World Youth Day Preparations Announced

Plans for handling the hundreds of thousands of visitors attending World Youth Day have been announced. Details are available at the City of Toronto website, the TTC’s official website and GO Transit’s website.

Basically, the TTC will respond with increased service on all routes through all hours of the day, but there are a few special events to watch out for. The Pope’s arrival will attract thousands of well-wishers to the Exhibition grounds, and that means additional service on the 511 Bathurst and 509 Harbourfront streetcars, plus express buses from Keele station. The Papal Mass at Downsview on Sunday, July 28 will play havoc with traffic, as roads are closed, and the TTC runs additional service on the subway and express buses from Sheppard station. Not to be outdone, GO has additional service planned as well.

But pay careful attention to the Way of the Cross celebration. It will result in University Avenue being closed to traffic from Thursday, July 25 at 10:00 pm to Saturday, July 27 at 6:00 am. According to the TTC, on Friday, July 26, the exits of Museum, Queen’s Park, St. Patrick and Osgoode stations onto the west side of University Avenue will close down at 10 am. The east side exits for these stations will follow suit at 6 pm. To attend the Way of the Cross, the TTC recommends catching the subway at either St. George or St. Andrew stations, or corresponding stations on the Yonge subway. Whether this means the subway will run express from St. Andrew to St. George from 6 pm to the end of service on Friday (3 am the following Saturday) is not confirmed, but it will mean a significant disruption for those who use these four stations on the University line.

However, for all the TTC’s changes, the road restrictions are much more complicated and extensive. You would be doing yourself a considerable favour if you were to leave your car at home and take transit all next week.