Drivers who end up stuck in the streetcar tunnel at Queens Quay can’t say they weren’t warned. Over the weekend the TTC installed a number of additional deterrents aimed at preventing drivers from getting into the tunnel. The measures come two months after the transit agency had to extricate an SUV from the underground Queens Quay station, after its driver abandoned it there sometime before 4 a.m. on a Thursday morning. It took hours to remove the car, disrupting morning rush hour service on the 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina routes. The driver later returned, and according to the TTC he claimed he had merely been following his GPS.“Well we never say never . . . but certainly the steps that we’ve taken are going to make it very difficult to accidentally drive down that tunnel,” said TTC spokesperson Stuart Green. Since 2014, there have been 25 instances of cars blocking tunnels on the streetcar network. Of those, 22 took place at Queens Quay, where streetcars go underground to access Union Station. Many of the drivers who end up stuck are from out of town and simply unfamiliar with the area, according to Green. There may be other reasons someone would make the mistake, however.“There have been reports of people who are intoxicated and certainly some of the times are such that they would be later in the night or early in the morning so people may not be paying full attention to the road,” Green said. It can take between 15 minutes and five hours to remove the vehicles. In February the TTC had to call in a special crane. The driver was fined $425. Steps the TTC took this weekend include lowering the lights on both sides of the entrance so that they’re more visible to drivers, installing a rectangular pole topped with a flashing light in the centre of the tracks, and carving out deep “rumble strips” at the approach to the tunnel that would be hard for any driver to ignore. Further west, the age ...
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