King-Queen-Queensway-Roncesvalles
Updated December 23, 2022: The City has issued an update stating that the work on Roncesvalles will not be finished until at least the end of February, and The Queensway will not be complete until Spring 2023.
- Stage 3 work on Roncesvalles will be completed by the end of February 2023.
- Work will continue after this period with the installation of TTC streetcar track platforms and overhead wiring, with only lane restrictions as necessary.
The final major piece of trackwork installation is underway. Once new paving is in place, the overhead can be restored and, at least in theory, streetcars can return to Roncesvalles Avenue. This is likely to be confined initially to carhouse moves to and from Howard Park until TTC schedules catch up. A service restoration date for 504 streetcars has not yet been announced, but the mid-February schedule change would be the first opportunity. (As I write this, the January changes have not yet been announced.)
With the revised completion dates announced by the City, the first schedule change that could restore streetcars to Roncesvalles would come at the end of March or early April. It is possible that bus service on Roncesvalles could be restored as work north of Queen reaches a point where some lanes can be opened.
Meanwhile, although road construction continues on The Queensway between Sunnyside and Parkside, only the span wires and hangers are up at Sunnyside Loop, but no contact wire. There is still no track between Glendale (St. Joseph’s Hospital stop) and Parkside (the first stop on the Queensway right-of-way). Paving of the new curb lane eastbound from Parkside to Roncesvalles was underway on December 22, and the new eastbound Glendale stop platform is now in place.
Dates for restoration of streetcar service to Sunnyside and to Long Branch have not been announced.
The City’s update puts completion of the road work in Spring 2023. Whether this will include restoration of track and overhead remains to be seen.
- As part of work being completed on The Queensway (Parkside Drive to Roncesvalles Avenue), the contractor has uncovered conflicts with underground utilities that require modifications to the designs.
- The Stage 2 work is now expected to be complete in Spring 2023. Upon completion, all travel lanes on The Queensway will be restored and northbound access to Sunnyside Avenue from The Queensway will be reinstated.
Dundas Sinkhole
A major sinkhole on Dundas near Brock caused a service diversion of route 505 Dundas via College and Ossington. This ended in the early evening of December 19. The photo below, provided by reader Raymond Lee, shows the track restoration in progress on December 10.
King & Shaw
Service was restored to King Street west of Bathurst on December 9, 2022. 504A Distillery cars run to Dufferin Loop. 504B Broadview Station cars run to Bathurst Street.
Adelaide Street
Work is expected to be complete to Charlotte Street by year-end. Work east from York Street to Victoria, and on York Street itself will be done as a separate project in 2023.
College Street
Most work on College Street is complete although 506 Carlton streetcar service remains on diversion. The TTC should be restoring the normal route soon, but has not announced a date yet. As of December 19, the 506C bus shuttle operates along College and Carlton streets rather than diverting along Harbord, Hoskin, Queen’s Park, University and Gerrard.
According to the City’s webpage for this project:
In spring 2023, the City’s contractor will return to complete work on the elevated cycle tracks between Manning Avenue and Spadina Avenue and upgrades to the existing bike lanes between Spadina Avenue and Bay Street.
Wellington Street
Updated: This original text has been removed because it proved to be out of date.
The current status is that undocumented underground conflicts still dog this project, which also was delayed to accommodate local festivals. Work on the north side of Wellington is expected to be largely completed in 2022, but the south side will be finished next Spring.
There is no word on when TTC will reinstall overhead so that 503 cars can return to the Church-Wellington-York loop.
Steve Munro 
We’ll wake Rip Van Winkle when it’s done. When the flowers bloom?
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Serious question: why isn’t anyone at Toronto Hydro fired over this?
Steve: I have no idea. In some cases, it’s old infrastructure that is poorly documented, but sometimes it’s just that Hydro does things when they get around to it and “coordination” is not their strong suit. Maybe our strong Mayor might knock a few heads together, but I doubt it.
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The post on the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association website seems to be from June 2021. To be fair, there have been so many delays to report on that project, it is difficult to keep track of them all.
