Updated August 15, 2016: The detailed table of service changes has been added to this article.
September 2016 will see a return to the “winter” schedules on most TTC routes. Despite talk of service cuts in the budget process, the new schedules include some improvements to correct for operational problems on a few routes, and to better handle existing demand. The scheduled mileage for September is actually above the budget level due to greater than anticipated requirements for diversions and extra vehicles to deal with construction projects.
Subway and RT Service
Effective in September, the St. Clair West short turn operation on 1 Yonge-University-Spadina will be extended north to Glencairn during the AM peak. Schedules will be adjusted to reflect actual operating conditions, but headways will remain at the winter level of 2’21”. The total trains in service will rise from 50 to 54. (Service on this line was not cut for summer 2016.)
Service on the 2 Bloor-Danforth will return to fall levels after the summer cuts.
Reduced peak service on the 3 SRT with 5 trains on a 5’00” headway will continue into 2017 to allow renovation of the fleet. Service on 131 Nugget will be improved to compensate for the lost capacity on the SRT.
Streetcar Services
506 Carlton service will continue a split bus/streetcar operation on weekdays, with full bus operation on weekends, due to watermain and streetscape work by the City at both ends of the route. Buses will operate over the regular 506 route (ending at Keele Station in the west) as diversions around construction are no longer needed.
514 Cherry service will be improved during the midday from 15′ to 10′ by the addition of three cars. This change does not address problems with inadequate running time on the route. The additional service is considered as “temporary” pending conversion of the line to Flexity operation in mid 2017.
512 St. Clair streetcar service will return from St. Clair West Station to Keele (Gunn’s Loop). Bus operation will continue between Oakwood Loop and St. Clair Station, and it will load on street at St. Clair West Station because the east ramp remains under construction. 126 Christie and 33 Forest Hill will continue to operate as a single route for the same reason. 90 Vaughan buses will return to St. Clair West station.
502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Road Tripper will continue to operate with streetcars.
509 Harbourfront and 511 Bathurst will revert to using Fleet Loop as their western terminus pending completion of construction at Exhibition Loop.
504 King will return to a mix of bus and streetcar operation with buses for peak period trippers. This situation is expected to continue until mid-2017 and the arrival of more new streetcars.
501 Queen service will be modified on Lake Shore Blvd. with additional running time and one extra car during peak periods and early evenings to compensate for traffic congestion.
Eglinton Crosstown Construction
Service on four routes will be changed to limit the effects of construction on Eglinton.
34 Eglinton East will gain additional branches, and will take over some of the service now provided by 100 Flemingdon Park.
- 34A buses will run from Eglinton Station to Kennedy Station as at present.
- 34B buses will run from Don Mills Road to Kennedy Station. The western loop will be via north on Don Mills, then east and south on Wynford Drive to Eglinton. (Morning and afternoon on Saturdays only.)
- 34C buses will run from Eglinton Station to Flemingdon Park. They will loop through Concord Place and then run south via the same route as 100 Flemingdon Park to Spanbridge Road. Here the buses will turn east and return north via the Flemingdon Park via Linkwood routing to St. Dennis Drive.
100 Flemingdon Park will operate all service on the 100A to Don Mills & Wynford branch. Service on 100B via Linkwood and 100C to Eglinton Station will be replaced by the revised Eglinton East bus service.
Routes 103 Mt. Pleasant North and 74 Mt. Pleasant will be consolidated into a single route 74 Mt. Pleasant between Doncliffe Loop and St. Clair Station.
Other Construction-Related Changes
With the completion of reconstruction of the Broadview Station bus roadway, all routes will revert to using the station in place of the on street loop used since late June.
The 41 Keele service will be changed to enter York U campus via the York U Busway to avoid congestion on Keele Street caused by TYSSE construction.
The 47 Lansdowne bus will revert to its standard route with completion of work at College Street.
The 71 Runnymede bus will revert to its standard routing with the completion of water and road works between Lambton and Eglinton. The schedules on 71 Runnymede and 77 Swansea will be adjusted to reflect actual operating conditions peak periods and weekday middays, and interlined operation between these routes will cease.
