Toronto streetcars
Toronto streetcar in 2016.
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| Overview | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Locale | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | ||
| Transit type | Streetcar | ||
| Number of lines | 11 | ||
| Number of stations | 685 stops | ||
| Daily ridership | 292,100 (avg. weekday, Q4 2016) |
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| Annual ridership | 95,761,000 (2016) | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | 1861 (electric lines since 1892) | ||
| Operator(s) | Toronto Transit Commission | ||
| Character | Street running | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 83 km (52 mi) | ||
| Track gauge | 4 ft 10 7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) Toronto gauge | ||
| Minimum radius of curvature | 36 ft 0 in (10,973 mm) | ||
| Electrification | Overhead lines, 600 V DC | ||
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The Toronto streetcar system is a network of eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is second busiest light-rail system in North America. The network is concentrated primarily in Downtown Toronto and in proximity to the city's waterfront. Much of the streetcar route network dates from the 19th century. Most of Toronto's streetcar routes operate on street trackage shared with vehicular traffic, and streetcars stop on demand at frequent stops like buses.
Toronto's streetcars provide most of the downtown core's surface transit service. Four of the TTC's five most heavily used surface routes are streetcar routes. In 2016, ridership on the streetcar system totalled more than 95 million.
In 1861, the City of Toronto issued a thirty-year transit franchise (Resolution 14, By-law 353) for a horse-drawn street railway, after the Williams Omnibus Bus Line had become heavily loaded. Alexander Easton's Toronto Street Railway (TSR) opened the first street railway line in Canada on September 11, 1861, operating from Yorkville Town Hall to the St. Lawrence Market. At the end of the TSR franchise, the City government ran the railway for eight months, but ended up granting a new thirty-year franchise to the Toronto Railway Company (TRC) in 1891. The TRC was the first operator of horseless streetcars in Toronto. The first electric car ran on August 15, 1892, and the last horse car ran on August 31, 1894, to meet franchise requirements.
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