Toronto council to vote on long-term downtown transit closures

Station build for the Ontario Line could snarl car, transit traffic for nearly a decade

Published Dec 14, 2021 • 1 minute read

Detail of planned work and closures of Queen St. between Bay and Victoria, expected to close for 7 years to accommodate Ontario Line construction Photo by Handout /Metrolinx

How slow your downtown commute will be during the 2020s could very well rest in Toronto city council’s hands this week.

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Garnering some criticism at committee last week, council will review a report detailing road, sidewalk and laneway closures required to build the Ontario Line. The project would result in years of gridlock, including a four-and-a-half-year-long shutdown of Queen St. between Bay and Victoria Sts., slated to begin next May.

The report prompted members of the mayor’s executive committee to wonder if more could be done to lessen the closures. Transportation Services director Ashley Curtis assured the committee that plans for partial closures of Queen St. would do little to lessen the traffic impact and would extend the pain by over half a year.

“Essentially you’re taking Queen St. down to what would effectively be one lane only, so the traffic diversions you see under the full closure would still be occurring,” Curtis said last week.

Council, which begins Wednesday, will likely meet for the rest of this week.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume

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