Road closures, transit updates and more: Your World Cup guide to getting around Toronto

Road closures, transit updates and more: Your World Cup guide to getting around Toronto

Toronto to host 6 matches, FIFA Fan Festival, starting Friday. About 300K visitors expected

Getting around Toronto is a struggle at the best of times — now try getting downtown during one of the world's biggest sporting events.

Whether you live here, or are trying to figure out the city for the first time in the middle of the World Cup, take a breath — we're here to help.

First of all, the city expects congestion to be at its worst on match days between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Here's when those matches take place, and commutes will likely be most hectic:

The FIFA Fan Festival — which is mostly free admission — will also be held at Fort York National Historic Site and The Bentway, near Toronto Stadium (a.k.a. BMO Field), for 22 non-consecutive days between June 11 and July 19.

Things will kick off at the FIFA Fan Festival site Thursday night with a ticketed concert featuring The Beaches, Bryan Adams and more.

Now, here's what you need to know.

If you plan to drive, the City of Toronto has a message for you: please don't.

The city predicts the World Cup could add 10 to 15 per cent more vehicles to major downtown roads, where congestion is already a chronic headache, and Toronto Stadium won't have parking for fans.

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If that hasn't deterred you from driving, there will be several match-day road closures around Toronto Stadium and the FIFA Fan Festival you should be aware of, including part of a major downtown thoroughfare along the waterfront — Lake Shore Boulevard, between British Columbia Road and Bathurst Street.

Roads in Liberty Village, a congestion-plagued neighbourhood just up from the stadium, will be limited to local traffic. Roads in the Fort York neighbourhood will also be for local traffic only on all FIFA Fan Festival days.

Drop-off and pick-up locations for taxis and ride-hailing services will be set up at four spots a few minutes' walk from Toronto Stadium and the FIFA Fan Festival site.

Toronto Stadium is located near Exhibition Place on the city's waterfront, about three kilometres west of Union Station and the CN Tower, and nowhere near a subway station. But there are streetcar and GO train stops right outside.

And as the city is encouraging soccer fans to leave their cars at home, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and Metrolinx are adding extra streetcar, bus and train services for the World Cup.

If you are heading downtown to Union Station via the subway or the UP train from the airport, you can transfer to a GO train to get directly to the FIFA Fan Festival or Toronto Stadium.

Exhibition GO Station is right outside the stadium and one stop away from Union Station. Metrolinx says trains on the line will run more frequently for the World Cup, with up to six trains per hour during peak match times. To limit crowds, pedestrians will not be able to cut through Exhibition GO Station on match days.

A temporary transit hub has been added to Fleet Street, between Strachan Avenue and Fort York Boulevard. The 511 and 509 streetcars will detour to the hub, connecting fans to the FIFA Fan Festival site and Toronto Stadium, as well as Union and Bathurst stations.

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The city is also adding overnight service to the 511 Bathurst and 509 Harbourfront streetcars for any fans partying well into the night. (Ontario is extending last call to 4 a.m. during the tournament.)

Subway trains will also run more frequently on match days, operating until about 1:30 a.m., though last trains will sometimes run later.

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Other additional World Cup service on the TTC will include:

Unlike MetLife Stadium, the site of the final in New Jersey that Sports Illustrated called "a nightmare to get to" in its ranking of the tournament's host cities, Toronto Stadium is easily accessible by foot or bicycle.

And the city is encouraging fans to come that way.

For fans who use Bike Share to get to the venues, valets will be set up at key stations downtown to keep Bike Share docks free and ensure bikes don’t run out. Here's the locations:

There will also be free valet service for personal bicycles at Toronto Inukshuk Park for the duration of the World Cup, the city says.

Water fountains and public washrooms are being added around downtown between Union Station and Toronto Stadium so people can access them while biking or walking to matches or the fan festival.

Toronto Stadium is expected to host more than 45,000 spectators per match on match days and up to 20,000 people could attend the FIFA Fan Festival. The city expects about 300,000 visitors for the tournament.

Ethan Lang is a reporter for CBC Toronto. Ethan has also worked in Whitehorse, where he covered the Yukon Legislative Assembly, and Halifax, where he wrote on housing and forestry for the Halifax Examiner.