Transit users might want to carefully plan one of the last sunny summer weekends, as the TTC has announced plans to shutter service along a seven-station stretch of Line 1 for the duration of the weekend.
The transit agency announced that it will close down a portion of the Line 1-Yonge University subway spanning over 8.5 kilometres between Sheppard West and St. Clair West stations on both Saturday, September 14 and Sunday, September 15.
It’s just the latest in a series of weekend shutdowns scheduled throughout the year that the TTC is attributing to ongoing track work along the line.
Shuttle buses will operate along the closed portion of the route during the repair work, and all stations along the closed stretch will remain open for passengers to purchase fares and reload Presto cards.
Regular subway service is expected to resume by 6 a.m. on Monday, September 16.
Full weekend shutdowns occurred almost weekly during the first half of the year, though the practice had been scaled back for much of the summer, with no full weekend closures since July.
However, there have been near-constant early closures, station bypasses, and single-day closures throughout the year to accommodate ongoing TTC state-of-good-repair work and construction work on Metrolinx’s forthcoming Ontario Line.
While frequent weekend closures have caused frustration in recent years, it’s the ongoing reduced speed zones on the TTC subway that have really ruffled the feathers of transit users.
Essentially, even if your stretch of subway is operating this weekend, there’s a good chance you’ll still be late if relying on the TTC, thanks to the rolling slow zones the transit agency has attributed to active repair work being done during service hours.
The current list of reduced speed zones shared by the TTC on September 11 includes a large stretch of the portion due to be shut down this weekend, evidence of the extent of work needed to bring this stretch of Line 1 back to a state of good repair.
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