A significant disruption is set to take place at a major downtown intersection in Toronto as of May 11, when the City will commence the replacement of watermains at the crossroads of King and Church streets. This initiative will lead to a complete shutdown of the intersection for the remainder of the summer, necessitating diversions for three TTC streetcar routes.
In conjunction with the City’s infrastructure improvements, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) will also undertake the replacement of streetcar tracks and enhancements to critical transit infrastructure during this period. Consequently, the streetcar routes affected will include the 503 Kingston, 504 King, and 508 Lakeshore, which will all experience diversions in both directions.
As a result of the construction, there will be no streetcar service on King Street between River Street and Spadina Avenue. Passengers traveling along this route will have the option to transfer to a 504/304 King replacement bus. This bus service will operate between Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street East, continuing to Bathurst Street, and will also serve the Distillery District.
Additionally, the affected streetcar routes—503 Kingston Rd, 504 King, and 508 Lakeshore—will operate along Queen Street via Church Street, Richmond Street, Adelaide Street, and York Street, before returning to King Street at Spadina Avenue. Furthermore, the 503 Kingston Rd route will be extended to operate between Dufferin Gate and Bingham Loop, ensuring continued service in other areas despite the ongoing construction.
The TTC has indicated that these diversions are anticipated to impact around 100,000 daily streetcar users, with travel times potentially increasing by five to ten minutes depending on the specific destination of passengers. Stuart Green, a spokesperson for the TTC, acknowledged the inconvenience caused to riders, stating, “For our customers, it will mean inconvenience. We can’t sugar coat that.” However, he noted that the City of Toronto has collaborated closely with the TTC to implement parking restrictions on Queen Street during peak hours to minimize disruption. Traffic wardens will be deployed to help direct traffic and maintain flow throughout the congested areas.
Despite the precautions, some transit advocates are voicing their concerns regarding the anticipated chaos. Cameron McLeod from CodeRedTO highlighted the challenges of redirecting additional streetcar traffic onto Queen Street, which is already experiencing diversions at Bay Street due to Ontario Line construction. McLeod remarked, “There are times when there are 20 or 30 streetcars travelling on Queen Street. And then there could be another 20 to 30 streetcars added from all of these other routes. The big challenge is that normally the streetcars are spread out across the actual route, but when there’s a slowdown, when there’s congestion, they start to bunch up.”
The TTC has stated that it will closely monitor the situation throughout the construction period and will implement necessary adjustments to manage the impact on transit users. The planned streetcar diversions are slated to last until early September, indicating a prolonged period of disruption for Toronto's transit services.
