These stretches of the TTC subway might be brutally slow during FIFA madness

With the FIFA World Cup just around the corner, certain Toronto neighbourhoods (namely Liberty Village and Fort York) are bracing for a major influx of visitors throughout the duration of the tournament.

While road closures and traffic restrictions around Toronto Stadium on match days are expected to cause headaches for drivers in the area, some TTC riders could also find themselves moving a little slower than usual, despite the City adopting a "transit-first" approach to mobility.

If you're planning on taking the subway down to a game or the FIFA Fan Festival, make sure to set aside some extra time for travel, as the TTC currently has several reduced speed zones (also known as slow orders) in place across Line 1.

According to the transit agency, these restrictions are proactively introduced when inspectors identify "small deficiencies" in the subway system. These "slow zones" effectively allow service to continue, but at a slower speed through the impacted area, while track maintenance and upgrades are completed.

While most of the track work is conducted when service ends for the day, ongoing track inspections mean that slow orders will likely be in place in different locations throughout the subway system at any given time.

Currently, there are five reduced speed zones across Line 1 that could add time to your trip.

One of the most significant is between Sheppard-Yonge and York Mills, where southbound trains are currently limited to 25 km/h instead of the usual 56 km/h. Another southbound section between Eglinton and Davisville has also been reduced to 25 km/h, down from 44 km/h.

Other affected areas include the northbound stretch between Museum and St. George, where trains run at a reduced speed of 15 km/h, as well as southbound from Dupont to Spadina, where trains are down from their normal speed of 57 km/h to 20 km/h.

The TTC has not yet provided a timeline for when these reduced speed zones will be lifted. Another stretch, from Wilson to Yorkdale, has seen southbound trains also reduce their speed to 20 km/h, but this restriction is expected to be lifted sometime in mid-June.

If you're wondering how much extra time these zones will add to your trip, the answer is that it really depends on how many slow orders are in place and how long each zone is. The TTC says that one reduced speed zone can add approximately one to three minutes to a subway trip, so if you're riding through multiple slow zones, your commute could be notably affected.

The transit agency says crews are "working as quickly as possible" to complete the track work.