Other Changes
Weekday daytime service to Cherry Beach provided by 121C Fort York-Esplanade will end with all buses operating as 121A to the Distillery District. Evening and weekend service will continue to be provided to the beach. This is the same arrangement as used in past years for Cherry Beach service by routes 72 and 172.
The 191 Highway 27 Rocket will be restructured with two branches: 191C to Humber College via Atwell Drive and 191D to Steeles via Royalcrest (peak only).
New express stops will be added on some routes:
- 195 Jane Rocket will stop at Exbury Road/Chalkfarm Drive and at Grandravine Drive/Frith Road.
- 24E Victoria Park Express will stop an Gordon Baker Road and at Consumers Road.
- 186 Wilson Rocket will stop at Westhumber Boulevard and Martin Grove Road to improve transfer connections with 46 Martin Grove.
The 134 Progress bus will be temporarily rerouted to avoid delays by CPR at a level crossing on Tapscott Road between McNicoll Avenue and Newgale Gate. Service will be diverted via Finch Avenue East and Markham Road and headways will widen from every 20 minutes to every 24 minutes. Four bus stops on Tapscott will be removed from service.
Summer service levels will remain on 198 UTSC Rocket “due to a scheduling error” (TTC’s words). This will be corrected in the next set of schedules after Thanksgiving.
New Route Numbers
To make room for 5 Eglinton Crosstown, the Avenue Road bus will now use route number 13.
The Bathurst Night Bus will now use route number 307 to match the daytime service.
Steve Munro 
Steve – in the Crosstown service plan, isn’t the Bathurst 7 being renumbered? If the 7 will be renumbered, then it makes sense that the 307 will have to be renumbered – again. If they are renumbering the 5 to 13, then why not renumber the 7 at the same time, and avoid this headache down the road?
Steve: I just report what the TTC has sent out.
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Am I reading correctly that there will be service overlap on St Clair between St Clair West Station and Oakwood — both buses and streetcars?
Steve: Yes. Because the east ramp at St. Clair West is still under construction, the buses have no place to turn around. The first chance is Oakwood Loop.
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I wonder how a through service on Mt. Pleasant will be received/used by local residents.
Steve: When the TTC has looked at this before, the demand pattern from north of Eglinton has always been oriented to Yonge/Eglinton, not Yonge/St. Clair. However, construction at Mt. Pleasant Station makes the south to west turn there very difficult, and that’s why the two routes are being linked.
In my end of town, I lose the direct, one-seat ride from Broadview Station to North Toronto which I use quite regularly. Sniff. I will have to start writing articles about how this is an onerous, thoughtless imposition and how I deserve a subway.
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Chris, the route “7” LRT unfortunately won’t be built for years, yet, so the TTC still has time to wait before renumbering 6 BAY and 7 BATHURST.
Also, it may be possible that the route 3 SRT will have disappeared, so perhaps the new LRT route could slip in there?
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Where’s the PDF?
Steve: If you read the little introduction, it says I have to work on formatting the info.
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Steve! You deserve a SUBWAY? How could you forsake your swans?!?
Steve: I didn’t say anything about motive power. Swan UBoats, with black swans of course!
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Half of St. Clair is being operated by buses, part of Carlton and parts of Bathurst and Harbourfront and they still do not have enough street cars to operate all of King? what happens when all the construction is finished?
Steve: Bathurst and Harbourfront only account for a few buses, and they have decided to leave the streetcars on Kingston Road (they were buses earlier in 2016). I agree that there is no excuse for King having mixed service, although it is possible that they have let the working, active fleet dwindle with so many lines on bus operation. Bombardier is killing our streetcar system bit by bit.
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James – thanks for the comment about the 7. But if I recall correctly, the Crosstown plans (sorry – couldn’t find Steve’s post that listed them) called for the 7 to be renumbered to the ….I think it was 18. So, even if there isn’t an immediate need for the numbers 6 & 7, it sounds like the process of renumbering the routes by the time the Crosstown is open (insert joke here) is underway.
