This environmental assessment has been completed. The following information is provided for archival purposes.

512 St. Clair streetcar services
The 512 St. Clair streetcar service is an important one in this unique area of the city. The St. Clair streetcar service operates on the roadway and provides passenger connections to the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line at Yonge Street and at Spadina Road.

Carrying about 32,000 passengers a day, the service ranks second only to the 510 SPADINA route in terms of passengers per route kilometre and fourth among TTC streetcar routes in passengers per vehicle hour, an important productivity factor. During the busiest travel times on St. Clair Avenue, streetcars carry in the range of 45 percent to 57 percent of all the people travelling on that road, depending on location.

St. Clair Avenue is a major arterial roadway extending between Scarlett Road and Mount Pleasant Road. Daily traffic volumes are currently in the order of 30,000 vehicles per day.

A long history of streetcars
Streetcars have a long history on St. Clair Avenue. Streetcars first appeared in the early 1900s and continue to be part of the character of the neighbourhoods along St. Clair Avenue today. The reason why St. Clair Avenue West is wider than other arterial streets today is because St. Clair Avenue was originally built with a reserved right-of-way for streetcars along much of its length in the early 1900s. The resulting streetcar service was a significant factor in encouraging residential and commercial development along the avenue and shaping its success and vibrant character today. The reserved right-of-way was removed by the City in the 1930s as a Depression-era make-work project and, ever since then, streetcars have operated in mixed traffic.

The photos are reproduced here with permission from the Toronto Archives – Series 71, Item 3572 (left) and Item 3534 (right)

On the left you can see Yonge and St. Clair streetcar tracks under construction in 1924 and the right photo shows passengers loading from a central platform at St. Clair and Bathurst in 1924. You can find many more historical photos in the Toronto Archives online at www.toronto.ca/archives/photographs/index.htm

The City of Toronto Official Plan and St. Clair Ave. West
The City of Toronto's council-adopted Official Plan (OP) advocates the principle of reducing car dependency and increasing the quality and quantity of transit service so as to make transit a more competitive alternative to the private automobile. Due to its important function and role in the City’s transportation network and neighbourhood make-up, the OP identifies the need for transit priority or other form of “higher order” transit initiatives to help achieve this goal.

To sustain current mobility, social, and economic characteristics along the corridor, as well as facilitate and shape future development and growth, the Official Plan designates St. Clair Avenue as both a Surface Transit Priority Segment and Avenue within the City's urban structure.