by

Yonge Subway Tunnel Repairs Phase 2 Begins (Updated)

Effective Sunday, February 15, repairs on the subway tunnel liners between Eglinton and Finch will shift further south and the late-night turnback operation will move from Lawrence to Eglinton.

The 97 Yonge route will operate from Eglinton to Finch station stopping in Lawrence, York Mills and Sheppard stations enroute to make connections with east-west routes.  The late night extension of routes south to Lawrence Station will end, as will the 97F service via Yonge Boulevard.

Bus service will run every 3 minutes Monday to Friday, and every 4’30” on Sundays.  As in Phase 1 of this project, subway service will run through to Finch on Saturdays.

Updated:  An early plan to use the “special events” bay (the old surface terminal at the Duplex Avenue end of the station) has been changed.  Shuttle buses will use the regular terminal.

5 thoughts on “Yonge Subway Tunnel Repairs Phase 2 Begins (Updated)”

  1. Steve,

    How many buses are needed to take the passengers from one subway train?
    I remember that first weekend when the St. George-Bay tunnel/bridge/whatever was being fixed, part of the Bloor-Danforth line was closed and didn’t announce things for a while, so a few trains worth of people were up on the Street level.

    I seriously hope they do things a lot better this time with the replacement buses.

    Steve: In case you have been asleep for the past year, the subway has been closed north from Lawrence Station late at night for several months. What is changing now is that the tunnel repairs are moving south and Lawrence is no longer available for a temporary terminal. To avoid a lot of duplicate mileage extending all of the bus routes from Finch south to Eglinton, the TTC is running a separate bus service.

    The 4’30” headway on Sundays, 3’00” weekdays, tells you just how well used the North Yonge subway is at that time of day.

    Like

  2. Steve wrote: “The 4′30″ headway on Sundays, 3′00″ weekdays, tells you just how well used the North Yonge subway is at that time of day.”

    I’ve ridden this replacement many many times, and I’d just note it’s been crush-loaded quite a few times. I’m sure it could do with a couple of extra buses at certain times, although sitting in, say, the York Mills bus terminal at 12:30 am and watching the subway replacement buses *constantly* stream in and out is a sight to behold (especially while waiting for a 95).

    Like

  3. I don’t understand why the TTC didn’t separate the shuttle service from the 36/39/53/60 right away. According to January’s TTC Service Summary there were 10 extra buses on the 36/39/53/60 on weekdays and 9 on Sundays, in addition to the 6 buses on 97F. I would have left all of the routes as they are and used those extra buses solely on 97F, that would give it 3 min 45 s frequency Mon-Fri and 4 minutes frequency on Sundays. In addition, the service on 36/53/60 could remain at normal levels rather than be cut (for example 36 Sunday frequency was decreased from 9 minutes to 13 minutes.

    I guess the asumption the TTC was making was that everyone using the buses at night only go to the subway.

    Steve: Actually, the detailed report on the service for February 15 mentions that they have made changes based on experience with the original shuttle’s operation.

    Like

  4. Hi Steve,
    Are these TTC shuttle bus services express or local?

    The reason I ask is that I’ve taken these so-called shuttles (or so said the LED display on the bus) along Yonge when the subway was due to be running at 12:30AM on a Saturday morning and I noticed that the subway shuttle buses were LOCAL, they stopped at almost every other bus stop along Yonge! What’s the point of calling them subway shuttles if really they just a frequent 320 service?

    Steve: The buses will all run local.

    Like

  5. It would have been fun to see the old “special events” bay in use again. That leads to me to wonder what the status is on all of the projects planned for that site. Presumably the current terminal is still only a “temporary” one?

    Steve: The whole thing is bound up in debates about the land use on the old terminal itself, and the design for the Eglinton LRT station that will have to connect with the existing line. Once the Eglinton LRT opens, most of the bus service now at Eglinton Station will vanish. That “temporary” station will be around for many years.

    Like

Comments are closed.