![]() By July 12, 1901, cars had reached Midland Avenue (location of the Half Way House, a historic building now residing at the Black Creek Pioneer Village) and on August 24, 1906, the line reached its easternmost terminus at West Hill, near today's Fairwood Crescent.ĭespite the fact that, by this time, the line was owned by the same people who ran the Toronto Railway Company, the Kingston Road route remained a sleepy suburban line. In 1898, management fought back by extending service further east, into the rural reaches of Scarborough, and abandoning the Blantyre track. The combination of an unlucky accident, and competition from the Toronto Railway Company's new line along Queen Street brought hard times to the company. Branches opened, extending service south on the west side of Blantyre to Queen Street that same year(for summers only) and up Walter and Main Streets to Gerrard in 1894. At this time, East Toronto, as the area was formally known, was fairly well built up, and prospects looked good for the new company. Operated by a board of directors including some prestigious members of Toronto society, cars began trundling up a single track on the north side of Kingston Road from Queen to Blantyre Avenue on July 1, 1893. The earliest ancestor of the Kingston Road streetcar was a suburban service begun by the Toronto and Scarboro Electric Railway Light and Power Company, incorporated on August 18, 1892. The name still hasn't been changed back to 'KINGSTON ROAD'. This extended service degenerated to a rush-hours only branch before long and was dropped altogether in the mid-1980s, returning the 502 route back to its pre-1974 McCaul-Bingham configuration. When the TTC extended the KINGSTON ROAD streetcar along Queen and Bathurst streets to Bathurst Station, they made the name change to promote the new direct downtown connection from the Bloor subway. The 503 service is called the Kingston Road "Tripper" because the 502 DOWNTOWNER route was, until 1974, named KINGSTON ROAD. The "tripper" term dates back from before the 1940s when several streetcar routes in Toronto had alternate "tripper" services supplementing the base route. Service on the Kingston Road portion of both these routes is replaced during the evenings, weekends and nights by an extension of the 22 COXWELL bus. As the name implies, the "tripper" service was initially operated only during rush hours. Until 2017, it looped through Downtown Toronto via Church, Wellington and York before starting its return trip to Bingham Loop along King Street. The 502 DOWNTOWNER's cousin, the 503 KINGSTON ROAD TRIPPER, follows the 502 route from Kingston Road and Victoria Park to Queen and King, where it turns southwest on King and follows this street to Church. At Victoria Park, cars turn around inside Bingham Loop, a suburban streetcar loop nestled amongst residential housing.ĬLRV 4056 waits at Bingham Loop while one of its compatriots departs for either York Street or McCaul. ![]() Starting at McCaul Loop on McCaul Street north of Queen, streetcars proceed south on McCaul and east on Queen to Kingston Road, where they turn northeast and follow Kingston Road to Victoria Park Avenue. Until 2018, the 502 DOWNTOWNER streetcar operated between 6 a.m. For more information on McCaul Loop, click here.For more information on Bingham Loop, click here.For more information on Birchmount Loop, click here. ![]() VIDEO: 503 Kingston Road Ride Along, by James Bow.VIDEO: 503 Kingston Road Timelapse, by James Bow.VIDEO: PCCs on Kingston Road, circa 1969-70, by Richard Glaze. ![]() Text and photos by James Bow, except where noted. ![]()
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