Transit users are bracing for the second weekend in a row where a lengthy stretch of the TTC’s busiest subway line will be out of commission.
Anyone who braved the transit network this past weekend got a taste of what’s to come for the next major TTC outage, scheduled to shutter service on a 6.5-kilometre stretch of Line 1 spanning 11 stations for the entire weekend of December 7 and 8, 2024.
The coming weekend closure will halt all subway service between St. Clair West and King stations, cutting off a section of track that boasts some of the highest transit ridership figures in the country.
The closure will affect the following stations:
- King Station
- Union Station
- St. Andrew Station
- Osgoode Station
- St. Patrick Station
- Queen’s Park Station
- Museum Station
- St. George Station
- Spadina Station
- Dupont Station
- St. Clair West Station
Dupont, Museum, Queen’s Park, St. Patrick and Osgoode stations will be closed throughout the outage, though the other six stops along the halted stretch of Line 1 will remain open for customers to purchase Presto fares and connect to surface routes.
The TTC will be operating shuttle buses to fill in for subway service during the outage.
It is just the latest planned closure on this stretch, which will have experienced either a total weekend shutdown or early weekday closure every day for two consecutive weeks by the time regular subway service resumes on Monday, December 9 by 6 a.m.
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green explained to blogTO last week that the closures concentrated on this portion of Line 1 have been coordinated to address several overlapping projects.
Among the work being conducted underground beyond the eyes of the public, the TTC is installing track baseplates from St. George to Spadina, electrical traction power cable work from St. George to Museum, station finishes at St. Patrick and Queen’s Park, work to speed up the removal of two “reduced speed zones” from St. Andrew to Union, and electrical maintenance from King to Union.
The closure coincides with several holiday events in the city, and also overlaps with a Toronto Raptors home game on Saturday night, which could make for some chaotic conditions around Scotiabank Arena this coming weekend.
Commuters can expect no breaks the following weekend either, as the TTC has scheduled yet another full weekend closure on a different stretch of Line 1.
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