Cherry Street streetcar line

Cherry Street
280px Tracks passing in front of Cherry Street Hotel
Overview
Status	under construction
Locale	Toronto, Ontario
Termini	King Street (junction) Distillery Loop opposite Distillery Lane
Services	514 Cherry (June 2016)
Operation
Operator(s)	Toronto Transit Commission
Rolling stock	CLRV, ALRV, Flexity
Technical
Line length	0.7 kilometres (0.43 mi)
Track gauge	4 ft 10 7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) - TTC Gauge

The Cherry Street streetcar line is a streetcar branch line on a separated right-of-way in Toronto, Ontario. At its southern end, the branch ends at the Distillery Loop (also known as the Cherry Street Loop). It was built by Waterfront Toronto, in cooperation with the Toronto Transit Commission, to service the West Don Lands neighbourhood and the Distillery District. Service on the line is to start on June 19, 2016 as route 514 Cherry, which will also service King Street and Dufferin Street.

History

File:Track Testing, Sumach & King, Toronto.JPG

Streetcar on Sumach St to test the junction at King St (Apr, 2016)

In 2007, the plan for the Cherry Street streetcar line was finalized. Construction began in 2012 on the line along Sumach Street and Cherry Street, from King Street to Distillery Lane. This section was projected to cost $90 million CAD. In April and May of 2014, the TTC constructed the junction to the Cherry Street line at the corner of King Street East and Sumach Street.

Operation on the Cherry Street streetcar line was planned to begin in 2016 after the conversion of the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village to apartments and the opening of a George Brown College student residence. This new West Don Lands neighbourhood is expected to have 6,000 units once opened.

Line description

The line, from King Street to Distillery Lane, is approximately 700 metres long, and will have just three stops on it. The northern portion of the Cherry Street line is along Sumach Street from Eastern Avenue to a junction with the King Street line.

Both streetcar tracks run on the east side of the street with a tree-lined median separating them from two automobile lanes and bike lanes on either side of them. The entire width is 32.5 metres, including sidewalks 5 metres wide.

Distillery Loop

Distillery Loop
File:Distillery Loop bright and shadow.jpg
Location	Cherry Street, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Coordinates
Operated by	Toronto Transit Commission
Construction
Structure type	Streetcar loop
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opening	June 19, 2016

Distillery Loop, the southerly terminus of the line, is located south of Mill Street north of the railway viaduct on the east side of Cherry Street. It is across the street from Distillery Lane in the Distillery District.

The loop runs anticlockwise. With the junction at Sumach Street and King Street, the loop can turn streetcars coming from either direction along King Street.

Decorative features at the loop include paving blocks, a small grove of young trees, and a small flower bed between the track and the the street. At the railway viaduct on the southern side of the loop stands the inactive Cherry Street Tower which once controlled the eastern approach to Union Station.

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

Future

Waterfront Toronto’s plan is to eventually extend the Cherry Street line south of the Gardiner Expressway into the Port Lands. It would meet with the proposed East Bayfront LRT running from Union Station along Queens Quay East to temporarily terminate in a loop west of Parliament Street.

Older history

Between 1917 and 1924, the former Toronto Railway Company and, after 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission operated the Ashbridge streetcar line into the Port Lands. It connected to the streetcar grid at Queen Street, just west of Broadview Avenue and ran south to Commissioners Street then west to Cherry Street. The line was abandoned because a bridge it used to cross over the railway corridor and the Keating Channel became unsafe for streetcar use.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• First TTC Streetcar Tested on new Cherry Street Loop on YouTube (April 20, 2016)