Ahead of a TTC board meeting on Wednesday, the number of weekend closures for 2017 has been announced and the amount is down compared to last year.

The transit agency has 35 closures scheduled between now and Dec. 3, according to a presentation that the TTC board will review on Wednesday.

The number of closures is fewer than last year, which saw 38 total closures.

Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) will be affected by 18 closures while parts of Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) will be affected by eight of the closures. As well, Line 3 (Scarborough RT) will be affected three times and Line 4 (Sheppard) will only be closed one time in 2017.

During the 38 closures the TTC saw last year, more than 5,000 metres of rail was replaced, 180,000 metres of signal cabling was installed and eight rail crossovers saw major maintenance.

The TTC does complete maintenance overnight but they say the short three-hour window, and six hours on Saturday, when the subway is not running is not enough time to complete the work.

“On weekends there are fewer customers travelling, so this is often the best time for full day closures to be used,” the TTC said in their report.

The TTC also added that each full day closure is the equivalent of approximately five weeks of night work.

The majority of the closures for this year are meant to allow an automatic train control (ATC) signaling system to be installed on Line 1. ATC is supposed to improve the speed of trains and ensure more reliable travel times for customers.

Line 1 will be shut down from St. George to Downsview stations a total of 11 times to commission and test ATC.

The TTC plans to have ATC fully operating on portions of Line 1 by the opening of the York subway extension at the end of the year.

The first closure of the year is scheduled between Downsview and St. George stations on Jan. 21 and 22.

The other closures fall on the list of dates below. However, the presentation did not specify which subway stations would be affected on each date.

Parts of Line 1:
• Feb. 25 and 26
• Apr. 1 and 2
• Apr. 8 and 9
• Apr. 29 and 30
• May 20 and 21
• Jun. 3 and 4
• Jun. 17 and 18
• Jul. 15 and 16
• Jul. 29 and 30
• Sept. 16 and 17
• Oct. 14 and 15
• Oct. 21 and 22
• Oct. 28 and 29
• Nov. 4 and 5
• Nov. 11 and 12
• Nov. 25 and 26
• Dec. 2 and 3

Parts of Line 2:
• Mar. 18 and 19
• Apr. 15 and 16
• May 13 and 14
• May 27 and 28
• Jun. 10 and 11
• Jul. 8 and 9
• Aug. 19 and 20
• Aug. 26 and 27
• Sept. 9 and 10
• Oct. 7, 8 and 9

Parts of Line 3:
• May 6 and 7
• Jun. 24 and 25
• Aug. 12 and 13

Parts of Line 4:
• Mar. 4 and 5