From May until early Fall, the TTC and City of Toronto will rebuild an aging water main and track at the intersection of King & Church Streets. A report before Toronto & East York Community Council on February 20, 2025, details plans for service diversions and transit priority measures.

There are two general plans for this project: the first is for phases when the intersection remains open for east-west traffic, and the second for the period when it will be closed. Note that the planned diversions are not the same as in the recent Annual Service Plan. Significant changes are the provision of service to the Distillery District replacing the 504A streetcar with the 504C bus, and the extension of 503 Kingston Road west to Dufferin Loop as opposed to the originally planned McCaul Loop.

Service along Queen Street between River and Spadina will substantially increase with the routes normally on King diverted to the north. Buses will operate as a streetcar replacement.

Traffic restrictions such as parking and turning permissions will change to provide more capacity for transit. Although the report cites the use of traffic wardens and changes to signal timings, it is silent on provisions for the much increased volume of streetcar turns at intersections where no priority signals exist today. (I await feedback from the City on exactly what they propose.)

The entire stretch of Queen Street as well as the Richmond/Adelaide diversion will not be used for CaféTO installations to conserve road space.

As part of this plan, a reserved lane will be created for streetcars eastbound approaching Broadview on Queen, and left turns by other traffic will be banned there.

Restrictions will be in effect from May 11 to October 14, 2025, although the City project is planned to run until August. Streetcar service could return in September, but this will depend on TTC plans for overhead reconstruction on King Street East and on the Sumach/Cherry branch to the Distillery District.

Details of routes and planned changes to traffic regulations follow in the full version of this article.

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