The TTC has announced plans for construction projects that will require replacement of streetcars by buses on 510 Spadina starting June 23 until October 2024.
In June and July, overhead will be rebuilt between King and Queens Quay. This will not affect route 509 Harbourfront, and service on that route will be increased to offset the missing 510 Spadina cars on Queens Quay.
In August through October, overhead work will shift to the section from College to Spadina Station.
At Spadina Station, track will be replaced and other work will be done in preparation for a platform extension that will be enabled by excavation for a nearby condo.
There is no word on plans for the overhead between College and King, or whether another shutdown will be required for that segment.
Both the 510 daytime and 310 night buses will operate in mixed traffic stopping curbside along their route. Buses will use the surface loop at Spadina Station.
Steve Munro 
The enabling works for a future platform extension is interesting – I assume the meat of that work remains unfunded?
Presumably the timing of this relates to wind up of work elsewhere and freeing personnel but having this align closely with the Blue Jays season is unfortunate. Then again, the way they are playing…
Steve: I believe that this work is funded. This is a one-time chance to access the station structure during nearby construction.
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They should take this opportunity to deploy AI-camera based traffic lights that will ensure a streetcar will never stop at a red light on this route, making it like a subway service.
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It’s good to hear that Spadina Station’s tracks will be extended, I assume it’s to fix the issue of streetcar bunching due to offloading/loading passengers. Would it just be one long loop, or would it be akin to that to Dundas West loop; with the split tracks for the different routes?
Thanks for the article, Steve. It’s good to know, as I’ll be commuting on Spadina during the fall. I hope you have a nice weekend 🙂
Steve: One long track. There is no room for a pair of tracks like Dundas West.
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In a previous closure they ran the buses on the ROW southbound only between King and Queens Quay to avoid the massive backlogs on cars trying to get on the Gardener. They should be able to do that again.
Steve: Yes, I get the sense that whoever wrote the notice assumes there will be overhead trucks blocking the streetcar lanes 7×24.
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As tis route switches to shuttle bus operation, an alternative would be to use the combination if the “511 Bathurst” and “509 Harbourfront” routes, which will take slightly longer but works well. These two streetcar routes converge at Bathurst and Fleet Streets (near Lakeshore Boulevard).
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It would be pretty impressive if they need to replace the overhead between King and College and manage to be unable to fit it within the four month shutdown window. They could lay the blame at the auditor general for the new bookkeeping rules which only slow down their work.
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There needs to be an overall project to improve Toronto legacy streetcar network to European standards overall. Not current substandard Canadian nor American levels of acceptance. The TTC should be not aiming for “good enough”.
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How often does the overhead need replacing? Looks like they did major overhead works about 12 years ago also?
Steve: This is supposed to be overhead realignment for pure pantograph operation. Why it will take so long is a mystery.
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Because the TTC management doesn’t care if people ride transit or not.
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I have written off Spadina for the summer, starting June 23. Shuttle buses on Spadina choked with personal vehicles. No thanks. Walking will be faster.
If only there was a loop near King Street where a streetcar could short turn back to Bloor, or signals that could be set up to ease turns. It would have been nice if we had those things and cared about transit service quality.
When will the TTC shut down Spadina streetcar for the overhead upgrade from College to King? June to July 2026 to celebrate the World Cup?
Steve: There is a loop near King Street via Adelaide and Charlotte Streets. Why the TTC is not using this when only working south of King I don’t know. The only turn via that loop that has priority is south to east at Adelaide. I have asked about the section from College to King, and await a reply.
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Yeah that’s what I was referring to. Perhaps they are very concerned about preserving its capacity for the once-every-10-minutes 503 service. Or they just don’t care about transit service quality.
Because the TTC management doesn’t care enough to push City / Transportation Services to install signal priority (like, actual priority) at King and Spadina, nor do they care enough to install switches that work well and could interface with said signal system. If there are things they do care about, it’s not surface transit service.
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The notice for this says “June 23 through December.”
Steve: The original schedule had an earlier end date. I await the formal list of June service changes to see what is claimed there.
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If they got rid of those 18th Century congestion-inducing things and opened the street up to proper traffic, things would certainly move a lot better!
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Someone mentioned below that we should “preserve Toronto’s legacy streetcar network”. Well – having these slow, archaic things blocking traffic on city streets in the first place is what keeps Toronto in the top five most congested cities on the planet. I believe it recently reached No. 3. Yeah – that’s a great legacy to preserve. Thanks a lot for your “legacy vision” that keeps me idling in traffic every day, wasting precious hours of my life because you have a fixation on these slow moving, inefficient and noisy monstrosities. I guess if you have no where to go and all day to get there, that’s fine. But most of us have important things to do with our lives. If this gentleman likes the European system so much, why not move over there.
Steve: It’s not a question of “preserving a legacy”, but of operating a system that has the capacity to handle expected population growth. If anything, cars everywhere will be under attack not just from streetcars but from reserved bus lanes on major roadways. Get used to it.
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