10/08/2026
Another Junction level railway crossing gets a subway
The St. Clair Avenue West grade separation project in 1931 was a major milestone in eliminating eliminated a dangerous level crossing where St. Clair Avenue crossed the Canadian National Railway tracks which had heavily divided the growing industrial district of West Toronto Junction.
This level railway crossing was a literal barrier for residents and dangerous which also blocked the expansion of cross-town streetcar infrastructure. A solution would be that the St. Clair streetcar went underneath 20 feet into a newly excavated underpass, often referred to historically as a subway.
By eliminating the tracks at street level, the Toronto Transportation Commission was finally able to extend through-streetcar service, and 1932, the St. Clair streetcar line was extended west through the new underpass all the way to Keele Street, terminating at the Keele loop just north on Weston Road.
On May 14, 1932, the Toronto Transportation Commission extended the St. Clair streetcar line west to Keele Loop, marking a major milestone in connecting West Toronto to the rest of the city's transit network.
Before the 1932 extension, transit service on western St. Clair Avenue was physically blocked by a busy, multi-track level railway crossing at Caledonia and west of (Old) Weston Road.
The streetcars could not safely cross these tracks and passengers traveling west had to disembark at Caledonia Loop, walk across the active railway tracks on foot, and board a separate streetcar at Prescott Loop to continue their journey toward (Old) Weston Road.
The city and the railway constructed large concrete underpasses to separate streetcar and vehicular traffic from the trains, with the Caledonia underpass opening in 1931,
This allowed the TTC to bridge the original gap and push the St. Clair line west to Townsley Loop, at (Old) Weston Road. In 1932, the St. Clair TTC completed the subway west of (Old) Weston Road Caledonia and Prescott loops were no longer needed; and the newly built Keele Loop became the primary western terminus for the St. Clair line. It was located just north of the intersection of St. Clair Avenue and Keele Street, situated on Weston Road.
This extension allowed for true, uninterrupted through-service across the city from Keele Street all the way east to Mount Pleasant Road.
Keele Loop also served the communities north of St. Clair, up Weston Road to industries at Avon Loop near Rogers Road.