Steve: The report containing the new route layout shows that Bathurst will become route 19. The new numbers for 6 Bay, 8 Broadview and 9 Bellamy, if any, are not listed.
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It is interesting how they planned the route restructuring in Flemingdon Park.
1) With 34C, it is understandable that they want to serve Deauville Lane/Grenoble Drive first before serving Linkwood Drive, since Deauville/Grenoble has more riders. However, with this arrangement you will have southbound buses along Deauville/Grenoble going to Broadview Station (100A) and Eglinton Station (34C) and northbound buses going to Eglinton & Don Mills (100A). I wouldn’t be surprised if riders heading anywhere on Eglinton will be running across the street to get whichever Eglinton Ave bound bus comes first. Wouldn’t it be better if they ran 34C clockwise to have all the Eglinton Ave bound buses serving the northbound stops on Deauville/Grenoble?
2) I wonder how riders on Linkwood will feel when they find out their service will be switched from Broadview Station to Eglinton Station?
3) It looks like Broadview Station will have a spare bus bay now since there will only be one branch of 100.
As for Mt Pleasant, there are times, mainly during the day, when 103 has more service than 74. 103 has 20 minute service during the day 7 days a week, while 74 has 30 minute service outside of peak periods. However, I’m not sure if 103 warrants the 20 minute service or if it is just there because 1 bus can’t provide 30 minute service. I’m curious to see if service north of Eglinton will drop from every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes or if service south of Eglinton will improve to every 20 minutes at those times.
Steve: Service on the combined 74/103 lines will be every 15′ AM peak, 18′ PM peak, 20′ otherwise on weekdays. On weekends it will be 20′ at all periods except early Saturday morning when it will be 30′.
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The new 34B route between Don Mills Road and Kennedy Station seems illogical. I would expect that most people would want to go to Eglinton Station rather than eastward to Kennedy Station in the morning rush. Or is there a heavy demand between Don Mills Road and Kennedy Station?
Steve: Read the article. It runs ONLY on Saturdays during the daytime when the demand pattern is different.
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Not sure if this is an error on your part or just another wierd TTC decision, but why is the 506 going back to Keele Station in September when they just moved it to High Park Station on August 8th?
Steve: The High Park move must be an ad hoc temporary arrangement. It is not included on either the TTC’s website nor in the Service Memo which both show Keele as the western destination. This may have something to do with construction in progress at the station.
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This batch of service changes should be interesting.
512 St. Clair
1. The Oakwood-StCW Station leg of the route is very heavily used with frequent pass-ups EB in the AM peak. It is possible that with the bus/streetcar overlap there is actually sufficient service for the first time since I have lived in this neighbourhood. This is, of course, factoring in the game of frogger as riders try and jump between the bus stops and streetcar stops.
2. WB from StCW Station, I would like to believe that there will be a regular dispatch of streetcars that makes this trip smoother than ever. Putting aside that wishful thinking, I suspect that there will be many cases where riders leave the subway and start guessing whether the streetcar (in the loop, below ground) or the bus (on the street) is the better option. I wish that the Pattison screen in the loop would distinguish between the arrival time of buses and streetcars to help riders make a decision.
74/103 Mt. Pleasant
I regularly ride the 103 from Eglinton Station to/from Sherwood (3 stops north of MtP&Eg). From my experience, the majority of riders use the Broadway and Erskine stops that serve high density tower communities. When headed NB on the 103 I’ll typically leave Eg Station with 15-20 riders and there are only 2-3 when I alight at Sherwood. I cannot speak to the ridership past that point. I would love to see the TTC’s ridership analyses of the route, to see the extent to which they match or conflict with my observations.
