TTC Dropping Gate on Queens Quay Tunnel Drivers

After another six-hour delay caused by a drunken motorist, the Toronto Transit Commission is dropping the arm on a problem tunnel. Dropping the arm of a new gate they're planning to install in front of the Queens Quay station tunnel, that is.

The latest incident involved an alleged drunk driver in a BMW 2 series, who was found with his car stopped and his foot still on the gas. But that's just one of the 25 times the TTC has had to remove a vehicle from a single streetcar tunnel in the last four years, and the second time in as many weeks.

It's easy for drivers to confuse the tracks and the tunnel for the street. After all, drivers only have to hop a curb. Then bypass bollards and about 10 signs that say not to enter. Plus flashing red lights and more not showing in the above photo. And then there's the fact that you're driving on above-grade tracks and not a road. Ok, so it's not at all easy to confuse the streetcar tunnel for Queens Quay West.

Unfortunately, too many drivers are. Some have been charged with impaired driving, but many of them were not. And that's just the ones who got stuck, requiring long expensive delays while they are removed with a special crane.

So the TTC is looking at installing a gate to keep out anything that isn't a street car. "Maybe we're gonna see some cracked windows now, because of cars running into this gate," TTC spokesman Brad Ross told CityNews Toronto. No date for the new gate has been set, but it will be part of TTC meetings this week.