512 St Clair welcomes first low-floor streetcars this sunday

This Sunday, Sept. 3, at 10 a.m., the TTC's new accessible and air conditioned low-floor streetcars will make their maiden voyage for customers on the 512 St Clair route.

The first new streetcar will enter service following a brief ceremony at St Clair West station before heading east and continuing in regular service. At least two low-floor streetcars will operate daily on this route. That number will increase - as new vehicles arrive - to 20 when the route is fully converted early next year.

The TTC recently changed the planned rollout of the new streetcars to make 512 St Clair the next route to be serviced by the low-floor cars. Currently, the low-floor vehicles fully service the 509 Harbourfront, 510 Spadina and 514 Cherry routes.

The next routes to be fully converted to the low-floor cars will be the 504 King and 511 Bathurst routes. By the end of 2019, the TTC expects to fully service all 11 streetcar routes with 204 of the new vehicles in service.

As the TTC has previously advised, with the arrival of the new streetcars comes the end of the two-hour time-based transfer as operators on the new streetcars cannot issue paper transfers to customers.

The time-based transfer was introduced on the 512 St Clair route as a temporary measure in 2005 for customers and businesses during construction of the right-of-way. Starting Sunday, fares paid on the 512 St Clair route, regardless of vehicle type, will be valid for one continuous trip including transfers to other lines. Customers will be required to pay again if they choose to end their journey along the route for any length of time along St. Clair Ave.