Long Branch Loop

Long Branch Loop
Location	Lake Shore Boulevard West, Toronto, Ontario Canada
Coordinates
Owned by	Toronto Transit Commission
Line(s)	501
Connections	TTC buses MiWay buses Long Branch GO Station

Long Branch Loop is the westernmost stop on the longest Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) streetcar route, the 501 Queen line. It is located in the community of Long Branch in southwestern Toronto, close to the boundary with Mississauga.

Westbound streetcars enter the turning loop from Lake Shore Boulevard and turn counter clockwise to face east on the north side of the platform. Bus bays are on the opposite south side of the platform with a shelter building in the centre, which once provided washrooms and a waiting room for the public.

History

The loop in 1935, showing the last streetcar to go west to Port Credit

The companies that operated streetcar service along Lake Shore Boulevard originally operated a single track line, with sidings to allow vehicles going in opposite directions to pass one another. The TTC double-tracked the route, and first operated a loop at Long Branch on December 28, 1928.

In 1967, Long Branch GO Station was opened on the adjacent Lakeshore West railway line; service is available as far west as Hamilton or east to the downtown Union Station hub.

The TTC operated a separate Long Branch line between the Long Branch and Humber Loops up until 1994, and when that line was merged with the Beach route to form the 501 Queen line, the Long Branch Loop became the terminus of the longest streetcar line in North America.

In 2011 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a 14-minute semi-autobiographical short film entitled Long Branch. The film shows two strangers, who were about to share a one-night stand have their plans fall apart, as the distance to the Long Branch loop was too far, and they had too much time to talk to one another first. The film-makers were a couple, and one member of the film-making couple did live at the Long Branch loop, and said his partner routinely decline to come home with him, because of the distance.

The TTC has used the loop as an interchange point with buses since at least 1935, when the widening of Lake Shore Boulevard west of Etobicoke Creek required the removal of the single track service to Port Credit. The TTC replaced the streetcar route with the 74 Port Credit bus route, which ran until 1976, when the service was taken over by the newly created Mississauga Transit. Other historic TTC bus routes that terminated at the Long Branch loop included 69 Queensway and 87 West Mall.

Bus service

The loop is the terminus for TTC bus routes 110 Islington South to Islington subway station and 123 Shorncliffe to Kipling subway station, and MiWay bus routes 5 Dixie north to Mississauga's Northeast Employment District and 23 Lakeshore west to Clarkson GO Station.

Route 110A operates via Browns Line, Horner and Islington Avenue, with 110B being a weekday rush hour only service that operates via 30th Street, which is through the local industrial area just east of Browns Line. Route 123 operates via Browns Line, The East Mall and Shorncliffe, while 123C provides service via Sherway Gardens shopping centre rather than along The East Mall. Route 5 terminates at Cardiff Boulevard, just north of Derry Road, while 5B is a weekday rush hour only service terminating at Courtneypark Drive.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons