Mid-summer is a quiet time for service changes, but a few are planned for the end of July. Major changes will come in September with the combined effect of the return to winter schedules and the implementation of recently funded service improvements.
Queen Diversion at Russell Carhouse
Work will switch to the west entrance of the carhouse making it impossible to operate streetcars east of Broadview. Service on 501/301 Queen will return to Neville Loop, but will divert both ways via Coxwell, Gerrard and Broadview. The 501 shuttle bus will operate from Woodbine Loop nominally to Broadview, but it will actually loop via Parliament, Shuter and River. The 501 short turn service standing in for the 502 Downtowner will run from Broadview Station to Wolseley Loop.
A summary of the schedules shows how the Queen service has evolved through the construction project.
Service on Kingston Road remains a bus operation to Parliament because of watermain work.
Carhouse trips for routes served from Russell Carhouse will change to operate via Gerrard, Coxwell and Queen to Connaught.
Harbourfront Route Construction
Streetcar service on 509 Harbourfront will be replaced by buses for the reconstruction of Queen’s Quay. Eastbound service will turn north at Spadina to Lake Shore, east to Simcoe or York, north to Front, east to Yonge and south to Queen’s Quay.
This operation will continue until spring 2013.
Bay Bus Extension
Service on the Bay bus will be extended from Jarvis to Sherbourne to add service to new developments on the waterfront. During peak periods, the 6B Bloor/Dundas short turn will be changed to 6A Bloor/Sherbourne so that more service is provided to the southeast part of the route. During off-peak periods, the 6 Dupont/Jarvis service will be extended to Sherbourne with no change in headways or hours of service.
Further changes are planned for September 2012.
Morningside/Scarborough Changes
Running times on 116 Morningside will change on weekends to improve reliability of the service. Daytime service on 86 Scarborough will change to match the new Morningside headways for a blended service on the common section of their routes.
Woodbine Beach Service
Weekend afternoon and early evening service on 92 Woodbine South will improve to handle summer demand to the beach.
Steve Munro 
Steve, did you ever see a list of the service improvements that TTC staff had in mind during last month’s Commission meeting? There were a few hints in the staff report (and this month’s report on Finch West indicates times when Finch West will see additional service, although not the magnitude of the increase), but I’m wondering if a complete list has been prepared.
Steve: There must be a list, but it has not been released publicly.
Woodbine South is an interesting case. On days like yesterday when there aren’t too many riders going to the beach, the service runs regularly and frequently, and you can get a seat because the service is a little better than what is needed for regular commuters. On hot days, the buses are crammed, which leads to slower service, long and highly irregular headways, and even fuller buses. One possibility could be to take that extra PM peak bus and use it as a floater to be reserved for the 92 on busy days, but to be reallocated to another busy route on cool days like yesterday. (Maybe that’s how it actually get used already — one of the first buses to be called off if there is a need for a spare bus elsewhere.)
Steve: The TTC tends to have buses scheduled as “standby” vehicles for peak period requirements (more in the winter than the summer), but not for seasonal demands such as travel to the beach or for events around the city. That sort of thing is handled on an ad hoc basis and depends on the availability both of operators who want to work and of budget headroom for the overtime.
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501s running into Broadview Station. That could become popular.
The Gerrard/Broadview intersection is going to become busy though with all the 501s running through there. It will be especially busy during the late AM and late PM peaks, when all the cars start to return to Russell. Hopefully they adjust the Dundas/Broadview traffic light, so it doesn’t spend most of it’s time in rush-hour on east-west instead of north-south – though realistically, I expect at times it will be faster to walk down Broadview from Gerrard to Queen than take a streetcar.
Steve: Adjust the traffic light at Dundas? Surely you jest! This has been a problem for Queen diversions every time they were implemented.
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Happy day! I am getting really sick of my bus/streetcar hybrid commute.
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Now if they could only extend the real 502 to Bathurst.
Steve: This would probably mean that most of the “real” 502s actually made it to McCaul rather than short turning at Church.
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I know I’m going to feel stupid asking this but since Russell carhouse and yard run north/south where is the west (or for that matter east) entrance?
