Updated October 21, 2024 at 11:30am: The end date for the 501 Queen diversion via Church, King and Spadina has been changed to “mid-November”.
Updated October 18, 2024 at 11:00am: Information on diversions that have finished has been moved to the end of the article to avoid confusion. A planned diversion on Queen west late evening and overnight service from October 21-24 has been added.
Effective October 13: (Don Bridge reopens two days earlier than the planned Oct. 15)
- 501 Queen:
- West end: Regular service.
- Downtown: Streetcar Diversion via Church, King and Spadina both ways.
- East end: Regular service restored at the Don Bridge.
- Shuttle bus from Broadview & Gerrard to Queen & Bathurst:
- Westbound via Church, Richmond and Bay
- Eastbound via Bay, King and Church until 10pm daily
- Eastbound via University, King and Church from 10pm to 5am daily
- 503 Kingston Road: Regular service from Bingham Loop to King & York looping downtown via Church and Wellington Streets.
- 504 King: Regular 504B routing restored between Broadview Station and Dufferin Loop. 504A has already been on its regular routing and does not change.
- 508 Lake Shore: Regular route to Broadview Station via Queen and Broadview restored.
Effective October 21-24 Only
- 501/301 Queen
- October 21-24 only from 11pm to 4am: Streetcars divert between Shaw and Roncesvalles via King for trackwork at Queen & Brock. Shuttle buses to Neville Loop
Effective Mid-November:
- 501 Queen: to be announced.
The schedules going into effect on October 6 include a reunification of the eastern and western portions of 501 Queen, although the new Richmond/Adelaide diversion around Ontario Line construction is not yet available.
I asked the TTC how they were going to operate the service in the interim, and they replied that there are four separate track repair project affecting the line in coming weeks that will require different diversions. The Queen car will operate as a continuous route, but it will wander a bit through downtown.
Track work on the Queen Don Bridge will take place from October 6 to 15. Rail grinding on Queen between Sherbourne and Parliament will occur at various times from October 6 to 8.
Revised Oct 3:
October 6-8: 501 Queen cars will operate both ways between Broadview and Spadina via Broadview, Dundas, Church, King, and Spadina. Service will run to Humber until mid-evening when it will be through-routed to Long Branch as usual.
October 8-15: 501 Queen cars will operate both ways via Broadview, Dundas, Parliament, Queen, Church, King and Spadina following the completion of track grinding on Queen between Parliament and Sherbourne.
The 503 Kingston Road and 504B King cars will to divert via Broadview and Dundas, then turn south on Parliament to return to King Street. The 503 will loop via Church, Wellington and York as planned. The 504A will continue running to Distillery Loop.
A 501 shuttle will operate from Bathurst to Broadview and Gerrard on the same route that the 501B has been using, but service will use Route 600 run-as-directed extras rather than scheduled vehicles. The service will run every ten minutes.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
On October 3, 2024, the TTC posted the diversion notice for October 8-15. It has been added on the right below.
The diversion for services using King Street will operate through the Oct 6-15 period as shown below. Note that 503 cars only run as far west as York Street looping via Church and Wellington. Although not mentioned in the TTC’s service change online, this will also affect 508 Lake Shore on its route to Broadview Station. The map also does not show the 504A service which continues to operate to Distillery Loop.
The original map had problems, and is sadly symptomatic of the quality of public info the TTC creates at times:
- The service to the east end is shown as running on King Street East which does not exist east of the Don River.
- The 503 loop via Wellington to York is not shown.
- The 504A to the Distillery District is not shown.
- The 508 to Broadview Station is not shown.
- It is unclear from the map where the 503 and 504 routes actually run.
Updated October 4, 2024 at 11:00 pm:
The TTC has issued a corrected map which has been added below.
From Saturday, October 12 at 7am to Monday, October 14 at 4am, the 503 Kingston Road car will be extended west from York to Spadina via King, looping via Spadina, Adelaide and Charlotte for a film shoot. There will be no service on the loop via Church, Wellington and York.
Effective October 6: (Don Bridge closure, track grinding on Queen west of Parliament)
- 501 Queen: Service through-routed downtown, but on diversion. Turnbacks at McCaul Loop and to York/Wellington discontinued.
- West End: Service restored to Humber Loop, and through to Long Branch in the late evening.
- East End: Diversion via Broadview, Dundas, Church, King and Spadina.
- Shuttle Bus: Broadview & Gerrard to Bathurst & Queen diverting between Church and University via Richmond Westbound and King Eastbound.
- 503 Kingston Road: Western terminus shifted from Spadina to York looping via Church, Wellington and York. Service diverts via Broadview, Dundas, and Parliament to King.
- 504 King
- West End: Service restored to King Street west of Shaw. 504A cars run to Dundas West Station. 504B cars run to Dufferin Loop.
- East End: 504B service diverts via Dundas and Parliament to King. Normal 504A service to Distillery Loop.