I know that with the Crosstown the plan is to continue to run the 103 to Yonge Street, but I wondered how many of the riders using Broadway and Erskine would still use an infrequent bus instead of walking a few blocks south to the Crosstown. This has been making me think that a through-route on Mt. Pleasant might be more useful for trips that are not otherwise well-served. Bearing in mind that the state of transit on Eglinton will not be the same in the construction-era as in the LRT-era, it will be interesting to see how many people actually take advantage of a N/S route from St. Clair up past Lawrence. On the whole, this looks like an important bump in service along MtP that *might* even attract riders.
Insufficient streetcar fleet
I’m missing something. When at Leslie Barns for Open Doors a few months ago, I was told that only a few of the CLRVs had been scrapped while most remain available for service. Is anyone following the fleet counts to confirm or refute this? I understand the questions of reliability of the aging fleet, the costs of re-builds, and whatnot, but even with these factors it seems to me that with Bombardier’s slow trickle of Flexities the streetcar fleet should be GROWING. And I mean not only in capacity, but also in absolute numbers of vehicles. Is this not happening?
Steve: Assuming all of the cars in the fleet are otherwise available, there should be 195 CLRVs, 52 ALRVs, and 22 LFLRVs. However, the spare factor on these is at least 20% reducing the numbers to 162, 43 and 18 respectively. In fact the spare factor for the old cars is higher given that the ALRVs are in the midst of a rebuild program, and I am quite sure there are some cars that never leave the yard. The total scheduled vehicles is about 190 at peak for a spare factor of 40%. Watching the system online, I have seen as many as 18 of the 22 LFLRVs in service concurrently (a 22% spare factor, which is not bad for a new, small fleet).
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How many Flexities are on the system and accepted by the TTC and has Bombardier got the assembly line working properly yet?
Steve: There are 22 cars in service: 4400-4423 excepting 4401-2. As for Bombardier, they are saying they won’t be up to scratch until the end of the year. I have a nice bridge for sale to anyone who believes them.
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Steve, would you be able to provide more info on the 191 Highway 27 Rocket restructuring? Do you mean service to Steeles via Royalcrest would only exist during peak hours.
Steve: Here is the text from the Service Memo:
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Steve, thanks for the info for the 191 Highway 27 Rocket. The article wasn’t as clear to me that the restructuring only occurs during peak periods. I’m pretty sure that Atwell Drive is getting too much service. This change would be welcoming to most riders during that time but the change of branch lettering would add confusion. As I often travel to Kipling Station, I notice everyone just jump on the next available 191 bus as only one service is available at anytime (Except the 6 191A short turn trips around 9am during the school year). Now people would actually need to look at the destination sign.
From the times I have ridden the 34, I always noticed that majority of the riders are either riding between Eglinton Station and Laird Dr or between Victoria Park and Kennedy Station. The TTC is well aware of the much lower ridership through the Don Valley. Running the 34B and 34C at most times would actually justify. Many times buses are stuck in the Yonge/Eglinton area with nothing in the east end. I feel that the 34B would offer some relief to those riders. I believe most riders would rider head down to the B-D line oppose to heading to Eglinton Station, especially in rush hour.
Steve: As I noted in a previous reply, the 34B will only operate on Saturdays.
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According to amateur trackers, at least 15 CLRVs and 6 ALRVs are retired, as in not coming back, and quite possibly scrapped already. And those numbers may be out of date. And other cars are listed as “missing in action”: their retirement hasn’t been confirmed, but they haven’t been out for weeks or months.
A lot of CLRVs are starting to look like the PCCs were at the end of their life, with bands of rust at body seams, and sometimes even holes. Considering the PCCs were 35 years of age or less at the first big wave of retirements in the early 1980s, the CLRVs have done well. Five of the six original Swiss-built cars are still in service, 35 or more years after delivery.
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I suspect the 506 is diverting to High Park station because the fare gate construction requires passengers exiting at Keele to walk out through the bus exit, which has narrowed the roadway and made it more difficult for bus traffic. I suspect it will continue until that work is done, whenever that is.
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It’s nice to see 103 and 74 Mount Pleasant to be consolidated because those 2 routes are just short routes and should be one single route.
