The TTC has been forced to revise its replacement bus plans for Queen street in the east end, where track work at the intersections with Leslie St. and Victoria St. is disrupting streetcar service.

Since construction began on May 11, the TTC had been routing replacement buses through the city core. But they were getting stuck in traffic, forcing long gaps in service, said TTC spokesperson Brad Ross.

Transit officials have decided to shorten the replacement bus routes, combine 502 and 503 service and terminate all buses at Church and Queen Sts. until June 1, when the Victoria intersection reopens.

There will be TTC staff at the corner of Church to help riders transfer back onto the 501 Queen car or direct them to Queen subway station, about two blocks away.

After June 1, buses will be able to travel a little farther west to Victoria, putting riders within a block of the subway station.

“It’s not ideal, but the service has been very poor in the east end,” said Ross.

“We’ve got full buses or people waiting 30, 40 minutes. To improve the reliability we’re combining the 502 and 503, turning them both back at Church St. so that we can get that going in a really healthy way,” he said.

During the construction, the 501 Queen streetcar will travel westbound on Queen, then north on Coxwell, west on Gerrard and south on Broadview. There it will travel west along Queen, turn south at Church and west on King before heading north on York St. and returning to its regular Queen route.

That’s a change from the original plan, which had the Queen car travelling along King to Spadina Ave., but ended up causing too much congestion at King and Spadina.

Eastbound streetcars will continue to run east on Queen, south on Spadina, east on King, north on Church and east again on Queen. At that point they will travel north on Broadview, east on Gerrard, south on Coxwell, then east on Queen to the regular route.

The TTC is replacing worn-out track and road at Victoria and Queen, where streetcars had been forced to navigate the intersection at slower speeds.

The Leslie construction is a much bigger project. Crews are building connection track to the new Leslie Barns streetcar garage on Lake Shore Blvd., to accommodate new TTC vehicles being launched at the end of August. That intersection will be closed until June 21.

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The TTC has added extra buses to the 31 Greenwood, 83 Jones, 72 Pape and 143 Downtown/Beach Express routes to help riders get to the Danforth subway during the Queen construction.

Queen and Broadview will also be closed from June 30 to July 27, while the TTC replaces the track and switches there.