At long last, the new curve for a 501 Queen eastbound diversion via York Street south to Adelaide is being installed. Of course the entire diversion should have been operational before Metrolinx shut down Queen Street for the Ontario Line, but such careful planning is not what we expect from the agencies involved.
Indeed, the City took over the trackwork on Adelaide Street as part of other works in progress because Metrolinx was dragging its feet. Why they didn’t take the full project up to Queen & York is a mystery. With luck, the west and east ends of 501 Queen will be reunited before year-end 2024, but I am not making any bets.
Road and utility works for this project are contracted by the City and Metrolinx. Track installation is by the TTC.
Three weeks ago, on Sunday, July 7, the new switch was sitting at Queen and University ready for installation, but work on excavation and a new track foundation took some days afterward to begin.
Here is the state of installation as of Sunday, July 28.
Steve Munro 
The final stage of track installation seems to be ‘paused’ as nothing seems to have happened for several days (though with MLX it is hard to know what is happening) and the TTC work on the overhead on Adelaide moves forward at glacial speed – with a couple of new poles still needed. Clearly nobody thinks that running a proper east-west transit service is a priority.
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Public transit is a low priority in the city of Toronto. They are speeding up construction of the Gardiner only because the users (the single-occupant automobile) is a higher priority.
Will they speed up construction of the Ontario Line to shorten their deadline? Unlikely.
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A couple of weeks ago I was observing that same track installation at York and Queen. At that time there had been some progress since at least a month previous. But, I see from your photos that there has been practically zero progress since. I also see that the trailer parked on the south side of Queen west of York is still there. It holds a bunch of straight track, and I do not know where it is meant for.
The northbound is ready, minus overhead) and curves to both westbound and eastbound Queen are there. Of course, eastbound is unusable due to Ontario Line work. The southbound track installation from Queen on down to Richmond had progressed nicely. However, no hint of actually connecting that track to Queen.
Question, if westbound Queen is going to access southbound York, would not then the existing (unused) northbound York to westbound Queen curves need to be replaced because one crosses the other? Or is the intention not to have that turn?
Steve: There is no plan for a west to south curve.
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Road and utility works for this project are contracted by the City and Metrolinx. Track installation is by the TTC.
For those us who are regular listeners to this program but, perhaps, don’t pay as much attention as we should, can you remind us who owns what?
The TTC is part of the City of Toronto and has been since nationalizing the private companies around the end of WW 1, correct?
Metrolinx is the newish thing that was created to take over everything especially GO but is also building rapid transit to Show Toronto How It’s Done … but will dump the new line(s) on the TTC to run …
I think I misread the text above as Metrolinx was “in charge” and was contracting the TTC to build the new (well, replacement) track … but that’s not what it says is it?
Still … Is Metrolinx “over” the TTC? Sometimes that can be real in the way that the NY MTA is “over” NYCTA, the two commuter railroads, and several other things (including Bridges and Tunnels) or it can be fake in the way that Chicago’s RTA is “over” CTA, Pace, and Metra but CTA pretty much does what it thinks it needs to because it’s part of the City of Chicago. A little closer to me is Montréal’s ARTM which is “over” the STM, STL, RTL, REM and exo, but in reality they are really only able to control exo (trains and buses off-island).
Where is Metrolinx in this politician-planned miasma?
Steve: Originally this was supposed to be a Mlx project (all of it, not just York St) as part of the Ontario Line work. However, they got totally fouled up in figuring out how to procure a complex municipal project that included some major utility relocations. The City rescued them by taking over Adelaide where they already had a contractor doing the road reconfiguration and water main work. For reasons I suspect of pure ego, Metrolinx kept York Street for themselves, and it has taken forever.
All that said, no matter who the prime contractor was (City or Mlx), TTC would be doing the track and overhead work installation.
This is a classic example of “regional” planning, and Metrolinx’ notoriously late projects.
Metrolinx is paying for all of the work related to building the diversion.
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Yes, there is provincial money being thrown at the Gardiner in greater amounts, but I do not think this assessment is cynical/realistic enough.
Money is being thrown at the Gardiner rebuild because Doug the Thug has an election coming. He wants the votes of 905ers, who are the lion’s share of Gardiner users. The benefits of throwing some money at Ontario Line are more doubtful because it will just be lost in the gaping maw of unaccountability that is Metrostinx and the Tory-voting morons in Scarborough and north of 401 think the Ontario Line is for the benefit of the downtown liberal elite like me because they’re clueless. It’s be money spend for no return.
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As a 905er; I just LOVE sitting on the Gardiner! Great view, no high speed accidents; it’s like the good old days sitting underneath the future Gardiner on Fleet Street with an equally great view of Maple Leaf Stadium, Molson’s, and even a little peek of Fort York.
The Toronto/Ontario planners are perennial morons; not the constantly lied to victims of Scarborough.
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On the topic of Queen and York, the track work looked substantially complete to me when I passed by on August 15th. There’s still some cleanup work being done on the roadway, but all the track and concrete and asphalt seem to be in place.
No overhead, though, so it might take another 4 months to finish…
Steve: Overhead work is in progress on Adelaide working eastward from Spadina to Church.
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Steve, have you seen the finished work? What’s up with the massive jersey barriers installed at York and Adelaide? Is this a TTC requirement for the streetcar turn or did the city decide on that? They’re such overkill that make the street feel like a highway and hostile to pedestrians.
Photos.
Steve: That looks like an attempt to really block off the continuation of the streetcar lane if it didn’t end at Adelaide, and also to protect the entrance to the continuation of the southbound bike lane. But, yes, typical overkill.
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