The TTC has published its planned schedule for various streetcar infrastructure inspection and repair projects for 2023, and a look-ahead to 2024.

See: Subway Closure and Streetcar Diversions – 2022 Review and 2023/2024 Forecast

This article was updated on January 19, 2023 at 8:45 pm with additional illustrations from a staff presentation to the TTC Board.

See: Board Report Briefing Subway Closure & Streetcar Diversions – 2022 Review and 2023/2024 Forecast

Subway

The full list of closures begins on p 13 of the report. There is a variety of full weekend, early closing and late opening events (check the legend to the chart).

There are fewer Line 1 closures in 2023 due to ATC (Automatic Train Control) than in 2022 because the main work is complete. However, there is a follow-up phase that will require some weekend closures for testing and implementation. Other work affecting Line 1 includes repair of station finishes on the University subway, elevator installation at Lawrence, various track replacements, and preliminary work at Finch for the Yonge North Subway Extension.

On Line 2, there will be work at Kipling to add a new storage track, preparatory work at Kennedy for Scarborough Subway Extension, preparatory work on the east end of the line for ATC installation, and some track replacement work. As usual there will be several late openings of service on Sundays for beam replacement on the Prince Edward Viaduct.

Many closures involve only an early shutdown of subway service to give a longer overnight maintenance window than would be possible with normal hours of service.

Streetcar

There is a long list of events for the streetcar system, but many of them are short interruptions of overnight/weekend work for inspections or minor repairs.

The major trackwork planned in 2023 is listed both in the report (starting on p 19) and on the TOInview map of City construction projects. The schedule implies that a good chunk of the streetcar system will be shut down at various times during the year. The Ontario Line contributes some of this to the Queen car, but the long-suffering riders on King do not get a break either after years of work at King-Queen-Roncesvalles. Note that Adelaide from York to Victoria is a Metrolinx project and so does not appear in this list.

Some of the dates in the TTC list do not align with info on TOInview. This is very common.

Parts of the schedule simply do not make sense. Some projects have far more time reserved than they should take based on past experience. Some projects will block the routes from carhouses in the east end to the rest of the network either via Queen Street or via Coxwell and Gerrard Streets, and times for these overlap.

Update: The TTC confirms that planned work on Gerrard Street will not occur at the same time as projects on Queen will block access to Leslie Barns and Russell Carhouse. See the map at the end of this section for a graphic view of the planned work.

Details of the Broadview Station Loop expansion are not yet available, nor is it confirmed whether this will actually occur.

I hope to get clarification of what is going on from the TTC.

• Feb 27-Mar 26: King Street West from Close to Strachan
• Mar 10-Oct 29: Dufferin Loop
• Mar 24-Nov 28: Queen Street East from Carlaw to Leslie & Leslie to Greenwood
• Mar 31-Apr 7: Intersection of King & Church
• May 1-Nov 29: York from Queen to Adelaide (Ontario Line diversion)
• May 6-July 8: Intersection of Lower Gerrard & Coxwell
• May 6-Nov 21: Russell Yard
• May 14-Nov 8: Broadview from Gerrard to Broadview Station
• June 18-July 29: Intersection of King & Parliament
• July 30-Nov 18: Metrolinx work at Queen/Degrassi overpass
• Sept 3-Oct 2: Broadview Station Loop
• Sept 7-Oct 29: Queen from Parliament to River & Davies to Broadview
• Oct 8-Dec 16: Oakwood Loop
• Oct 16-Feb12: St. Clair West Station Loop

The report does not list specifics for 2024, but info already appears on the TOInview map. It is not clear how some of this work will interact with Metrolinx Ontario Line construction at King & Bathurst. There is a proposed track and lane realignment at Bathurst & Fleet, but it is not clear whether this will actually occur, or if the planned work is simply replacement of existing special work as is. Details of the Spadina Station streetcar loop expansion are not yet available.

• St. Clair & Yonge
• St. Clair & Bathurst
• Queen St. W from O’Hara to Triller
• King St. W from Strachan to Spadina
• King & Queen (Don Bridge)
• Bathurst St. from Queen to Front
• Bathurst & Queen
• Bathurst & Fleet
• College St. from Bay to Yonge
• Main & Gerrard
• Russell Yard (continuing from 2023)
• Expansion of the streetcar platform at Spadina Station Loop

Update: The following map was included in the staff presentation to the Board on January 19, 2023.

This map contains several geographic errors:

• The project labelled Queen & Yonge points at King & Spadina.
• The project for St. Clair & Bathurst is shown east of St. Clair West Station rather than west of it.
• The project for St. Clair & Earlscourt is shown well west of Lansdowne rather than east of it.
• Carstops on Queen East at Wineva and at Waverley are shown as west of Kingston Road rather than east of it.
• The project for Queen & Jarvis is shown well west of Yonge.
• The project for Fleet Loop actually points to Exhibition Loop.

There are a few more, but my point in cataloguing them is that this is sloppy work and it speaks to the quality of information presented to the Board by management.

Pantograph Conversion

Gradually, and several years behind the original target date, the TTC has converted overhead wiring designed for trolley poles first to a hybrid pole/pantograph configuration, and then to pure pantograph style. A map of the current status was included in the staff presentation.

There are some problems with this map which is based off of a track plan that is itself out of date. “Wrong way” track has been removed from the one-way streets downtown, although it still appears here. Also, some work is underway on King West even this is not shown with the orange “in progress” colour. The intersection of King & Shaw had already been converted to Hybrid format when I visited it a month ago. (There are other errors in the map, but please don’t bother commenting with fixes.)

One amusing relic is the legend “Hillsdale Ave” on Lake Shore Blvd West. This was the site of a long-removed wye, the last in the system, and the street is called “Hillside Ave”. “Hillsdale” is in North Toronto.

Again, this is an unfortunate example of how the “official” records of the system are out of sync with actual conditions in the field.