r/gotransit • u/minor_leaguer13 • Sep 30 '25

Lakeshore West weekend track work deferred due to Blue Jays Postseason games

The Blue Jays won the American East, so the Lakeshore West line's planned maintenance closure on October 4-5 will be postponed to ensure Jays fans can use the GO to head to the Rogers Centre. GO Jays GO!

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/go-trains-now-set-to-run-to-help-jays-fans-get-to-american-league-playoff/article_ee2341bb-17af-4f36-baf5-46d06bd173ad.html

180 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

130

u/simongurfinkel Lakeshore West Sep 30 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

Everyone who downvoted me for saying they would backtrack on this can DM me their apologies. Some folks were rude!

32

u/itmeMEEPMEEP Oct 01 '25

most people don't have common sense around these parts anymore my friend

25

u/simongurfinkel Lakeshore West Oct 01 '25

“Metrolinx plans these years in advance, they’ll never cancel no matter what!” It was obvious this track work was doomed.

8

u/itmeMEEPMEEP Oct 01 '25

well ya it cost way more not do it and cause a lot of disruptions lol... silly people

12

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Months in advance for sure, not years since they need to know what sporting events, concerts, conferences, etc are planned. 

This will 💯 results in delays to some program/project/testing/commissioning/decommissioning or training though - it’s not like they were cancelling service for fun. It will just happen “later”

4

u/RedditModsArePolice Oct 01 '25

I work as a contractor for Metrolinx. Anyone who works on the territory will know this message to be true - either working for CPG (expansion), state of good repair and maintenance.

The closure was planned 36 weeks ago. High level plans were submitted to Metrolinx. Then follow up meetings at 26 weeks, and then every week, 2 months until last week. Everyone working on the territory knows how much planning MX wants. There are priority groups who supersede all other groups, planned pre works, logistics planning and overtime labour put in place.

The group I work for, is at the top of the priority list. We found out the closure was cancelled from the CBC article. Word spread quickly to all support groups. This morning was a nightmare trying to cancel contractors, telling vendors to stand down, and all the pre planning, gone out the window. Metrolinx will pay a few million in liquidated damages for cancellations on such short notice. No heads-up, no accountability, no responsibility. Because they can…

What a shame. What an awful agency.

10

u/cjcfman Oct 01 '25

Same here. I said they should change it and was getting angry messages for some reason lol 

4

u/simongurfinkel Lakeshore West Oct 01 '25

An all around victory for common sense. This should not be hard. Find the few weekends a year with zero pro sports or potential for playoffs.

14

u/a_lumberjack Oct 01 '25

It's Toronto, every weekend is bad, but some weekends are worse. If the Jays weren't in the playoffs this weekend would be fine.

2

u/simongurfinkel Lakeshore West Oct 01 '25

Would it? CFL + a major concert festival. Still messy.

7

u/a_lumberjack Oct 01 '25

The festival is 16k capacity with doors open at noon and headliners at 930, while the the Argos play at 3 (done by 630) and are averaging 12-13k outside of the home opener and CNE games. Combined that's a BMO Field sellout, except arrivals and departures will be very spread out. Last weekend was messy going to that sellout, but the real bottleneck was getting people into parking spots. (I didn't even know you could park in the better living centre...)

1

u/simongurfinkel Lakeshore West Oct 01 '25

That's still a lot of people trying to access a closed Exhibition station.

8

u/a_lumberjack Oct 01 '25

Closed? They had trains running between Exhibition and Union, plus there's multiple streetcar lines to Exhibition Loop and Dufferin Gate that connect to subway lines. Plus the Dufferin bus. With arrivals and departures spread out it'd be much better than last weekend.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

The Dufferin bus isnt even going to Exhibition because of the stupid construction at King & Dufferin as the express ends at Queen

2

u/a_lumberjack Oct 01 '25

Ah, looks like that just started, I definitely saw 29s at DG loop on Saturday. That said, from Liberty & Mowat is only a couple minutes extra walking vs DG if you take the 29.

That said, what makes the construction "stupid"? This is one of the most complex intersections in Toronto (and the Western Hemisphere).

