The TTC has announced that streetcar service will be restored on St. Clair with the June 23, 2024 schedule changes. This follows a long period of reconstruction at several points along the route:
- Upgrade of overhead power systems for pantographs along the route, at loops and junctions.
- Worn rail replacement at some stops.
- Improved lubricators for Oakwood and Earlscourt loops to reduce wheel squeal.
- City of Toronto work at the Barrie corridor west of Caledonia.
- Toronto Water construction.
Reconstruction of St. Clair West Station loop will continue through the summer and fall, and streetcars, like the interim bus service, will not enter the station. Riders connecting to/from the subway will have to walk to nearby stops at Bathurst or Tweedsmuir.
This chart gives an overview of the various projects along St. Clair. For complete description of the project, see the TTC’s project page.
Full details of the service changes planned on June 23 have not yet been released, but the electronic version of schedules used by trip planning apps were posted recently.
| Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AM Peak M-F Early Morning S-S | 8′ | 10′ | 11′ |
| Midday M-F Late Morning S-S | 8′ | 8′ | 9′ |
| PM Peak M-F Afternoon S-S | 8′ | 8′ | 8′ |
| Early Evening | 8′ | 9′ | 9′ |
| Late Evening | 10′ | 10′ | 10′ |
Night service will also change. Streetcars will operate as 312 St. Clair from Yonge Street to Gunn’s Loop west of Keele matching the daytime service. A separate 340 Junction night bus will operate from Gunn’s Loop to Dundas West Station via St. Clair, Jane and Dundas.
Steve Munro 
It was just announced a couple of weeks back that the streetcars will come before end of July, so getting a confirmation and that too of a June date is indeed good news. I wonder if this is because they need buses for Spadina replacement starting soon and don’t have enough reliable buses to run both plus have stock in case line 1 or 2 have an issue.
Steve: They have a lot of spare buses, although spare operators might be another matter. The June date was shown in the construction status list included in the regular schedule updates. In the March changes, it was shown as “Q2 2024”. In the May changes, it was shown as “June 2024”. I was a bit surprised when “July” was cited by many, and was pleasantly surprised to see that, indeed, it’s a June date. I suspect there may have been some confusion because the change is late in the month.
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on the bright side, TTC might be able to complete a round trip trip maybe 10 mins faster + 5 mins in each direction ) as the St Clair West loop does take some time…. perhaps they could even deploy fewer streetcars
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The split of 312/340 is interesting and I would love to know a rationale. Even the TTC can’t throw traffic as a culprit at 2:00 a.m.. Are they going to make one stretch more frequent than the other? I wonder than how the connections will go. Or maybe they think people don’t cross that border at night as there are always faster ways?
Steve: There is a general program to use as many streetcars for night service as possible due to storage constraints at carhouses. Over half of Russell is under construction right now.
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Next… railway underpass widening between Keele Street and Old Weston Road and a new “Smarttrack” GO Station at St. Clair Avenue West and Old Weston Road.
Followed by an extension of the 512 streetcar to Jane Street and/or Scarlett Road, by the 22nd century.
Steve: Aside from “2024-2026, I have not seen details of the construction schedule for the St. Clair West project. I have written to the City to see if there are any updates that are not yet on the website. As for a Jane extension, that was part of Transit City when operation of the St. Clair car was moving to a new carhouse up north. That’s not happening, and I suspect we will never see the streetcar line extended given many competing priorities.
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24 years is finally long enough to see night streetcars restored on St. Clair which you have not mentioned the historical context Steve. Despite not having tracks west of Gunns Loop, they converted the 312 to buses when they extended it to Jane station to allow connections to the 313 night buses.
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it’s great that service is being restored earlier than originally planned but I had hoped that the TTC might have also painted the railings along the ROW during the shutdown. They’re heading into decrepit territory. Here’s my take on the anxiety one must be facing, although they’re all in quite poor condition…sigh.
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Hi Steve,
How is this service frequency looking if compared to what we had before ( in 2023 when we had the streetcars) . As far as I remember it was like 6 or 7 minutes in AM peaks but I could be wrong. Is there a decline in service frequency?
Steve: The headways are the same as in summer 2023 except for Saturday afternoons when they are widened from 7′ to 8′, and Saturday early evenings when they are widened from 8’30” to 9′. Service was more frequent until mid-May 2023 when it was cut by about 1/3.
When the TTC talks about service restoration, they cleverly forget to talk about previous service cuts.
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It’s incredible to see how much the switch to Flexitys has affected service levels. When the route last operated with CLRVs it ran roughly every 3 minutes in rush hour and every 4-6 minutes at most other times. Now the rush hour headways have more than doubled.
I see the same thing on the Carlton streetcar, which I used to ride but now try to avoid. But it’s something else entirely to see it on St. Clair, which the dedicated ROW suggests should be a flagship service.
Steve: Even when the CLRVs were running, the Streetcars Department was always short of something — not enough cars, not enough operators — and this carried over into the Flexity era even with a fleet well above the size needed to make service. Service cuts and bus substitutions were common, and the idea of just getting by became entrenched. This also, of course, set a new budget level and simply restoring service is now treated as an extra cost we can’t afford.
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Do you know what the June 23, 2024 service change will look like and have you received the service memo yet?
Steve: No.
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Thanks for the update Steve. The project page you linked seems to suggest that further work at St Clair Station will happen in 2025. Do you expect this to require another bus replacement? If so, I would imagine it would only be from St Clair to St Clair West, but it will likely be very frustrating for 512 riders who may have to deal with buses again.
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Thanks for very helpful post. As a resident of the area near SCW Station, it sure looks very inconvenient to trudge from the streetcar stop at Bathurst to the SCW Station to transfer for several months coming. At least the temporary buses stopped near the station entrances.
What is happening to the various bus routes – such as the Vaughan Road 90? Will the buses now again go into the SCW Station loop, unlike the streetcars?
Being a retired “transportation psychologist”, I still chuckle every time I hear “Line 1” spoken instead of the much smarter “Yonge Line”. Why do engineers have such a poor grasp of human-factors?
Ben
Steve: The loop area remains under construction and so there is no change in the bus services. As for “Line 1”, that was brought to us by Andy Byford who is not an Engineer.
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Neither the Tweedsmuir nor the Bathurst platforms have the space necessary to accommodate the volume of passengers transferring from the subway to the streetcar at St Clair West. It’s going to be interesting.
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All that work and almost a year of buses and no upgrade to the platforms and shelters. Rusted metal railings and shelters, dirty glass windows and roofs, posters and information that hasn’t been updated in over a decade. Typical TTC not caring about the customer experience.
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