If you use the TTC to get around, you might have noticed that there's been a long stretch of weekends with no weekend closures. Well, that stretch is about to come to an end.

Starting next month, commuters should brace themselves for more than three dozen weekends of no service along portions of the subway lines, according to TTC spokesperson Stuart Green.

Green told CBC Toronto Thursday that 42 full weekend closures are planned for 2018. Additionally, he said there will be seven late openings with service starting on Saturday around noon. All the closures from February to July are listed on the TTC's website.

"This year we have a lot of work being done on the automatic train control system and that's happening predominantly between Union and St Clair West," Green told CBC Toronto.

"The first closure is February 3rd and 4th and that will be a closure fully between St Clair West and Union.

Green said shuttles will be running between Spadina and St Clair stations but travellers are encouraged to look to alternatives on Line 2 and on the Yonge Street side of Line 1, the No. 6 Bay bus, as well as east/west streetcars on College and Dundas, and Queen and King.

Of the 42 weekend closures, Green said 24 will be to accommodate work that Metrolinx is doing on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line.

"Because of the nature of the work, it requires us to close subway service on 24 of those weekends," he said.

"What we will do we will take advantage of some of those closures to do some track and signal work in that stretch of Line 1 between Bloor and some weekends all the way up to Sheppard."

As for the thousands of travellers who will be displaced, Green said the important thing to remember about the closures is that it is essential work to do upgrades and to maintain a state of good repairs.

"The work we do over one weekend is the equivalent of five weeks of night closures. We do a lot of this work overnight when we close between 2 and 5 a.m. But that's only three hours a night. These weekends allow us to get a lot more work done," Green explained.

"The automatic train control system is hugely important to allowing us to increase capacity on Line 1. So when that's in place we'll be able to move about 25 per cent more customers when automatic train control is fully implemented by the end of 2019," he added.

Green said the TTC is aware that there are no good weekends to close the subway.

And he assures there are some weekends that there will be no closures because of large events.

"So the weekend of the Santa Claus Parade and the weekend of Pride will not be a full weekend closure. So we do accommodate wherever possible large events that we know about," Green said.