly, Simon Pulsifer’s last name is Pulsifer. Which makes me think of some sort of futuristic, lentil loving, food processing Lucifer. That’s a movie I would watch.