All weekend subway closures in Toronto have been cancelled for the foreseeable future due to a lack of workers who can operate shuttle buses.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, which represents nearly 11,000 TTC employees, said last month that it would not be renewing a contract agreement in which members are allowed to work well beyond the 48 hours recommended in Ontario's Employment Standards Act.
This means that that TTC must either hire at least 100 new operators — immediately — or convince existing workers to put in up to 64 hours per week this summer.
TTC spokesperson Brad Ross confirmed to The Star this week that the closure on Line 1 between St. Clair and Lawrence stations this holiday weekend would not be taking place as scheduled.
As it stands now, all planned weekend closures will likely be postponed until at least July, when Ross says the TTC will have hired enough workers to bridge the gap.
Including last week's postponed service suspension on the same line, this would spell a total of at least seven cancelled service jobs for Toronto's subway system.
Awesome as that might sound to subway riders in the short term, postponing all this essential work will very likely lead to even bigger headaches down the road — including new, unplanned service suspensions and delays in finishing the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
Ross says that the TTC is making decisions about the closure postponements on a week-by-week basis, but it looks unlikely that we'll see much work being done on the system this month or next — unless a whole bunch of shuttle bus drivers materialize, and soon.
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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