Transit Priority Measures to Support Transit Diversions During King Street West and Dufferin Street Intersection Closure

The purpose of this report is to propose a suite of TPMs to improve the speed and reliability of impacted TTC routes during the King Street West and Dufferin Street intersection closure and to make the necessary by-law changes to ensure the diverted TTC routes can operate effectively. The proposed changes include new 'No Stopping' zones, increased duration of existing 'No Stopping' zones, new turning restrictions, and increased duration of existing turning restrictions. The proposed changes aim to mitigate the impact on the 91,000 streetcar customers and 42,000 bus customers travelling each day on the routes affected directly or indirectly by the construction closure (based on Winter 2025 ridership). During the planned construction, the 504A King and 508 Lake Shore streetcars will divert to Queen Street West between Roncesvalles Avenue and Shaw Street. In addition, the 929 Dufferin Express bus will terminate at the intersection of Dufferin Street and Queen Street West while the 29 Dufferin bus will divert east along Queen Street West, south along Shaw Street, and west along King Street West before terminating at the intersection of King Street West and Joe Shuster Way. The 504A King and 508 Lake Shore streetcar diversion and 29 Dufferin bus diversion onto Queen Street West and Shaw Street will substantially increase the number of transit vehicle trips and customers travelling on these roadways. During the PM peak period, service will increase from 6-7 streetcars per hour along Queen Street West to 15-16 streetcars per hour on Queen Street West between Roncesvalles Avenue and Shaw Street due to the diverted 504A King and 508 Lake Shore routes. This number grows to 35-36 transit vehicles per hour on Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Shaw Street due to the diverted 29 Dufferin and existing 63 Ossington bus routes. This report proposes implementing or extending existing "No Stopping" restrictions on Queen Street West and Shaw Street to cover the periods of 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday to Sunday, to support streetcar and general traffic operations during the diversion. New turn prohibitions are proposed at the intersections of Queen Street West and Shaw Street, and King Street West and Shaw Street, to reduce delay to streetcars and buses at these intersections. Additionally, by-law changes to support turning movements and end of line operations of the 929 Dufferin Express and 29 Dufferin on their diverted routes are proposed in this report. As TTC operates transit service on King Street West and Queen Street West and will be operating along Shaw Street, Mowat Avenue, Liberty Street, and Fraser Avenue during the diversion, City Council approval of this report is required.

3. City Council delegate, despite any City of Toronto By-law to the contrary, to the General Manager, Transportation Services, from September 2, 2025, to December 31, 2025, inclusive, for the purposes of implementing and then addressing any operation and/or safety issues that may arise in relation to the project identified in Part 1 above, the authority to implement changes and submit directly to Council any necessary bills for by-law amendments to the schedules to City of Toronto Code Chapters on the streets and within the parameters as identified in Attachment 2 to the report (June 19, 2025) from the General Manager, Transportation Services.