Steve: Thanks for catching that. I have replaced the link to the old article and accompanying description, and replaced this with current info.
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Today’s email update from city now has Roncesvalles reopening at end of February, to no one’s surprise.
Steve: I too received this notice and have incorporated the update into the main article. This entire project is a comedy of errors, and I am not entirely sure I believe the revised dates.
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It looks like any new overhead at switches is totally not set up for pole operation. That seems to be the case at Kipling and Lake Shore. I am not an expert, though, and I’m also sitting in traffic so time and attention available are limited.
I imagine that Sunnyside loop will have similar panto-only overhead.
Steve: Yes, in areas that are “officially” converted, there are some locations where switches have no overhead frogs, just overlapped contact wires.
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Progress on the track construction on the King-Queen-Queensway-Roncesvalles continues at a snail’s pace, one intersection at a time. It’s SOS, ie. safety over speed. The western portion of the “501 Queen” route will continue to be operated with shuttle buses for the foreseeable future, for the duration of construction on this project, which began nearly two years ago.
This means that residents living along the route, between Dufferin Street and the Long Branch loop will be continue to take shuttle buses, then transfer to streetcars, en route to downtown and/or points eastward.
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Have you received the memo for the January 8, 2023 service changes yet? If so, what the changes include for the TTC?
Steve: No I have not received it yet.
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It is unfortunate that there are so many projects all at the same affecting streetcar service in the west end and core of the city. Wellington, King, Adelaide, Queen, Queensway, Dundas, College, Roncesvalles. Not really much the TTC’s fault, and I do not wish to point fingers at them or Hydro. Plus, we have construction underway for the Finch West and Hurontario LRT’s . Perhaps Harbourfront East & West will get going soon. And, the #1 fiasco, the Metrolinx Eglinton Crosstown project is late by a decade and $billions over budget.
On the other hand, these are all infrastructure projects that will last &benefit the community for generations.
Regarding Eglinton Crosstown, restoration of Eglinton Avenue is way behind and is hurting the small businesses, amongst everyone else.
It seems to me that the TTC is way more competent than Metrolinx in building transit projects. The last major infrastructure that the TTC undertook was the subway extension to Vaughan, mostly on time and on budget. I say that if the TTC were building the Relief Line/Ontario Line, a real subway and not pie-in-the-sky, it would be approaching completion by now and without the damage to neighbourhoods, environment, and historic properties.
Steve, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and likewise to all your readers and Happy Holidays!
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I know this more of a nerd trivia question but remind me once again why there is such a jog in the track on Roncevalles north of the yard entrance. Also, Merry Christmas! 🙂
Steve: There are a few photos in the City Archives that give an idea of what happened here.
In this view north from Queen in 1909, you can see that the road is wider than today. The view looking south also shows this. The fan of tracks into the original TRC Roncesvalles Carhouse is clearly visible here. Only the hotel on the southeast corner at Queen remains in present times.
In this view from 1919, we are looking south from a bit further north and you can see how the centre line of the street shifts to the west creating the jog where the road narrows to four lanes. The building that appears to be in the middle of the street at the south end is Sunnyside Station on the south side of the intersection.
By 1920, the Bank of Commerce was on the NE corner.
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The photo link is missing in “In this view in 1919…”
Steve: Fixed. Thanks!
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Quick update on KQQR and Roncesvalles. As of today, track welding appears almost complete – as far as I could see, only 4 welds remain outstanding, south of the gate on straight track. Concrete filling began today, but has a long way to go. As of yesterday, eastbound cars on Queensway were using the new channel to approach KQQR intersection. Overhead for Sunnyside loop was not changed from your report on December 22nd (hangers up, but no contact wire).
Platforms at least between Marion and High Park had some concrete and asphalt cuts, so they might be planning to start changing those soon.
What they’ll do if we have another snow storm followed by a freeze like last January, I do not know. Wait until April, I guess.
Steve: Thanks for the update! I am planning another visit soon.
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