For downtown commuters, it’s shaping up to be a happy holiday season, as there will be no more scheduled Line 1 closures for the rest of the year.

Two closures that were scheduled to take place over the next two weekends have been cancelled. Line 1 was expected to close from Lawrence to St. Clair stations from Dec 8-9 and again from Dec 15-16, but now, barring any weather-related disasters, the subway line will be running as usual for the whole month.

TTC spokesperson Hayley Waldman said the closures were originally scheduled months ago just in case the line needed to be closed for construction on the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit. As soon as they knew those closures weren’t needed for construction, they were cancelled.

Line 2 does have one more closure for the season: there will be no subway service between Victoria Park and Kennedy stations this Saturday for track work.

Shuttle buses will operate.

This marks the final subway closure for the TTC in 2018.

Travel on Line 1, between Dupont and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre stations, may be smoother for another reason this season: construction on the Automatic Train Control system was finished between those stations on Monday, and the new system is up and running. This is an upgrade from the older fixed-block signalling system, and means that trains along that 19-km. stretch should suffer from less issues with signal problems and should be safer and faster, according to the TTC.

Alexandra Jones is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @AlexandraMaeJ

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