Trams are Great! So why are the Streetcars SO BAD!?

Toronto’s streetcars are slow, unreliable, and poorly integrated with street design—largely because cars are treated as the priority and transit is forced to “fit around” them. The result is a system that routinely bunches, misses schedules, and traps riders behind red lights and traffic delays, even on routes that have dedicated lanes. The frustration isn’t just about today’s ride; it’s about what could be achieved with modern tram practices like signal priority, dedicated right-of-way, and true level boarding.

Amsterdam is held up as the contrast. There, trams often run in separated lanes and traffic signals automatically adjust to keep them moving through intersections. Toronto, by comparison, has a streetcar network that carries roughly 250,000 weekday riders (pre-pandemic higher), yet has seen only minor improvements for decades and remains chronically underfunded. The core complaint is that Toronto operates streetcars like a historic obligation rather than a functional transit system.

The most visible operational failures come from traffic interference and signal timing. Streetcars commonly crawl in mixed traffic—sometimes so slowly that walking is faster. On-street parking forces frequent delays as vehicles need to park, and service bunching creates long gaps followed by multiple cars arriving together. “Short turning” to recover from gaps can leave riders stranded short of their destination. Even when streetcars do travel in dedicated lanes, they often lack transit signal priority, meaning they still stop at nearly every red light.

Stop spacing and intersection design compound the problem. Toronto stop spacing is described as roughly 200–300 meters, compared with 300–400 meters in many European cities, so riders experience frequent stops. The near-side placement of stops at intersections can lead to a pattern of stopping to board, moving a few meters, then stopping again for a red light. Turning movements also create delays: streetcars are not given dedicated turning signal logic, and left-turn phases can hold transit for the convenience of drivers.

The accessibility story is equally damning. Toronto’s fleet uses Bombardier Flexity low-floor streetcars, but platforms are often not built for level boarding. Wheelchair access depends on a button that triggers the driver to extend a ramp—yet only one door carries the ramp, forcing precise timing. The transcript argues that Toronto removed streetcar islands in 2017 under the banner of “accessibility and safety,” claiming the islands were too small for wheelchairs; the workaround became curb boarding, which the narrator portrays as less safe and less accessible. A comparison is drawn to Amsterdam, where street redesign can remove car lanes and replace them with bicycle space to enable better tram stop geometry.

A key case study is the King Street Pilot Project. City data showed streetcar speeds at peak times were near walking pace and reliability was poor because cars occupied most of the space while carrying a small fraction of people. The pilot proposed redesigning blocks to reduce through car traffic, expand sidewalks and cycling, and improve transit priority. Suburban councillors and right-wing media pressure allegedly watered down the plan—most notably through a taxi exemption that limited physical barriers and kept the street usable for cars at night. Despite that, the pilot is described as successful: faster, more reliable service, higher rider satisfaction, ridership rising to about 84,000 passengers per day, and a large increase in cycling.

The broader thesis ties these failures to political incentives and outdated technology. The TTC is criticized for using antiquated single-point switches that require operators to stop, visually confirm switch positions, and crawl through at very low speeds due to derailment risk. The transcript also faults older overhead power practices—trolley poles instead of pantographs—linking them to disconnections, power limits, reduced air-conditioning use, and earlier vehicle retirements during wet weather.

The proposed fix is straightforward: dedicated lanes where possible (or streets that aren’t through routes for cars), consistent signal priority for streetcars, and level boarding as a network-wide standard. Without those changes, the transcript warns, Toronto’s streetcars remain vulnerable to political attacks and could eventually be replaced—despite being, in the narrator’s view, a transit “goldmine” that other cities have learned to unlock.