‘A lot of tools could be used to mitigate the impact’: Road work to divert 3 downtown Toronto streetcar routes

A Toronto Transit Commission streetcar drives past the downtown skyline in Toronto on Thursday June 6, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

A transit advocacy group is speaking out in response to the planned upcoming diversion of several downtown streetcar routes due to maintenance and repairs.

The work, which will include watermain and streetcar track replacement as well as updating switches and signals, is set to begin this Sunday and could last until early September on some routes.

Specifically, it will affect the roughly 100,000 customers who use the 503 Kingston Road, the 504 King and the 508 Lakeshore streetcar routes, which will be diverting in both directions on Queen, Richmond, and Adelaide streets, between Spadina and Broadview avenues. Replacement buses will also be operating on Broadview Avenue and to The Distillery District and along King Street.

TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said it’s inevitable that there will be “some impacts on our customers.”

“But the reality is, and the bottom line is, that there are two major pieces of infrastructure work that are going to be done at [the intersection of] King and Church,” he told CP24 late Monday afternoon.

“Both of these projects are on very old infrastructure that needs to be replaced. So we can’t, you know, apologize for needing to do that work.”

Green said the TTC has made efforts to coordinate its work with that of the city, so that the projects are undertaken in tandem and completed at about the same time.

“It’s a big piece of work, but it’s a shorter duration of time. What we don’t want to do is have, you know, the city going this year and then we go in next year or something, and do two big disruptions,” he said.

“So we’re gonna do it all at one time. It’s gonna be disruptive, we know that. But the city and the TTC have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best approach to this.”

Green added that undertaking road construction work in the core is challenging to navigate as there is a lot of “competing interest,” many more than there was even just 30 years ago.

“A lot more people live down there, a lot more businesses, cyclists that are down there, deliveries that have to be made, emergency vehicles have to get through,” said Green, who urged transit users to expect that their trip may take a little longer than expected and plan accordingly.

“So all of the work that’s being done and the diversions that are being put in place are trying to best accommodate all of those [needs]. We can’t make everybody happy. We know that.”

Cameron MacLeod, the executive director of CodeRedTO, said these diversions – coupled with ongoing work on the future Ontario Line – create what he called a “reliability nightmare” as these extra streetcars, especially the ones running along Queen from Spadina to Broadview avenues, “can get delayed and bunched up.”

He noted that these diversions could result in up to three-and-a-half times as many streetcars on Queen.

Work not optional, but ‘not a surprise,’ says advocacy group

“The work isn’t optional, but it’s also not a surprise, and there’s a lot of tools that could be used to mitigate the impact, but those tools are still in the wrapper,” said MacLeod.

The TTC has said that it would be bringing in traffic wardens to help mitigate some of the impacts. CodeRedTO called this a “great step” and is calling for a minimum of 10 traffic wardens to be stationed at the busiest intersections.

No left turns on streetcar routes is another option that makes sense for the advocacy group.

“We’ve all been in the situation where we’re stuck behind a vehicle trying to turn left. Imagine a streetcar with 200 commuters also stuck behind that single vehicle trying to turn left,” MacLeod said, pointing to transit signal priority – advance turn signals for transit – added to the intersection of King and Spadina 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as another solution.

He added that the timing of this maintenance work isn’t the main issue, it’s the fact that the work has been put off due to budget cuts, resulting in projects becoming quite large.

“So a really important thing is to learn from this is. What about next time? Should we make sure that we are not delaying important maintenance so that we run into the same trap again,” MacLeod said.

CodeRedTO also wants dedicated staff added for manual switch operation as well as TTC supervisors, with schedules and rider volume re-assessed weekly to reduce vehicle bunching, along the full diversion path.

They’re also calling for more enforcement along King, including repainting the Transit Priority Corridor lane markings at each intersection and enforcing all no-through-traffic signage.

CodeRedTO is further recommending that a report be prepared for city council that outlines the full cost of delayed maintenance items in this area with all traffic warden, signage, enforcement, and replacement bus costs broken out

“This will enable clearer assessment of costs when considering delayed maintenance in future,” it said.

“Every effort should be made to expedite the work and to return to regular service at the earliest possible opportunity. More commuters get downtown by TTC than by driving on every other road and highway combined. It is vital that reliable and frequent public transit be protected and prioritized to help Toronto sustainably grow, and to help all Torontonians reliably reach jobs, schools, daycares, nightlife, and more.”

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Janice Golding