Toronto commuters got a brief reprieve from rolling TTC subway outages during November’s Taylor Swift madness, but just as soon as the megastar’s motorcade rolled out of downtown, the closures have returned — including some significant ones you’ll want to be aware of for the coming weekends.
A lengthy stretch of the TTC’s Line 1 is the latest portion of the subway system undergoing track repairs, and the work being conducted along between St. Clair West and King stations appears to be much more extensive than previous outages on the network.
The 6.5 kilometres of track spanning 11 stations is undergoing early closures on the week of November 25-29, which is just a prelude for the coming outages that will affect riders on this exact section of Line 1 into early December.
There will be no subway service between St. Clair West and King stations on Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1, the first of two consecutive weekend outages on the line.
Throughout the closure, Dupont, Museum, Queen’s Park, St. Patrick and Osgoode stations will be inaccessible, while the other six stops affected by the closure will remain open for customers to purchase Presto fares and connect to surface routes.
The TTC will be operating shuttle buses along the closed portion of Line 1 during the outage and promises that regular service will resume Monday, December 2 by 6 a.m.
The closure will deprive commuters of interchange points at St. George and Spadina stations, while also cutting off subway access to the critical transit hub at Union Station.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the TTC plans to repeat the entire week of headaches again next week with another round of early closures on this same stretch from December 2 to December 6, and another full weekend closure for this portion of Line 1 on December 7 and 8.
Basically, by the time all is said and done, this portion of Line 1 will have endured 14 consecutive days of reduced or shuttered service thanks to these ongoing repairs.
It seems like a lot to place on such a central stretch of subway in such a short period, but a closer look at major events planned in the city in the coming weeks reveals a relative lull compared to the hectic schedule as of late.
The Leafs will be playing road games on the two coming Saturdays without subway service in the area, while no events are planned at the Rogers Centre until March 2025. Some events being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre do indeed overlap with the subway closures, but are well within the commuter capacity of local streetcar routes and GO Transit.
Regardless of the minimal events planned in town, anyone out and about trying to enjoy the city these next two weekends should prepare for an unpleasant journey likely involving a shuttle bus or two.
