Transit Toronto

Read the daily “on schedule” posts to find news and other information that affects your daily commute. You’ll learn about public meetings, special events and construction projects that affect transit services today.

Two men are spending time in jail after assaulting TTC drivers.

A man was acting in a disorderly manner on a bus operating along the 102 Markham Rd route Saturday, June 8. The driver asked the man to settle down. He refused and the driver then asked the man to leave the bus.

The man then struck the driver four times with an umbrella, resulting in minor injuries for the driver. Toronto Police Service officers arrested the suspect a short time later.

In court, Thursday, June 13, 46-year-old Varatharajan Ponnampalam pleaded guilty to a charge of assault. The court sentenced him to 120 days in jail and one year probation. Part of the probation order requires Ponnampalam not to ride that driver’s bus and not be on TTC vehicles or property with alcohol in his system.

Thursday, April 18, a man assualted a TTC driver working on a bus operating along the 123 Shorncliffe route. The suspect grabbed the driver by the arm as the bus was moving and demanded that the TTC operator drive him to a nearby liquor store. In court Monday, June 10, 43-year-old Anthony Savo-Sadaro pleaded guilty to a charge of assault. The court sentenced him to 25 days in jail and two years probation.

On average, at least two TTC employees are assaulted every day. The assaults range from punching, slapping and spitting, to threatening physical harm or death. The TTC’s court advocates work with Crown attorneys and the courts to secure the stiffest penalties possible for those convicted of assaulting or threatening TTC employees. They continue to seek ways to restrict those convicted of these crimes from using public transit in Toronto.

The City of Toronto and TTC continue their project to rebuild the streetcar tracks on Kingston Road between Queen Street East and Victoria Park Avenue.

Contractors are working on the project in two phases:

• In Phase 1, from Monday, June 3 until Saturday, June 22, they’re welding and storing sections of rail on the roadway. The TTC has replaced streetcars with buses and increased the frequency of service of buses operating on north-south routes crossing Kingston Road.
• In Phase 2, from Sunday, June 23 until December, they’ll start rebuilding the tracks.

The work includes:

• Installing new streetcar tracks;
• Modifying curbs so that they’re compatible with the TTC’s new, accessible, low-floor streetcars;
• Rebuilding the pavement on some sections of Kingston Road;
• Improving the “streetscape” by installing new trees, curbs and sidewalks; and
• Updating traffic signals.

During this second phase of the project, the TTC is revising bus and streetcar service along these routes: 12 Kingston Rd, 22 Coxwell, 22A Coxwell via Kingston Rd, 64 Main, 92 Woodbine South, 322 Coxwell overnight via Kingston Rd, 324 Victoria Park overnight, 502 Downtowner, 503 Kingston Rd tripper

This is the fifth summer in a row that buses have replaced streetcars along Kingston Road.

See:

• 2009: “Buses replace streetcars along Kingston Road, starting August 9” here.
• 2010: “Buses replace streetcars along Kingston Road during construction at Bingham Loop”, here.
• 2011: “Buses replace streetcars along Kingston Road until September 12”, here.
• 2012: “Buses replace streetcars along Kingston Road and Queen East, starting May 6”, here.

Also from the Transit Toronto archives:

• “A history of streetcars on Kingston Road”, by James Bow, here.
• “Venerable Bingham Loop”, by James Bow, here.

The TTC is repaving the bus loop at Greenwood Station, starting Monday, June 24.

During the work, it will detour buses operating along the 31 Greenwood route.

GO Transit is setting up a special “PRESTO Patio” inside Ajax GO Station, Thursday, June 20 and Friday, **June 21 from 5 until 10 a.m. and from 2 until 7 p.m. and Saturday, June 22 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

At the PRESTO Patio, you can learn more about using the PRESTO fare card and ask staff questions about the card.

GO Transit is resuming its seasonal GO train service between Niagara Falls and Toronto Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and and holidays from Saturday, June 29 until Labour Day, Monday, September 2.

The trains operate Friday evenings and several times Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, dropping off and picking up passengers at Union Station, Exhibition, Port Credit, Oakville and Burlington GO stations and St. Catharines and Niagara Falls VIA Rail stations.

GO is also again operating express buses carrying passengers between St. Catharines VIA Rail Station and downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake.

GO continues to operate buses along the 12 Niagara Falls / Burlington route seven days a week throughout the year. The buses meet trains operating along the 01 Lakeshore West line at Burlington GO Station.

GO Transit will again operate trains along the 65 Barrie line Saturdays, Sundays and holidays this summer, starting Saturday, June 29.

This year, it’s improving the service by also operating shuttle buses to and from Canada’s Wonderland. The buses meet trains operating in both directions at Rutherford GO Station.

Ontario Ministry of Transportation contractors continue to work on the project to upgrade Highway 427.

This week they’re closing the ramp from Dundas Street West to northbound Highway 427 from 8 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday June 18 until 6 a.m. Wednesday, June 19 and continuing overnight nightly until 6 a.m. Friday, June 21. (Gibbs Road is also closed during these times.)

This affects MiWay buses operating along the 11 / 11A / 11B Westwood, 35/35A Eglinton, 57 Courtneypark MiLocal routes and the 109 Meadowvale MiExpress route. Although the TTC has not announced detours, closing the ramp also likely affects service along the 191 Highway 27 rocket and 192 Airport rocket routes.

Starting tonight Monday, June 17 at 8 p.m., City of Toronto and TTC contractors working on the project to upgrade the street and install streetcar tracks on Leslie Street start blocking traffic lanes.

They’re working to build new tracks to connect the future Leslie Barns streetcar maintenance and storage facility to the tracks on Queen Street East.

Tonight, a construction team is installing “temporary traffic protection” — concrete barriers — and signs along Leslie Street in the northbound curb lane between Commissioners Street and Lake Shore Boulevard East. During this work, they’ll maintain one northbound lane for through traffic and one lane each for northbound right and left turns onto Lake Shore East.

This week, from Monday, June 17 until Friday, June 21, a construction team will work on underground wiring and other communication utilities at the intersection of Leslie and Commissioners Streets. This work requires them to occupy the centre northbound and southbound lanes on Leslie Street, from just south of Commissioners Street to a point about 40 meters further south. They’ll also install signs and lighting for the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

GO Transit is improving the platforms at Guelph Central GO Station starting after the morning rush hour tomorrow, Monday, June 17.

It’s placing the east half of the platform out of service until Friday, June 28 for paving. During this time, board and exit trains at the five westernmost coaches of the train.

Once crews have finished paving that area, GO will close off the west half of the platform from Tuesday, July 2 until Friday, July 12. During that time board and exit trains at the five easternmost coaches on the train. Crews will also pave the mini-platform will also overnight during the weekend starting Saturday, June 29; however, this should not have any impact on passengers service.

Tomorrow, Monday, June 17, GO Transit contractors start phase 2 of the renovations at Unionville GO Station.

This means that construction work shifts to the north side of the station and GO will reopen the south end, providing a new entrance to the station building, ticket sales and new waiting area.

GO expects to complete the entire project this summer.