The Queensway
Queensway

Peel Regional Road 20
The Queensway within Toronto
Maintained byCity of Toronto
Region of Peel
City of Mississauga
West endGlengarry Road
Major
junctions		Mavis Road
Hurontario Street
Cawthra Road
Dixie Road
 Highway 427
Kipling Avenue
Islington Avenue
Royal York Road
South Kingsway
East endRoncesvalles Avenue / King Street (Continues as Queen Street)
Construction
Inauguration1947
Nearby arterial roads
← Dundas Street;
Bloor Street
The Queensway
 Queen Elizabeth Way;
Gardiner Expressway →

The Queensway (or Queensway) is a major street in the municipalities of Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is a western continuation of Queen Street, after it crosses Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in Toronto. The Queensway is a divided roadway from Roncevalles westerly until 600 metres of the South Kingsway (accessed by ramps) with its centre median dedicated to streetcar service. The road continues undivided west from there to Etobicoke Creek as a four- or six-lane thoroughfare.

After crossing the creek, it enters Mississauga under Peel Region jurisdiction as Peel Regional Road 20, as far west as Mavis Road, with the westernmost portion to Glengarry Road being maintained by the city. There is a road allowance with hydro lines, cutting into the Mississaugua Golf & Country Club on the shores of the Credit River. In the 1990s, the name Queensway was eliminated on the roads on this allowance west of the river. The street gives its name to Etobicoke's the Queensway neighbourhood.

Etymology

East of Dixie Road, the Queensway runs with a hydro corridor in its median.

The Queensway in Toronto was once named Queen Street and was officially the western part of the street in Old Toronto. There were three separate portions: the easternmost being a stub of the main section of Queen that continued west of Roncesvalles Avenue to Colborne Lodge Drive; a central section separated from it by a swampy area south of Grenadier Pond in High Park, running west of Ellis Avenue; and the westernmost running through the former Etobicoke west of the Humber River. The section west of the Humber was named the Queensway in 1947 to avoid confusion due to the break, but the name "Queen Street" was not restored after the present Queensway was completed to connect the sections of the formerly broken street. The most likely reason for this was because the Borough of Etobicoke desired a counterpart to another street named the Kingsway.[1][2]

In Mississauga, the road is simply named "Queensway", with east and west designations on either side of Hurontario Street: Queensway East and Queensway West

From 1953 to 1954, the Queensway was signed briefly as Highway 108 when it was under the-then Department of Highways from Highway 27 (prior to being renamed Highway 427) and the eastern end of the Queen Elizabeth Way.

For Highway 427's southbound express and collector carriageways, overhead exit signs formerly showed the Queensway as "Queensway Avenue", while present signs use the proper designation. It is unclear as to why the older signs used Queensway Avenue, but it was likely to avoid confusion with adjacent exit signs for the parallel Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) at the last collector-to-express transfer (and vice-versa), as after that point, the collector lanes had an off-ramp to the Queensway but no direct access to the QEW (with the express lanes being the opposite). In 2001, the collector lanes received a ramp to access the eastern QEW; nonetheless, there was no longer any need for the Queensway Avenue signage as the eastern QEW was re-designated the Gardiner Expressway as a result of 1998 provincial downloading. The old Queensway Avenue signage was still present mixed with the proper signs for a time after the downloading.[3][4]

History

What would become the Queensway in Mississauga was formerly the Upper Middle Road (or the 1st Concession South of Dundas Street).[5]

The Queensway in Mississauga

The section between Roncesvalles and the Humber River was built in the 1950s, in conjunction with the construction of the Gardiner Expressway. The Queensway was built before the Gardiner Expressway to provide an east–west route for traffic while Lake Shore Boulevard was rerouted to accommodate the Gardiner. The project cost $4.9 million. The project included a streetcar right-of-way in the middle of the Queensway from Parkside Drive to the Humber River.[6]

The section from the Humber River west predates the High Park section and was previously known as Stock's Side Road, and then Queen Street. It originally spurred off Lake Shore Boulevard (then known as Lake Shore Road) at the Humber River, but that connection was severed with the building of the Queen Elizabeth Way.

To build the Parkside Drive to Ellis Avenue section, the Metro government bought 7.3 hectares (18 acres) of High Park from the city. This was in contravention of stipulations by original High Park owner John Howard that the lands be used for parkland only. Metro officials searched for descendants of Howard to obtain their consent.[6]

During the post-2000 period, the Queensway has been subject to new condominium development, particularly in the vicinity of the Humber River. An attraction to this development is the proximity to downtown streetcar service.