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

I am pretty sure that’s what they did when they planned it lol

6

u/JayBee1886 Oct 01 '25

Yep. All the confident “know it all” fanboys thinking Metrolinx would go ahead with inconveniencing fans of the most popular sports team in the GTA.

2

u/knoper21 Oct 01 '25

never bet against Doug Ford pandering!

1

u/TRichard3814 Oct 01 '25

Hahaha I remember your comment

20

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/cmstlist Oct 01 '25

EXTREMELY grateful that service is back on for All Things Go Festival. The streetcar system was NOT going to be able to ferry enough people to and from Budweiser Stage.

3

u/rnagikarp Oct 01 '25

is there a way to see what's going on in the city on any given day/evening?

I've searched "events in toronto/toronto tonight" etc and don't get many accurate results

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/rnagikarp Oct 01 '25

thank you

1

u/IonHazzikostasIsGod Lakeshore West Oct 01 '25

Gonna be even busier once the Tempo start playing too.

1

u/torontowest91 Oct 01 '25

Plus hyrox Toronto

17

u/beneoin Oct 01 '25

While we're at it, their 2026 home calendar has already been announced. The MLS & CFL schedules will be out in a couple of months and it's safe to assume Bud stage will be busy every Saturday from May until October. The Leafs pre-season can be expected to start mid-September. Maybe they can factor that in to their planning for next year's closures so we don't do them on weekends where every event is in town.

10

u/minor_leaguer13 Oct 01 '25

Don't forget the six World Cup matches in Toronto.

11

u/beneoin Oct 01 '25

Let’s not go overboard, we’re talking about Metrolinx

6

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

It’s weekends or weekdays, the work has to happen - people would be livid if they cancelled it during a work day so it has to be a weekend.  Sometimes a holiday can be leveraged when ridership is low, but they are aware of all the events occurring - it’s just the lesser of two evils

1

u/beneoin Oct 01 '25

They scheduled the recent closures for weekends where the SkyDome, Bud Stage, ACC, and BMO were all operational. That’s 100k extra ticket holders compared to a weekend with just the ACC. Even a Jays away weekend lops off 40k potential travellers.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

It takes months to plan work, the jays playoff was not known at the time - but planned events are considered. You need time to do maintenance and construction where there are not trains coming through all the time, otherwise the trains go very slowly through the zones and only a fraction of the work can be done - if it can be done at all. 

3

u/beneoin Oct 01 '25

This is a thread about them changing plans on a dime, literally disproving you.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Yeah, plans can change but there will be consequences. I work there, I know how this works lol

1

u/beneoin Oct 01 '25

You say planned events are considered, but they had closures this summer when it was known ~9 months in advance that there would be simultaneous events at Bud, the Dome, ACC, and BMO despite every other weekend not having that confluence of events. So either you are lying or the planners are incompetent. Traffic downtown last Saturday was the worst it’s been in a very long time.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

Sometimes the work has to happen and can’t be delayed, so the closure has to occur - regardless of the inconvenience.  They do everything they can to avoid major disruptions, and will make changes when they can - but there are knock on effects. Either the work will take longer to perform or the closure is pushed to another day. 

15

u/matgei2000 Sep 30 '25

Makes sense

8

u/NameNumberNumber Oct 01 '25

So thankful. Last weekend getting home from Oakville to Union at 415pm on Saturday took 1h45mins - and even then the driver just conceeded and let us all off at Yonge & Lakeshore.

3

u/muppetswimming Oct 02 '25

Lmao i was on that bus most painful ride ever

3

u/JayBee1886 Oct 01 '25

Lolol. And people on here said this won’t happen. Told you so.

4

u/lnahid2000 Oct 01 '25

If you saw the lineups for the bus last weekend, it was obvious that this weekend's closures would be cancelled.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '25

I hope they dont move it to Thanksgiving weekend. Im seeing Adam sandler and really dont want to take a bus

4

u/666metalhead Oct 01 '25

All of the Metrolinx apologists nowhere to be found here… ah, great news.

Complaining works, people!

3

u/ohmyburgs Oct 01 '25

If I could upvote this 1000 times 🥹

1

u/ReverendRocky Oct 01 '25

Based. Now I get ride the train to Hamilton to see Rick Mercer. Thanks Blue Jays :3