Take a look at Metro Morning's live broadcast on the 501 Queen streetcar

Curt Richards, a driver with the TTC, says operating a streetcar is just like going ona road trip.

"When I have a full streetcar I feel comfortable," Richards told Matt Galloway just before he took the Metro Morning crew for a trip on the 501 Queen route one of the longest streetcar lines in the world and Toronto's third busiest with approximately 43,000 passengers a day.

"Every route has its own personality," said Richards.

"Queen Streetis very colourful. It moves from The Beach to Etobicoke, so you get everything."

Metro Morning live from the 501 Queen streetcar

7 years ago

Duration 0:59

Here is a behind the scene look of Metro Morning's live broadcast on the 501 Queen streetcar on Sept. 5.

One of the most immediately obvious transformationson the route is gentrification in Leslieville. While the change has created impressive housing and boutique storefronts, one affordable housing advocate says it's also pushing out low-income residents.

Anne Babcock, president and CEO of WoodGreen Community Services, told Matt Galloway that it's a challenge to build and maintain affordable housing in the city's core.

"Primarily [residents]don't want people who have addictions or mental health issues in their neighbourhood, Babcock said. "But in our case what we've been trying to do is to bring them in to see that people are people."

That's also one of the principles behind the Centre for Addiction andMental Health (CAMH)re-development further along the route.

The building on Queen Street West and OssingtonAvenue used to be walled off from the street, keeping its patients separated from the outside world, but Catherine Zahn, president of CAMH, says the new designwill open it up to the community.

• Fast cars, slow pedestrians, swerving cyclists: How difficult is it to drive a streetcar?

One of the redeveloped buildings will be for crisis and critical care with about 110 inpatient beds and the other will be a complex care and recovery building, for people with lifelong mental illnesses, like schizophrenia.

Construction in this area begins this fall.

A splash of personality

Metro Morning took visitors not only to these transforming sites, but also off the main path and into quirky spaces that add a splash of personality to the city.

Rush Lane, often called "Graffiti Alley"for its countless tags, pieces and murals is a popular community laneway. Matt Galloway spoke with two artists who wants to improve the city's laneways as public space.

"We sorely lack public space in the city. The laneway gives us an opportunity to reclaim spaces that only serve mundane purposes," explained Shamez Amlani, one of the two artists.

A little past Graffiti Alley, Christina Zeidler of the Gladstone Hotel, an icon in the midst of West Queen West, one of Toronto's "coolest" neighbourhoods, told listeners of the cost of the hip label, including relocating residents who had taken to living at the hotel.

Along the way, the team at Metro Morning picked up two high-profiled guests Mayor John Tory and TTC CEO Andy Byford who gaveaudience a lookat future plans for the city and answered listeners' questions submitted online and via the Facebook live stream.

• TTC CEO Andy Byford answers your burning transit questions

Bu there's a messier side to operating a streetcar route that cuts through some of grittier areas of Toronto.

Back at the Leslie Barns carhouse at the end of trip, the Metro Morningteam got some insight into what it means to clean up after Toronto's transit riders.

Benjamin Attkora, carhouse operator at the huge facility, painteda grim picture.

"The most disgusting thing I've seen other than the unsanitary pukers on Friday and Saturday nights, is someone's contraceptive just tossed away in a corner," he said.