The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is planning for full weekend subway line closures for more than half of the weekends in 2025, in order to complete a backlog of work.
In its 2025 subway closures and streetcar diversions forecast, the transit agency said it anticipates 38 full weekend closures of subway lines, which would take place over 28 weekends as closures on both lines can happen at the same time. That number is up from 25 weekend line closures in 2024.
A full weekend closure is when a section of subway line is closed "from the end of service on Friday night, to the start of service on Monday morning," the report said.
A full closure provides up to 50 uninterrupted hours of work, allowing for multiple work crews to do their jobs — the equivalent of about five weeks of regular night work, according to the TTC.
"TTC service diversions are co-ordinated internally, as well as with the City of Toronto, to keep the level of disruption to TTC customers and city commuters to a minimum," the transit agency said in its report.
Currently, the subway system opens at 6 a.m., six days a week, and at 8 a.m. on Sundays, with a closing time between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.
On weeknights and Saturdays, TTC staff have an approximately three-hour window to organize and execute work, and from Saturday night into Sunday morning, a five-hour period is available.
Extending work windows
The TTC also plans on using early subway closure times to complete work as they have done previously, and are also looking at lengthening the work windows during early night closures by pushing back the usual early closure time from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m., on some sections.
The average subway early closure cost is about $35,000 per evening and the average full, two-day weekend closure cost is $500,000 per weekend ($250,000 per day), according to the TTC report.
The cost for each closure depends on costs for replacement buses, advertising, and staffing. This includes operators, contracted customer service support staff, TTC staff to supervise the closure, paid duty police officers, and parking enforcement officers.
The TTC said in 2024 state-of-good-repair work completed included:
- Installation of 7,260 feet of track, six full turnout replacements, and 13 turnout major maintenance programs on Line 1 and 2.
- Two full turnout replacements and 3,400 feet of track renewal in the Wilson, Greenwood, and Davisville yards.
- Installation of 1,000 feet of rail fastening systems to cut vibration and noise.
- Re-profiling (grinding down) of 85,000 feet rail.
- Executing work to allow for the removal of 153 restricted speed zones.
Planned upgrades
In 2025, the transit service will be working on several projects including automatic train control (ATC) on Line 2, station finishes, pump replacement projects, more track replacements and upgrades, and installations required for a new Rogers cell service.
The trackwork also requires the use of "work cars," on which the TTC anticipates spending $35 million for work car overhauls as well as $62 million on buying new work cars.
The TTC's 2025 streetcar diversion plan is focused on being ready for FIFA 2026, with a particular focus on key King Street track intersection replacements at King and Church and King and Dufferin, along with the replacement of the Fleet and Bathurst intersection.
The result is streetcar diversions on the 504 King and 509 Harbourfront routes, according to the report.