- 508 Lake Shore
- West End: Service restored to King Street west of Shaw to Roncesvalles, then west to Long Branch.
- East End: Service diverts from Broadview via Dundas and Parliament to King.
Effective October 8: (Track grinding work ends)
- 501 Queen:
- West End: Regular service to Humber Loop, and through to Long Branch in the late evening.
- East End: Diversion via Broadview, Dundas, Parliament, Queen, Church, King and Spadina.
- Shuttle Bus: Broadview & Gerrard to Bathurst & Queen diverting between Church and University via Richmond westbound and King eastbound.
- 503 Kingston Road: Downtown loop via Church, Wellington and York. Service diverts via Broadview, Dundas, and Parliament to King.
- 504 King
- West End: Regular 504A/504B service to Dundas West Station and Dufferin Loop.
- East End: 504B service diverts via Dundas and Parliament to King. 504A service runs to Distillery Loop as normal.
- 508 Lake Shore
- West End: Regular service via King to Long Branch.
- East End: Service diverts from Broadview via Dundas and Parliament to King.
Effective October 12-13:
From Saturday, October 12 at 7am to Monday, October 14 at 4am, the 503 Kingston Road car will be extended west from York to Spadina via King, looping via Spadina, Adelaide and Charlotte for a film shoot. There will be no service on the loop via Church, Wellington and York.
Steve Munro 
You’d think the Adelaide-Richmond diversion would get a high priority. After all, It’s 18 months late. Guess it’s like the Eglinton LRT. Nothing is ever finished.
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Steve writes:
OMG! I can see it now. No, not the streetcar coming, but a new mind mangling board game called “Guess The Route!”.
The winner receives a free ‘behind closed doors’ Commission guest seat, and to be called “Commissar” for a day. (well, until the transfer times out).
And as a bonus prize, something quite rare in today’s Toronto: A streetcar ride…as soon as one arrives!
And of course, the winner goes on to play “When’s the LRT (various choices there) coming?”. There’s a bit of a twisted snag to winning that game, however. It’s a trick question. Always was, always will be.
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Posters says diversion runs Oct 06-08…should it read Oct 06-15 as it also includes Queen St bridge work?
Steve: The poster is only for the first stage with changes to come. Details are not out yet.
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Did stuff like this happen 20, 30 years ago cause it sure seems new to me!!! And of course, as I’m not as old as you, I might have missed something!!!
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It is unbelievable what TTC is doing with its customers. After shorting the 501 West to McCaul, the reliability of the 501 streetcars improved significantly. Running them without the diversion through Richmond, York, and Adelaide is going to be another disaster for the riders. I don’t understand why one of Downtown Toronto’s longest daily operating routes is not broken into two turning routes. Most of the riders are disembarking at the subway stations or downtown.
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It’s like the Tour Tram is making a weird comeback.
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That Parliament seems surplus to the Oct 6-8 routing.
Steve: Thanks for catching that.
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The map for the 503/303/504B/304 diversion is wonky. It shows King St. East heading east from Broadview Ave, complete with a transit stop. From what I know about the Toronto street grid there is no such intersection of King St. East and Broadview Ave.
Steve: By the time King cars are at Broadview they are on Queen Street. King ends at the Don River. Yes, the map is wrong. It’s TTC map.
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The TTC has recently changed its 501 page to show the 501 streetcar running via Richmond and Adelaide Streets. I don’t see a 501 diversion via Spadina/King/Church. Has the TTC made a last minute change of plans?
Steve: No. The service change memo for October 6 shows the Richmond/Adelaide diversion, but it’s not ready yet. There has been a lot of confusion with TTC notices due to last minute changes that are not integrated in a single online update. That’s why I posted my article attempting to provide a single, consolidated source.
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About 3 weeks ago I passed by the corner of Church & Adelaide. I observed that the east-to-south track was covered with gravel and the roadway was ripped up. No apparent reason. No workers on site. Also, no overhead yet. While this may be a bit of late news, I suspect that the corner still looks the same today.
What will be open first, Richmond/York/Adelaide diversion, or Eglinton-Crosstown and Finch West LRTs? Any guesses anybody?
And, I have a question: speaking of overhead, that meant for pantograph, will it be that antique TTC streetcars cannot cruise their old routes, but be parked forever in their barns?
Steve: It appears that the TTC has no plans to convert their historic fleet for pantograph operation.
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I don’t know what the work was for exactly, but it was going on for months and they started in the early morning every weekday. It actually is now complete and at some point in the past week the road was restored. I imagine it was utility work related to accommodating the two new huge condo towers under construction directly to the north on Church Street.
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These streetcars provide terrible transit. On Spadina for example (streetcars are not running of course), there was an informal study done by local media organisations that showed that walking was faster than taking the streetcar in spite of the streetcar right of way. On King St where the entire roadway has been reserved for streetcars, walking is still faster than taking the streetcar.
Tell me again why tens of billions of dollars of precious tax dollars have been wasted on a streetcar network when more than half of it is always out of service and walking is faster than taking these extremely slow streetcars.
