The service changes taking effect at the end of July consist primarily of realignment of surface route schedules to match the 8:00 am Sunday opening of the subway system. This affects a long list of routes, and the new first bus times are given in the attached document. Some night services will be adjusted to match the earlier startup times of the corresponding daytime routes. Routes that are part of the Ten Minute Network will have their frequent service hours extended earlier on Sundays.
For the duration of the CNE, the 511 Bathurst and 509 Harbourfront routes will return to Exhibition Loop. Although the schedules provide running time for this effective July 31, cars will turn back at Fleet Loop until the CNE opens on August 15, 2016. A bus shuttle service will operate on Fleet Street until August 14. After Labour Day, service will be scheduled to end at Fleet Loop with a bus serving Fleet Street as at present. This arrangement is expected to continue until mid-November when construction at Exhibition Loop will be completed.
Steve Munro 
Nice. This would come to YRT’s attention.
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It’s good to have bus service to start a 8 o clock in the morning on Sundays because I’ve rode the TTC on a Sunday morning and lot’s of people even use the TTC around that time.
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This year, streetcars on the 511 Bathurst and 509 Harbourfront route will be using the Exhibition loop for the duration of this year’s Canadian National Exhibition, saving visitors to the fair the need to transfer to shuttle buses on a short stretch of the combination of these routes. However, after Labour Day, shuttle buses will return to Fleet Street and run until the middle of November, when work on the Exhibition loop is finally completed. This means that people attending this year’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair will still need to, when travelling on Fleet Street, transfer from streetcars to these shuttle buses on the combined “509 Harbourfront” and “511 Bathurst” routes.
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Hi Steve
I notice that in the latest round of service changes there is nothing to deal with the separate Queen / Long Branch service as it now stands. Does this mean that the TTC is to leave the routes split?
Steve: I suspect we won’t hear anything more on that score until the current diversion is out of the way in the fall. Meanwhile, service out on Lake Shore is spectacularly good compared to what the through-routed 501 provided. An updated review is coming soon.
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The construction at the Exhibition loop will finally be completed, on the weekend of November 19th, just in time for this year’s One-of-a-Kind Christmas Show and Sale at Exhibition Place. This means people heading to this late-autumn event won’t need to transfer to shuttle buses anymore, as the “509 Harbourfront” and “511 Bathurst” streetcars will run their full course.
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Some routes that aren’t listed here are also affected such as 50 Burnhamthorpe and 165 Weston Road North.
Steve: You are correct. The TTC did not list them in the summary of schedule changes I was working from, but that’s because the early Sunday service was implemented in mid-June in the previous round of changes.
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The TTC forgets stuff often. They should implement early Sunday service on 72B Pape, and 80 Queensway and extend the route east to Keele Station.
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In the early weeks of the revised route I’ve seen severe bunching on the 72 on Sunday mornings including convoys of 3 buses on a theoretical 9 minute headway.
Steve: There is a problem with early mornings on weekends when it is not unusual for buses to enter service late and early service to be screwed up as a result.
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Also the TTC forgot to put late evening service 7 days a week for 115 Silver Hills because it was mentioned in a report.
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This past Sunday, July 31st, I took a ride on the “511 Bathurst” streetcar. Streetcars returned to this route, after six weeks of using shuttle buses. However, a few shuttle buses remained, so to provide extra service on that route for people heading to the activities related to the Caribbean Carnival. This was also the day that HorseCapades. This is a free interactive event at the Horse Palace, happening in the two or three weeks before the opening of the CNE.
For a short period, from August 15 to September 5 (Labour Day) – the “CNE Break” – streetcars on both the “509 Harbourfront” and “511 Bathurst” routes will be using the Exhibition Loop. After that day, these streetcar routes will be turning back again at the lighthouse loop on Fleet Street, as construction resumes at the Exhibition Loop.
In recent years, I’ve used the combination of these (streetcar) routes to get to Harbourfront Centre (when there was TTC track work on Spadina Avenue for much of 2012).
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A week ago, streetcars made their triumphant return to the “511 Bathurst” route, after shuttle buses have been running on that route for more than a month.
In a few days time, the Canadian National Exhibition begins, running from August 19 to September 5, and the TTC is the popular choice of transportation. Many people heading to the popular late-summer event will be taking the TTC, including the venerable “511 Bathurst” streetcar to get there, which will run its full course, from Bathurst station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line, southbound on Bathurst street and then westbound along Fleet Street, to the Exhibition loop. As lots of people are expected to attend the “Ex”, there will be increased service on this route – both CLRVs and the double-length ALRVs.
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This is diverging from your post topic, but since the CNE has been brought up…
Will there be a proper transfer connection between GO and the 509/511 during this year’s CNE?
I recall 10 years ago there was a fenced off corridor to the streetcars from Exhibition GO platforms. A few years later that corridor was removed, but TTC staff were on hand at the Ex entrance and would let you in to make the transfer. My most recent experience about three years ago was that a transfer between the two systems at Exhibition was banned. You had to pay the entry fee to the Ex to do it. This seems absurd given the residential growth in the area. It means even residents of Liberty village are cut off from the 509 and 511 there. Is this practice going to continue? Is it deliberate to stop people from making this transfer at evening rush hour because of capacity issues?
Steve: It has nothing to do with capacity, and everything to do with ignoring the fact that Exhibition Loop and Station now serve considerably more than the CNE itself.
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More than two weeks ago – July 31st – streetcars returned to the “511 Bathurst” route, and yesterday – August 14th – the “511 Bathurst” and “509 Harbourfront” streetcars began running the full length of their respective routes to the Exhibition loop via Fleet Street. This service change comes a few days ahead of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), which runs from August 19 until September 5, 2016, and would save people heading to the CNE the transfer to shuttle buses.
Yesterday, I rode the “511 Bathurst” streetcar down to Fleet Street, to go to Historic Fort York to see “First World War Comes to Life”. I was surprised not to see any shuttle buses on part of the “511 Bathurst” and “509 Harbourfront” routes.
After the CNE is over, streetcars on the “511 Bathurst” and “509 Harbourfront” routes are turned back once again at the “lighthouse loop” on Fleet Street near Remembrance Drive. Also, shuttle buses serving the Fleet Street portion of these routes – between Bathurst Street and the Exhibition Loop – make their return and run until construction is complete at/around the Exhibition Loop; expected date is mid-November, in time for the One-of-a-Kind Christmas Show and Sale.
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