‘Always been problematic:’ Commuter frustration along 504 TTC route

Kathy Fournier has called Toronto home for almost 30 years and has relied on the TTC since she doesn’t own a car. She says for as long as she can remember, the 504 route has always been problematic.

“Yesterday my husband and I, it took us one hour and 45 minutes to get home from a movie. This should be max – MAX – in snow, in rain, an hour. I even thought of hitchhiking,” an exasperated Fournier tells CityNews.

The TTC operates two services along the 504 route – one that goes from Dundas West Station to the Distillery Loop and one that goes from the Dufferin Gate Loop to Broadview Station.

The route is also part of what the TTC calls the 10 Minute Network, operating “10 minutes or better, all day, every day.”

“It seems in recent years with all the construction, especially on Roncesvalles, they don’t have a handle on doing things in a timely manner. Myself and most of the people in my neighborhood have no idea when transit is coming and we just stand there and wait for it. And I’ve seen people waiting for the streetcar for 45 minutes,” she said.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that the 504 King streetcars are being forced to divert for the next 10 months as the City replaces a 146-year-old watermain on King Street between Dufferin and Shaw Streets.

Fournier adds its gotten so bad she has stopped relying on the TTC app which displays estimates for when the next TTC vehicle is expected to arrive at a specific location.

“The TTC app, when my husband and I were going downtown, said 45 minutes for the next street car. And then the next one was like 48 minutes, and the next one was 52 minutes. And sometimes it comes along at 45 minutes. Sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it changes,” she says. “They don’t seem to be updating the site – telling us it is coming or no it’s not coming, or maybe it’s coming? “

CityNews spoke with fellow commuters along the route who echoed Fournier’s frustrations.

“When you’re not sure if it will come, then it’s really disruptive,” said one person.

“Waiting 21 minutes, 25 minutes, a whole bunch of us sitting at the stop, freezing,” said another.

Fournier says the lack of reliability makes it difficult for her to schedule appointments because “you don’t know what time you’re gonna get there.”

“It’s just always something else and it just makes for a very stressful life.”