The Queensway

, 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 1941 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 then–Township of Etobicoke desired to pay homage to the original name, while creating a counterpart to another street named the Kingsway. In Mississauga, the road is simply named "Queensway", with east and west designations on either side of Hurontario Street: Queensway East and Queensway West For Highway 427's southbound express and collector carriageways, overhead exit signs formerly showed the Queensway as "Queensway Avenue", while present signs installed since the 2000s use the proper designation. The use of "Queensway Avenue" 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. ==History==

What would become the Queensway in Mississauga was formerly the Upper Middle Road (or the 1st Concession South of Dundas Street). Temporary role as part of the Toronto–Hamilton Highway In 1931, work began to connect the former western section of Queen Street into the Middle Road across the Etobicoke Creek as part as the Toronto–Hamilton Highway that was the precursor to the Queen Elizabeth Way, which opened in 1937. In 1940, the present freeway alignment for the new QEW was opened to the south, and the road was given its present name the following year. Streetcar right-of-way The streetcar right-of-way (ROW) along the Queensway opened on July 20, 1957, together with the new Humber Loop, as construction of the Gardiner Expressway had forced the removal 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. 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. 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. On October 29, 2023, streetcar service returned to the Queensway right-of-way west of Sunnyside Loop. 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. (not to be confused with the aforementioned Middle Road and the 1930s crossing location today used by the QEW), most of which had been abandoned and turned into a hydro corridor. ==Nearby landmarks==

From east to west: Toronto • Roncesvalles Carhouse, TTC streetcar storage and maintenance facility • St. Joseph's Health Centre • High Park • Ontario Food Terminal • Palace Pier Park • Humber Bay Park • Cineplex Cinemas Queensway and VIP • Church on the Queensway (formerly named Queensway Cathedral), a Pentecostal megachurch • Queensway Health Centre • Sherway Gardens Mississauga • Mississauga Hospital • Huron Park Recreation Centre (north off of the Queensway) • Credit Valley Golf and Country Club ==References==