I made two trips on the new streetcar, both were on Sundays
when I expected the crowds to be less.
Trip 1: I boarded the streetcar at Spadina. I then headed
southwards, disembarking at Spadina and Dundas. I re-boarded after two hours
and went further to Union. From Union I took the subway home.
Highlights of my first trip: The main thing was that it all
worked quite smoothly. The only difficult moments were: 1) disembarking from
the streetcar on the ramp. I felt the incline was too steep. 2) I disembarked
in the middle of traffic, which is what all passengers do. However able-bodied
passengers are able to walk across the traffic signal when the lights favour
them. In my wheelchair I found I had to wait 2 or 3 lights to get a break and
feel safe enough to cross. The general speed to cross in a wheelchair is slower
than on pavement, because of the embedded metal streetcar tracks. I should
think that people in manual chairs will find it more difficult to cross the
road in time.
Trip 2: I boarded the streetcar at Union heading northwards to
Spadina. Halfway through the journey at Spadina and King, the streetcar developed
problems and the driver announced that it was going out of service. We all had
to disembark and he left in an empty streetcar. The able bodied passengers
boarded the next streetcar and went on their way. I was the only person left
waiting on the street. It was a cold Sunday evening, and a uniformed TTC employee
informed me that no other accessible streetcars would come that way since it
was getting late on a Sunday evening. He offered to ring up Wheel-Trans and get
them to come and pick me up. I waited about 30 minutes, but no Wheel-Trans
showed up. The TTC employee then asked
me to cross the road and go to the other side and wait for a return streetcar
which was soon to arrive. After an hour after the first streetcar, the second
streetcar came and I headed back to Union station.
Positive comments: On the first trip I disembarked at
Chinatown which I had not seen in several years because of the lack of previous
accessible routes. Since it was Sunday, the crowds were less and I was able to
easily navigate the sidewalks and even managed to find a suitable restaurant
which had accessible doors. I am hoping that more establishments will make themselves
barrier-free as more streetcars become wheelchair accessible and more customers
show up who need accessibility.
Negative comments: Getting stranded in the middle of traffic.
Although the TTC employees did try their best, the whole process took longer
than it should have. Therefore I do not think the streetcar is a suitable
method of transportation for any person who has an appointment to keep, especially
if you cannot simply take the next vehicle that comes along.
Also as I said earlier, a manual chair will present more
issues than a powered wheelchair, especially for travel in winter using the
streetcar. The internal controls are all geared to people who are sighted and
any person with a visual impairment will find it difficult to disembark at a
particular stop. Right now the TTC people are friendly and attentive and I hope
this remains the case even when the new gen streetcar has become more common.
