W. K. Lis
Superstar
...
It has been so long since TTC cancelled a streetcar - the last was what, St Clair east of Yonge? Was there a ridership threshold involved or were these strictly targets of opportunity?...
- Paul
From link and link:
The St. Clair streetcar east of Yonge was replaced by the 76 Mt. Pleasant bus in 1976.
Steve: There were two factors that really hurt the route. First, before the bridge at the Belt Line closed for reconstruction, there was a strong north-south demand pattern both with students coming north to the schools at Davisville and at Eglinton, and riders going south and west to St. Clair Station. Second, service on the streetcar was frequent and competitive with the east-west bus route.
After the street reopened, the transit service was much worse than what had been before. The buses (trolley and diesel) could not make the streetcar running times (!) and the TTC in its usual way responded simply by stretching the headway. What had once been a frequent service dropped off and even reached a point where evening and Sunday service was killed in the Ford round of cuts. The line has never recovered.
It is a cautionary tale for planners who close routes for construction and then wonder where all of the riders have gone.
When streetcars get replaced by buses, there is usually (if there are no changes to the route) a decrease in ridership. Instead of around 4 streetcars running on Mt. Pleasant, there is 1 bus (non-rush hours).