Queen Street West has been plagued by construction, including TTC streetcar track repairs, for months, but some area residents are singing the praises of their alternate transit.
Buses have been running on the 501 line since last summer, and while they carry fewer passengers, transit users say they’ve actually improved service.
“Oh my God — It’s amazing! Night and day. They need to get rid of the streetcars for sure,” transit user Angela Griffith told CityNews.
Ameya Deshpande takes the TTC to work every day and says she’s getting to work quicker thanks to the buses.
“It’s actually more convenient at night,” she explained. “As well, the buses are faster than the streetcars.
“Normally, (it) takes me an hour (by) streetcar, but it takes maybe 45 minutes to reach from downtown.”
Riders say the buses come more frequently and the fact that the vehicles can weave in and out of traffic makes their commute a lot easier.
Their reaction isn’t surprising to one transit expert.
“This is the most well-kept secret about public transit — that buses, in fact in many circumstances, perform better than streetcars given the flexibility that they have,” Murtaza Haider, transit expert and associate professor at Ryerson University, explained.
“Streetcars, by default, are fixed-route guided transit systems, so if one streetcar is stuck, all the ones behind it will also be stuck because they can’t overtake it. So, for all sorts of operational efficiencies, in many places buses have been much more proficient and efficient.”
But would the TTC consider ending its bid for more streetcars and return to buses? Spokesperson Stuart Green says no.
“It’s not something that we’re going to start taking away. We’ve got a bunch of new streetcars on order, as you know, and so we’re quite committed to running streetcars,” he said.
According to Green, each new streetcar delivered by Bombardier takes three buses off the road.
“If we were to replace the new streetcars with buses, we’d be having three times as many vehicles on the road, which only adds to congestion, which adds to gridlock,” he said. “It adds to poor air quality, and that’s not something we’re prepared to do.”
It isn’t just the amount of people streetcars move that make them a better choice for downtown streets, according to Green.
Streetcars last a lot longer than a buses do, which means the TTC replaces vehicles less frequently. As well, fewer vehicles are required, which means cheaper operating costs.
Plus there’s the environmental impact.
“The streetcars have no emissions the way a bus would and they actually, in their own rights of way, can reduce congestion quite considerably,” said Green.
Square Fish is a little sushi restaurant in the big pond of Queen and Spadina. Located on the textile strip of Queen West that’s slowly turning over to other kinds of businesses, this place is going to have to do a lot to stand out in an area that’s oversaturated not only with other sushi options, but fast casual choices from almost any cuisine you can imagine.
Luckily, that’s exactly what they plan on doing. With a menu of square sushi that incorporates fish prepared using a variety of techniques from raw butchery to curing to blowtorching, handheld sushi burrito rolls, and doshi (donut sushi) they’re already turning heads.
The interior is super small but bright and colourful and not at all constricting. Murals done by Toronto illustrator Kellen Hatanaka are inspired by fishing lures.
The doshi is what I’d likely most recommend coming here for. We go for tuna ($9). Two rings of sushi rice, the bottom one wrapped in cheese and deep-fried until crispy, sandwich a harmonious combo of lettuce, seaweed salad, classic sauce, mango, edamame, spicy mayo, corn, and tuna.
That’s topped with tuna, avocado and sesame. Square fish recommends slapping parchment paper down on your palm and eating it like a burger.
For a handheld roll we go kim chi beef ($7 for a hearty half size, $12 for full). Other diverse options include, chicken, scallop, shrimp and veggie. It’s seasoned beef combined with kimchi for a complete flavourful bite, along with mango, sweet crab meat, avocado, pickled radish and carrot, beet, tempura crumble and lettuce wrapped in sushi rice and seaweed.
We do up a signature combo ($11) that showcases all the square or “mosaic” sushi Square Fish has to offer. A salmon piece is topped with fresh salmon with cured salmon in the middle, and is garnished with fish egg and basil microgreens. This and the tuna are pretty basic tasting, but yummy.
The same beet that's in the beef roll tops one of the sushi pieces, along with a teeny dollop of avocado puree. The beet is prepared sous vide style, as are as many items as possible, creating a contrast between creamy avocado and crunchy beet.
A seasonal roll is incredibly enough topped with Cracker Barrel cheese and blowtorched, but the effect is pleasing and almost hamburger-y, spicy and salty.
They like to say that the space is divided into “square” and “fish”: there’s a ledge facing a window at the front with the murals, then up two small steps is the tiled area where you order your food and beyond that the back area where it’s prepared.
