Most of the changes for the July-August schedule period are triggered by construction projects. The detailed list linked from this report now includes a chart showing the expected duration of all projects in progress.
The 172 Cherry bus is affected both by the seasonal service to Cherry Beach and by an extension to improve the connection with 72 Pape. The Cherry buses will now operate east on Commissioners to Carlaw looping via north on Logan, east on Lake Shore and south on Carlaw.
The Cherry bus has also been operating over its “standard” route via Mill and Cherry Streets through the Distillery District since June 21, although this route is occasionally blocked by parked cars that still behave as if the roads are closed and have no transit service. Recently, the westbound service changed back to the diversion via Lake Shore and Parliament because Metrolinx construction at the rail corridor makes bi-directional operation through the Cherry Street underpass difficult.
Water main construction was planned for Broadview from Danforth northward, but this project was cancelled after the schedule changes for July-August were already in place. Bus routes operating from Broadview Station will have slightly widened headways to allow for construction delays, and streetcar service will be replaced with buses on Broadview.
- 504 King cars will loop via Parliament, Dundas, Broadview and Queen.
- 505 Dundas cars will loop via Parliament, Gerrard, Broadview and Dundas.
- 504/505 Shuttle buses will loop via Queen, River and Dundas.
A concurrent project at Spadina & Dundas (described in another post) requires all 505 Dundas cars to divert both ways via McCaul, College and Bathurst. No additional running time has been provided in the schedule to accommodate this.
Construction work at Roncesvalles Carhouse requires the reassignment of some peak period runs to Russell Carhouse. On 512 St. Clair, cars will be stored at Exhibition Loop overnight, and service during some periods will be improved so that this storage is only required between 10pm and 10am. A 791 Roncesvalles Operator Shuttle will ferry operators to and from Exhibition Loop.
Articulated buses will be operated on the peak period express services on 53 Steeles East. Currently, one in three express trips operates east to Staines Road, but this will change to one in two trips. The combined service on the express branches will change from 4’45” to 6’00” in the AM peak, and from 5′ to 7′ in the PM peak. The local service to Markham Road does not change.
Steve Munro 
The Steeles East 53E express service will stop, on Steeles Avenue East, at yellow bus poles only. All other service will stop at the usual white painted bus stop poles.
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The changes to the 72/172 are even more puzzling or confusing than usual and this route (these routes?) appear several times in the tables. The split in the original 72 route – announced as being due to Union station construction – MAY be necessary but it removes the useful direct connection from “downtown” to Pape station. The schedules on the two halves of the ‘route’ (72 & 172) seem to be totally uncoordinated so few people now try to make a connection at Commissioners (and now Carlaw, apparently).
The ‘diversion’ of the 172 to serve St Andrew and King stations is a great idea and has greatly increased (or shifted) ridership as the bus now offers a fairly frequent alternative to the increasingly poor 504 streetcar for those living south of King. Several months ago the TTC told the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Association that the “new” route going along The Esplanade and then up (and down) Church from King/Wellington and to/from the subway would ‘most likely’ be made permanent – this met with pretty universal local approval as the older route via Scott and Bay was not convenient for many. To date they have not actually made this change official, they should do so. (On the construction page they still seem to think The Esplanade and Scott are closed but construction on both (except from Scott to Yonge) finished weeks ago. This is certainly not the City’s most important route but it does serve a useful purpose and constant changes to it do nothing to encourage ridership.
Steve: I was on the 172 today going from Bay & King (where the stop incongruously does not list the 172 as stopping there, but it can be flagged down) to the Distillery District. On this and other trips, I have noticed the degree to which this serves local traffic as an alternative to the King car, many of which don’t get past Church. The right turn off of King onto Church is a difficult one for a bus and it is only the relative infrequency of service that prevents this from being a major headache for the 504s just as the Spadina service is (was) at Charlotte Loop.
As for the lack of co-ordination with the 72 Pape service, yes, that really is a joke. It used to be a good connection from the St. Lawrence and Distillery Districts to the east end, but now it is useless. Thank you, TTC planning. Meanwhile, the bus I was on didn’t even make it to Cherry Street south of Lake Shore because it was short turned.
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In terms of the 72 & 172 split, I hope that plan is to “fix” that route to the original 72 all the way dt, after the Cherry St construction subsides.
I believe that Mtlnx as part of the Yonge Network study is looking at bus routing, and how it may be a good idea to route some of the inner suburb routes into dt directly, as opposed to just subway feeder services. Is the TTC undertaking a similar study? Considering how Metrolinx only has GO buses under their belt, I always found this curious.
For our family (and many others in East Riverdale and Leslieville), it has forced us to switch to using the subway exclusively to get dt, instead of the much more convenient (i.e. closer to get to), 72. If they want to reduce usage of the Y-B station, then it is important to have direct bus service to the dt. core
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There’s no construction on 96E route, but service has been reduced providing construction as reason!
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The TTC did not say that the construction was on the 96E route, only that there was City of Toronto construction. I am sure that some how the construction at Leslie and Eastern Ave. can be used to justify a schedule change on Wilson. It is also probably the reason VIA removed one train each way from the Sarnia and Niagara service.
Steve: Also, there are cases where the City changes their construction plans after the TTC has adjusted their schedules (see the Broadview Station service changes now in progress for a good example).
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