Hi there. First post here. I wanted to add a few things to the original question of what went wrong with the St Clair ROW.
Most of the good and the bad of the St Clair ROW construction has already been covered. I think Cdl.to and hipster duck nailed it. Personally I am unhappy with the time it’s taken to build it. It’s a common complaint amongst those who live, work and travel along St Clair W. One can certainly blame SOS for the delay up to 2006; but afterwards it’s all about the city of Toronto. A proper general contractor in charge of the entire project probably would have helped. Working on multiple parts of the street at the same time would have also shortened the process.
The best thing not mentioned in this thread: TTC Time Based Transfer. It is awesome. I really hope that they continue this program when the construction is done. Being able to jump on and off the bus (and streetcar whenever it returns) has been really useful, especially on the way home from work. I find myself making quick shopping stops that without the transfer I likely wouldn’t have made. Although I have no data, this program must be helping local businesses weather the horror of the construction.
The worst thing during construction not mentioned: The current condo construction on the southwest corner of Avenue and St Clair. Just as the ROW was built between the subway stations, condo construction took one lane of the St Clair W going east towards the corner. Thus that stretch of St Clair went from being 3 lanes to its current one lane. Non-ROW rush hour going east in both the morning and afternoon can back up to Timothy Eaton Church. Here’s the irony. Due to the St Clair W station electrical problems, we had to use busses between the stations a lot longer than planned. So here we were every day on the 512 bus, stopped in traffic, waiting to get to Avenue Road, looking over at an empty unused ROW. Argh!!!
The thing I am looking forward to that’s almost never mentioned: The end of illegal u-turns. There must be more damage from illegal u-turns on St Clair West than anywhere else. I’ve seen more than one instance of a TTC vehicle with a car stuck in the side of it in the last five years. People are really bad drivers around here. The ROW won’t improve the drivers but it should end those dangerous illegal u-turns.