Effective Monday, June 2, 2025, the 504C/D and 304D shuttle buses will divert around the construction at King & Church via Yonge, Front/Wellington and Jarvis as shown in the map below. This affects only the shuttle buses, and the streetcar diversions via Richmond/Adelaide are not affected.
How this will work with already congested conditions south of King on Yonge and on Jarvis remains to be seen.
The map below combines all of the diversions into one view of where King and related routes are diverting in and near downtown.
Not shown are:
- 501 Queen continues to divert via Church, Richmond/Adelaide and York.
- 509 Harbourfront which is temporarily replaced by a bus between Spadina and Exhibition Loop.
- 510 Spadina continues to operate from Spadina Station to Union Station.
- 511 Bathurst continues its split operation with streetcars running east on King to loop at Spadina and a shuttle bus replacement to the Exhibition due to construction at Bathurst & Lake Shore.
Steve Munro 
I hate it when I go to the 504 website https://www.ttc.ca/routes-and-schedules/504/0 and get the “official” route map and not the “service changed” route map. If you’re a visitor or it has been a while, you would get lost because the streetcar starts to reroute itself.
The TTC should design maps that include the “service changed” routing on top or under the “official” route. Maybe a self-adjusting “GIF” image map that alters between the two (with different language explanations). But then the TTC wouldn’t have the funds to improve customer service or information. Maybe we’ll be lucky with the new CEO, Mandeep Lali, and he’ll be able to beg, borrow, or steal to get the needed improvements for the TTC.
Steve: The TTC’s website is a mess on many counts. A few months back I started to write a guidebook, so to speak, a map through the underbrush. It got so complicated that I gave up. There are big problems that related items are filed in different parts of the site, and if you don’t look everywhere, you won’t find them. The communications problem is bad enough that the TTC did not include the 504 bus changes in its email listing coming service changes for the week.
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Is there an actual reason the TTC refuses to extend the shuttle buses to King and Shaw beyond them openly hating their riders?
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A couple of points, not directly related to this diversion, come to mind when I look at the maps you’ve provided:
1. Diversions are often the same as removing service. I’ve seem plenty of diversions of Queen cars along King that don’t stop and pick up anybody for the detoured part of the route. The TTC is very bad about providing alternate stops and, even when they do, some operators will ignore them. With all the diversions in my area, I consider any of the detoured sections as closed. They really should not be doing this.
2. As a “downtown liberal elite”, this, yet again, reminds me that all the suburbanites are ass-backwards in their thinking that downtown gets all the transit. All the transit gets you here from where you live. For me, and many people I know in the area, we don’t use transit for local trips. We walk or cycle. With the combo of suburbanites in cars, delivery vehicles, and frequent diversions, the only transit we use is the subway, which we walk to and from. To be fair, I guess that makes me part of a niche of a niche, as there are areas, particularly on the fringes of downtown, that aren’t walkable to the subway.
Hmmm, not very interesting points, but I’ve already come this far.
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It’s official! The current TTC track, watermain, and overhead project – Bathurst-Fleet-Lakeshore – has entered its final days and weeks. Tracks are being replaced on Bathurst Street between King Street and Front Street, which is expected to be completed next week. Then the newly-laid tracks on Bathurst Street between King Street and Queens Quay West will be tested and prepared for the return of regular streetcar service.
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Hi Steve, I was in the downtown area using the TTC due to an appointment I had. I eventually wound up down by Yonge and Richmond. I knew the 501 was running there but I did not know about the 503. I was having problems with my feet so I decided to use my Presto card on the first westbound car that was the 503. Got on and didn’t sit down because it was one stop. My surprise…no stop at Bay!! Bay Street. A painful walk back. The funny thing ….on the 503 Kingston Road timetable in the TTC site, the map still has it going to York while the actual timetable has it going to Dufferin Gate. I don’t know if it’s me, but I think there’s just too much going on in a short area.
