Traffic levels in Toronto are likely to be as much as 15 per cent higher than normal when the 2026 FIFA World Cup arrives in June, with plans underway to limit downtown parking, close highway on/off ramps and suspend some major construction projects.
Toronto will host six matches at Exhibition Place’s BMO Field between June and July, with fans of teams like Germany, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire set to descend upon the city.
A note from the City of Toronto’s manager to Coun. Josh Matlow, included on this week’s council agenda, shared brief details of the impact that will have on the city’s already gridlocked downtown.
Modelling completed earlier this year by city staff showed a 10 to 15 per cent increase in traffic on key downtown corridors. Those numbers will be highest for the sixth match in Toronto, which is a Round of 32 knockout.
“Staff have begun refining the modelling numbers to better understand the impacts to vehicular, pedestrian, cycling and public transit riders,” the city manager wrote in his response.
Toronto will table its traffic management plan around March, a strategy which will limit parking in the downtown and make it possible to close certain on/off ramps if they’re contributing to congestion around the stadium.
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The city will also create designated routes for travel to and from the games, where traffic signal modifications will be made to give priority to the direction of travel.
Matlow said he was worried March would be too late for councillors to make meaningful changes to the policy.
“FIFA requires a host city does have a traffic management plan, but they don’t have to provide that until March — the games are in June,” he told Global News.
“That’s, in my view, last-minute planning. I want to see them be proactive so that we as a council have an opportunity to demand revisions and improvements to it if they continue to have the blind spots they have had in the past, frankly.”
For months, there also appear to have been discussions between FIFA, the City of Toronto and the provincial government about the need to pause construction.
Documents obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws show the question of which Ontario government projects would be suspended during the World Cup was tossed around the Ministry of Sport during the spring.
The city said it would suspend or postpone construction projects that “directly impact” key corridors running between hotels, the stadium, practice facility and the airport.
Work on the planned Ontario Line and Ontario Place could both be within those areas, while the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension could theoretically be on airport routes. Other projects, like the Scarborough Subway Extension, would be unlikely to be impacted.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Sport said it would be down to the City of Toronto to decide which projects had to stop work for weeks in June and July. They said that the decision had not yet been made.
“As the host, it is anticipated that the City of Toronto will close roads near the stadium on match days for security purposes,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
“Accommodating these closures may require temporary pauses to nearby construction projects. Details on which projects will not be confirmed until closer to the event.”
Concerns about how the World Cup will impact the city were heightened after the chaotic scenes that followed the Toronto Blue Jays’ Game 7 defeat in extra innings at the Rogers Centre in November.
In that case, the TTC didn’t sufficiently extend its subway service and then also failed to correct communications from the City of Toronto suggesting trains would stop running before the game ended.
Metrolinx said it had held its trains as long as “operationally possible” but saw frustrated customers arrive at Union Station too late to use the service to get home.
“The city needs to be prepared for various eventualities when it comes to helping people get around during major events,” Matlow added.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
