504 King
The 504 King and 508 Lake Shore are streetcar routes operated by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The two are grouped together for accounting purposes because they share a significant portion of their route; the 508 Lake Shore also shares much of its track with the 501 Queen. In 2005-2006, these routes carried 47,900 passengers on an average weekday (of which the vast majority were carried by 504 King), making 504 King the busiest TTC streetcar route in terms of number of passengers.
Both lines interchange mid-route with the Yonge-University-Spadina line at St. Andrew and King stations. The 504 King interchanges with the Bloor-Danforth line at its termini, Dundas West and Broadview stations along with 505 Dundas.
At its western terminus near Long Branch GO Station, the 508 Lake Shore interchanges with GO Transit’s Lakeshore West railway line and with Mississauga Transit. 508 Lake Shore operates only 3 eastbound trips during the AM rush hour and 4 westbound trips during the PM rush hour from Monday-Friday; all other service on Lake Shore Boulevard is provided by 501 Queen.
The lines are usually operated with Toronto’s single-length CLRV streetcars. The TTC are now considering adding couplers to their streetcars in order to run the King route with trains of two or three units, as was common on busy routes until the opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway; the hope is that this would keep them from bunching and becoming stuck in traffic.
The TTC tested the prototype version of the Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV) along the 508 route in the 1990s.
During the rush hour periods 504 King uses the ALRVs.