Steve: There are three entrances (and exits). The westernmost is at the northwest end of the yard where cars can enter eastbound and leave westbound. The middle one (the east end of the “trailer yard)” is to the west of the division office, and allows cars to enter westbound (only to layover in the yard, not to enter it) and to leave eastbound provided that they originate on the yard tracks, not on the carhouse tracks which feed a separate ladder. The eastern one is at Connaught where cars can enter and leave in both directions.
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Steve, you say that as if it is a drawback. If we really wanted 502 service out to Bathurst, we could always lobby to extend the route to Dufferin!
On a more serious note, it’s something that should happen. Dumping all passengers off a couple blocks short of Spadina is so dumb from a service standpoint. At 20 minute headway, how many more vehicles would they need? One?
Steve: They really should have a 10 minute headway to match the evening service provided by the Coxwell bus. The 20 minute headway is hardly worth waiting for, and ridership losses over the years prove this.
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Hi Steve, I have been following the excitement on Queen Street East and Connaught Avenue construction and just for assistance, on anyone who is not familiar with the location, just check out with Google Earth or Google Maps and type in the location and zoom in.
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To all those commenting on the 502/503 route changes or the effects on the 501/504 due to the lack of 503 service please go an sign my petition posted here. The petition is linked to the emails of TTC CEO Andy Byford, TTC Planner Mitch Stambler, TTC Customer Service Chris Upfold the beaches City councilor Mary Margaret McMahon as well as CP24 and CityTV. I am trying to get more attention to our plight and your support will help. This petition (prior to online I submitted a hard copy petition of 97 signatures) has been featured in the Toronto Star, Beach Metro Paper and Town Crier but we have not been able to convince the TTC to let the 502 travel further West than Parliament. Please check it out. Steve – Any way this petition can be easily captured on your site for all to see?
Thanks,
Steve: It is already linked from your comment in the Queen East Construction News page, and I have added a hot link to your comment above.
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Have they finalized the details for the Harbourfront bustitution? It’s a week away and still no official word. Given the nature of the stops being replaced as well as the construction at Union Station, running as far east as Yonge and then following the 72’s looping at Union would seem best. Running up Simcoe would make for easy turns at Front St., but it would skip the eastbound York St. stop. Running up York St. would run head-on with the construction and traffic (pedestrian and vehicular) at Front. Using Yonge from Front to Queens Quay would only necessitate bus stops being added at Bay since those stops are on Bay St. itself.
Steve: The construction routing notice is up on Waterfront Toronto’s website linked from the Constructing Queen’s Quay page. This arrangement will change as the project progresses and it becomes difficult to maintain eastbound bus service on Queen’s Quay. At that point the buses will shift north to Lake Shore.
The route shown on that notice is different from what I saw at a Waterfront Toronto meeting less than two weeks ago, and I suspect that the TTC will be playing it by ear for a while. The second version is linked from the “more” tab in the “by transit” section of the Queen’s Quay page.
I will send a note to Waterfront Toronto and to the TTC asking them to clarify the two versions of the diversion.
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The discrepancy in routes could be that we’re looking at two different time-frames for the diversions. The two-way service along Queens Quay takes effect on July 29. I assume the one-way service takes effect in September after the peak season for Harbourfront. There will probably be more details closer to the date.
Will the looping north of Front for the 509 (and the eventual 6 BAY service from Union to George Brown) allow passengers or will the all be forced off there? It would help to disperse passengers if they could get on and off at other locations along the looping route. The YouTube video released by the TTC regarding the bus service on the 509 gave the impression that you could not travel beyond the designated Union Station stop on the north side of Front at Bay.
Steve: Given that the route will change in September, it probably makes sense not to have people get used to using stops on a loop that will disappear in a month’s time. Waterfront Toronto has already corrected their site so that only the current diversion route is linked.
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There appears to have been a stealth rerouting of the 508 in these service changes.
Was a bit later than usual this morning, and came across a 508 heading down Broadview and Queen a bit after 9 AM. Looks like they’ve changed the old up Parliament and west on Carlton/College back to Ronvesvalles to north on Parliament, east on Dundas, south on Broadview, west on Queen, west on King back to Ronvesvalles. Using the misleading 508 Roncesvalles & Queen exposure (confused me standing at Caroll and Queen!)
I thought it was just a stray, but this data seems to be in Nextbus as well now, including a map.
Steve: It is fairly common for the 508 routing to be changed in the summer when the cars are not running as extras on the Carlton route to handle university-bound traffic.
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