Steve: First off, the BlogTO article you linked makes clear that the TTC options were hampered by the bus replacement of streetcars for construction. Second, “more than half of it is always out of service” is a gross exaggeration. Currently the main issue is on Queen with the long-running diversion around Ontario Line construction, and a shorter project for repairs at the Don Bridge. On Spadina, the overhead work itself is comparatively short-lived, but construction underway at Spadina Station to extend the platform so that two streetcars can load at once is taking longer. Construction on King west just finished, and with the City finally enforcing some of the traffic restrictions in the core, it is moving again. By the way, the entire roadway was not reserved for streetcars.
“Billions” is a big overstatement. The annual capital spending on the streetcar network is about $150 million, and this includes several one-time items such as conversion of the overhead system for pantographs and renewal of century-old buildings.
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Just an update on the Adelaide & Church corner. Jonathan P is correct. I went by today. The work is totally finished, all traces have been removed. PLUS, the overhead was installed. Looks like Adelaide is ready for streetcars.
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Meanwhile, in Ottawa
CBC: Aging fleet, e-bus challenges push Ottawa back to diesel
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Reading Fed up with streetcars’ absurd comments, I can’t believe that anyone would take BlogTO too seriously.
More to the point, it’s clear that Fed up with streetcars spends little time in central Toronto if they think they can typically walk faster than a streetcar. Most of the time, I can’t run to the following stop faster than the streetcar. Especially on the dedicated ROWs. Sometimes there are issues, that are frequently fixed, such as on King Street when idiot car drivers are breaking the law by blocking intersections and ignoring turn restrictions. The only recent time I’ve noticed this is that I could walk a couple of stops on Spadina, because the replacement buses are so slow. I’m sure that once streetcar service is resumed, this will return to normal.
That said, there are changes that could be made to make the streetcar even faster on Spadina. Such as restricting left turns for non-TTC vehicles south of (and including) College.
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May you are not fit enough to run but as both a sprinter and a long distance runner, I can certainly run faster than streetcars.
Steve: Most people are not sprinters.
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I don’t understand the need for a week-long track grinding detour. I thought the TTC rented a machine that could do it in a few moments.
Steve: The track grinding was October 6 and 7. The statement above says “following the completion of track grinding, the diversion described in the preceding section.
As well, beating a dead horse here but the protected turn signals they had installed on Broadview for prior extended detours continue to be covered and turned off for no good reason.
Steve: Yes, another fine example of “co-ordination” between Transportation Services and the TTC. I did see a police officer directing traffic at Broadview and Dundas one morning.
Parliament as always turns into a huge bottleneck especially at the Queen intersection. Short green times for north-south movements ensure only one streetcar gets through per 1 minute in either direction if operators actually respected the TTC’s safety rules.
That’s when turning 501 cars aren’t blocking movements by making a northbound turn at the trailing end of a cycle, in which case it’s possible no 503 or 504 cars will make it through.
Steve: The fact that Parliament is not retimed for transit operations is a long standing issue, and another example of how Transportation Services’ top priority is moving cars, especially at Adelaide and Richmond.
The slow zone across the Dundas bridge I’m not sure when that appeared but it goes with the rest of it.
Steve: There are some badly broken joints on Dundas notably at the east end of the bridge . I would not be surprised to see a Dundas diversion to allow repairs, but it would not have anywhere near the effect of closing the Queen Street bridge. More to the point, how is the track allowed to get into this condition in the first place? There are echoes of some problems we have seen on the subway and SRT. The last time they worked on the Queen bridge, it was clear that the westbound rails needed repairs, but they only rebuilt eastbound. Now they’re doing westbound, and more extensive repairs generally at the east side of the bridge.
Everything about the operation is slow, slow, slow.
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Yes, much of the core, and transit service is ‘fluxed’ up, and at times I can feel sorry for even the motorists. Definitely the OL restrictions/closures are a Big Problem; and funny how EAs just don’t include disruptions impacts, or there’s such a rush to bury the billions. As if it’s almost deliberate to harm the core whilst claiming to save it. Councillor Saxe made a quick comment to near that effect at last IE meeting. And I call the tracks ‘streetscar’ tracks as for cyclists they are an inherent hazard on most routes, sometimes much worse in unpredictable and common ways from badly broken/cratered side margins, which are at times needed to evade doors flung open and cars and or trucks parked too far out from curb, which could be ticketed, but…. nope.
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I was at the Queen Street bridge today and noticed they didn’t fix any of the broken concrete around the track junction. Maybe next shutdown.
Steve: Yes, the TTC talks a good line about trying to get as much work done as possible with one shutdown, but they seem myopic when it comes to some track repairs. Even the current work included a patch on the westbound rail that obviously needed repair the last time around, but was left as is.
Actual replacement of the track at that junction should be not far off, but I have not seen a definite date for it. Meanwhile, like other intersections it slowly falls apart and “justifies” slow orders.
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