Thanks
Steve: Two things. First, the TTC claims that Bay and Yonge are too close together, especially with a farside stop westbound at Yonge. Never mind that Bay gets stops on every other east-west street. Second, the problem with the route timetable page only having current info in the map, although the stop list might be correct for a diversion, is a long standing problem. Also, depending on where the detailed diversion notice is filed on the website, it may, or may not be autolinked from the main route page. TTC was very proud of this website when it rolled out, and I suspect somebody got a gold star, but I doubt they ever had to use and make sense of it.
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If only there were east west streets that ran parallel to and midway between King and Queen that were wide enough to accommodate streetcars and service the downtown core.
Am I crazy, but were there not streetcar tracks on Adelaide and Richmond that ran from Bathurst to Parliament in the past? Had they kept them it would not only be useful for service disruptions, but they could have added an east west loop as the city grew.
Steve: Tracks on Adelaide ran from Bathurst to Church, but never to Parliament. The tracks on Richmond were always from York to Church. It’s important to remember that track on Parliament south of Queen was only installed in 1947, and so there would have been nothing for an extension east from Church to connect with when the system was at its height in the late 1920s.
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Hi Steve, there was without any warning or notice from the TTC sudden construction along King Street West between Bay and York Street today. This had displaced a lot of vehicles that work in the area. Were you informed about this sudden closure? Also how long is this going to take if you are aware?
Steve: There was no notice per se, but this work is listed on the City’s road restriction map along with a few other items for this area.
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The work on King from York to Bay is the start of a major project to repair streetcar tracks (primarily deteriorated margins) all along King from Spadina to Sumach. It is scheduled to last from June 1 to August 30 – while the streetcars are replaced by buses on that long stretch of King. It is a, surprisingly, ‘connected’ activity from the TTC whose ‘silos’ seldom communicate to take advantage of periods when streets are already closed or routes already diverted.
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If they are doing track repair and replacement from Yonge to Sumach this summer why can’t Church to Berkeley be done as well, instead of 2028-2029? It’s likely too late to shoehorn it in now but the headache of the diversion, the shuttle bus cost, and the overall inconvenience must at some point warrant a much bigger emphasis on getting it done once.
I’ve made variations of this comment before but it has been years without a summer-long diversion of the King Car for a significant portion of Dufferin to Sumach, and it looks like we’ll get more projects in each upcoming year.
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Straphanger said
Church to Berkeley is sub-section of the longer Yonge to Sumach blocks.
Steve: I believe that the Church to Berkeley project is full track replacement, not just correcting problems with concrete along the edges of the trackbed.
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The question is why can’t that be done during this period when the track is already closed?
Steve: Probably has to do with timing of related City infrastructure work.
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Not to prolong this but…. I just walked on King from Jarvis to Bathurst and the TTC are working on both margins and some ‘middle of the track’ concrete problems between Charlotte and Yonge. They seem to be making good progress so will, I assume, move east of Yonge by early next week. I understand that the watermain(s) along King from Yonge to Berkeley will be replaced in 2027 or 2028 so it is best these TTC defects are addressed now as some sections would not have lasted 2+ more years.
As Steve noted, the track cannot really be replaced east of Yonge now as the planned watermain work would screw it up. As this (apart from Church/King) is all the ‘new’ construction (from 2003 or 2004) so the track replacement should actually be quite speedy as only the top layer of concrete should need to be replaced.
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Steve, from June 6 to 9, “510 Spadina” streetcars were turning back to head northbound at the Queens Quay & Spadina loop. In addition, the “509B Harbourfront” shuttle bus route was extended eastward to Union Station.
The reason for this is track and overhead work inside the portal of Queens Quay Ferry Docks and Union stations, in preparation for the return of “509 Harbourfront” streetcars on Sunday, June 22. Also, streetcars will be returning to the south end of the “511 Bathurst” route on the same date.
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