Toronto City Council to consider priority bus lanes, removal of some on-street parking on Spadina

With travel times on Spadina Avenue tripling ever since buses replaced streetcars on the 510 route, the city has been scrambling to find solutions to make the commute less painful for drivers, transit users and cyclists.

Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Spadina-Fort York Ausma Malik has been promising solutions and mitigation measures following public outcry about the inconvenience to thousands who use the route daily. CityNews’ own Spadina Sprint, proved that walking from Spadina Station to Queen’s Quay proved faster than taking the bus. 

At the Toronto and East York Community Council meeting on July 10, Malik brought forward a motion to create a priority bus lane along the busy roadway.

Based on recommendations from the TTC and Transportation Services, the plan proposes temporarily removing on-street parking as well as the taxi stand on the west side of Spadina Avenue between Richmond Street West and Front Street West. This would then make way for a temporary priority bus lane in the southbound curb lane between Richmond and Lake Shore Boulevard while maintaining two southbound traffic lanes for general traffic.

The changes would stay in place until work on the streetcar right-of-way is complete.

An assessment by the Toronto Parking Authority showed that revenue loss from the removal of parking spots would be approximately $162,300 (pre-HST) for the period from July to December.

The cost to remove parking spots and add a temporary bus lane as well as reverse the changes once streetcars return is approximately $78,500 (pre-HST) and is to be funded by the TTC’s 2024-2033 Capital Budget.

The motion was adopted by the committee and will go before City Council on Wednesday.

Buses replaced streetcars on Spadina Avenue on June 23 to accommodate critical infrastructure work. Along with work on the rail tracks, upgrades are being made to overhead powerlines and preparatory work is being carried out to expand the Spadina Station platform.

One measure introduced on July 5 suspended bus service between Front Street and Queens Quay between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays to prevent buses from adding to and getting stuck in the heavy congestion on the south end of the route.

Buses now skip the stops at Fort York Boulevard and Queen’s Quay and instead turn left on Front Street, then right on Blue Jays Way, looping back around to Spadina to return to Spadina station.

The work is expected to take until the end of the year to complete and streetcar service is expected to restart in January 2025.