Streetcar right-of-way

The Queensway under construction in 1956 as the "Queen Street West Extension"
The eastbound and right-of-way lanes, with a Flexity Outlook streetcar in the right-of-way lane

The streetcar right-of-way (ROW) along the Queensway opened on July 20, 1957, together with the new Humber Loop. Construction of the Gardiner Expressway had forced the abandonment of streetcar tracks along Lake Shore Boulevard between Sunnyside and the Humber River. From the intersection of King Street, the Queensway, Queen Street and Roncesvalles Avenue (KQQR), streetcars originally ran in mixed traffic passing the Sunnyside Loop to about Claude Avenue where the ROW began. (Since then the ROW has been extended between KQQR and Clark Avenue.) The ROW continued west to the relocated Humber Loop.[7]

On January 8, 2017, the ROW was closed in order to reconstruct the Queensway Bridge, carrying streetcar tracks over the Humber River, and to replace streetcar tracks and overhead wire on the ROW and at Humber Loop.[8] Streetcar service resumed to South Kingsway (with streetcars continuing without passengers to turn at Humber Loop) on April 1, 2018, and to Humber loop with passengers on June 24, 2018.[9][10]

At its west end, the ROW passes through Humber Loop running in a tunnel under the Gardiner Expressway to end in mixed traffic on Lake Shore Boulevard. In November 2017, the TTC issued a report recommending that the ROW be extended along Lake Shore Boulevard from the tunnel to Park Lawn Road, where a new Park Lawn Loop would be constructed. At that time, the TTC considered this to be a high-priority project. Extending the ROW further west was considered unjustified given projected ridership.[11]

On March 31, 2021, the KQQR intersection closed for track replacement and a redesign of the intersection. As a result, buses replaced streetcar service along the Queensway.[12][13] As part of the construction project, the ROW on the Queensway was extended from Claude Avenue to Roncesvalles Avenue. At Sunnyside Avenue, traffic signals were added to facilitate streetcar movements from the Sunnyside Loop. At Glendale Avenue, the westbound near-side platform were relocated to the far side, and both the westbound and the far-side eastbound platforms were widened for accessibility. Transit priority signals were installed at Glendale Avenue, Sunnyside Avenue, and Roncesvalles Avenue. At KQQR, the eastbound platform on the Queensway was replaced with a far-side platform on Queen Street, the new platform being similar to the "bumpouts" along Roncesvalles Avenue.[14]: 5  On January 25, 2023, the newly extended Queensway right-of-way opened to streetcars between KQQR and Sunnyside Loop.[15] On October 29, 2023, streetcar service returned to the Queensway right-of-way west of Sunnyside Loop.[16]

From late October 2023, streetcars have run in the Queenway right-of-way west from the KQQR intersection, passing Sunnyside Loop, crossing the Humber River and turning into Humber Loop. The Queensway right-of-way is used by the 501 Queen and 508 Lake Shore streetcar routes.[7][16]

Nearby landmarks

From east to west:

Toronto

Mississauga

  • Mississauga Hospital
  • Huron Park Recreation Centre (north off of the Queensway)
  • Credit Valley Golf and Country Club

References

  1. ↑ "East-West Roads - The Queensway". Etobicoke Historical Society.
  2. 1 2 "The Queensway". Etobicoke Historical Society. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
  3. ↑ "King's Highway 427 - Images". www.onthighways.com.
  4. ↑ cite web |url = http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/vintage/427/427_Early90s.html |work = www.onthighways.com |title = King's Highway 427 - Early 1990s images
  5. ↑ "Dixie: Orchards to Industry. p. 28" (PDF). Hicks, Kathleen. Mississauga Library System. 2006. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Award Expressway Contract Today for Queen St. Bridge Over Humber". The Globe and Mail. March 22, 1955. p. 1.
  7. 1 2 Bow, James (June 25, 2015). "The Humber Loop Interchange". Transit Toronto. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  8. ↑ "TTC 501 Queen route converts to buses west of Roncesvalles for 2017". Toronto Transit Commission. December 16, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ "TTC service improvements and changes". Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on April 11, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  10. ↑ "TTC service improvements and changes". Toronto Transit Commission. June 24, 2018. Archived from the original on June 25, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Waterfront Transit Update" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. November 13, 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Construction Update #2 (KQQR)" (PDF). City of Toronto. March 12, 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 16, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  13. ↑ "News & Construction: KQQR Construction". City of Toronto. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Improvements at The Queensway, Queen Street West, King Street West and Roncesvalles Avenue Intersection to Improve Safety, Operations, and Extend Bicycle Lanes" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. June 24, 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 18, 2020. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  15. ↑ "TTC service adjustments". Toronto Transit Commission. February 12, 2023. Archived from the original on February 11, 2023.
  16. 1 2 "TTC restoring streetcar service to Humber Loop, improving west-end service from Sunday". Toronto Transit Commission. October 27, 2023. Archived from the original on October 28, 2023.
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