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Are there 511/509 buses returning to Exhibition when streetcars are cut back to fleet loop?
Steve: Yes. Same schedule as in May 2016 except for the garage change to Queensway.
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Are there any bus routes being shifted between bus garage?
Steve:
106 York U moves from Wilson to Arrow Road.
509 Harbourfront Shuttle moves from Wilson to Queensway.
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On the talk of the 74/103 merger, Steve, I guess this move needed to be done due to construction at Mt. Pleasant Stn. Let’s see if they get split again when the Crosstown is in operation according to the maps, otherwise this change could be permanent.
Steve: It is referred to as a “temporary” hookup of the routes in the service memo.
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Its nice to finally see the St. Clair West short turn extended to Glencairn. Its been discussed on this site many times over the years, its nice to finally see the TTC implement this change.
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The July 4 roster in the July 31 Service Summary says only 182 CLRVs and 47 ALRVs remain. Rumour has it is down to 181 and 46. So at least 13 CLRVs and 5 ALRVs have already been officially retired. Assuming a couple more retired since there’s about 249 available … which makes the spare ratio closer to 0.24 rather than 0.40.
Steve: Thanks for catching that. I had not been checking to see if they had “officially” reduced the fleet count to account for retirements.
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With only 22 coming in, the fleet size seems to be staying the same (despite larger vehicles = slowly growing capacity). AAAGGGHHH! Were the TTC not constantly starved for money, more of these could be rebuilt and returned to functional service. Then the relief buses could be transferred to overcrowded bus routes. Among the crowd opining here, the move is straightforward and obvious. Unfortunately, Mayor “Slash n’ Burn but don’t say boo against the Gardiner” is incapable of seeing this.
Steve: I suspect that the retired cars are beyond salvation except for spare parts. Better to spend money on cars that still work.
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Whaaaaaaaat???!!? With the influx of students returning in September, this route is always full or overfull! This is going to suuuuuuck even more than it usually does!
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There is no diversion on Rte 71 Runnymede at this time. I live at Weston and Dennis and still get the 71 at the usual stops. There is no way that the water main work will be finished by Sept 04 as they have only competed about 30-40% of the work so far.
Steve: This sounds like a situation where provision was made in the schedule for a diversion that was not actually used.
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The changes to route 100 just create a disaster for anyone heading from Flemindon Park to Eglinton Station. Now we are forced to transfer to a 34 bus in the middle of winter. The 34 westbound route is always packed and many times on Sunday when the 100 a short turns I have sat at the corner of Don Mills and Eglinton and waited through 3 buses. Where was the public consultation? What idiot designed this disaster and dares call it improved?
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I have heard that there are no signs telling riders that 5 AVENUE ROAD becomes 13 AVENUE ROAD. (I am not a member of the downtown elite; also I’m on a different continent presently.)
Pulling up NextBus or other tracking sites shows no buses on 5, and no 13 to select either.
The TTC’s own route list shows 5 Avenue Rd, “Effective September 04, 2016”.
I laugh and drink a cheap cerveza.
Steve: Yes, the plan got sidetracked somewhere at the operational level. According to the October change memo, it’s not happening.
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Does anybody know when the afternoon short turn service at St. Clair West station ended?
Steve: It’s in the July 1991 schedules, but not Nov 1991 (my collection is incomplete for that period). Probably changed for the September 1991 board.
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Today, after the “CNE Break” (July 31 to September 5), shuttle buses return to Fleet Street, running between Bathurst Street and the Exhibition loop, and the “511 Bathurst” and “509 Harbourfront” streetcars began to turn back again at the “lighthouse loop” on Fleet Street.
This temporary return of streetcars to the Exhibition loop for the duration of the Canadian National Exhibition, which wrapped up Labour Day weekend with the Canadian International Air Show, made it convenient for the large numbers of people choosing to take the TTC to this popular late-summer fair, without the need to transfer to shuttle buses.
The shuttle buses serving the “511 Bathurst” and “509 Harbourfront” streetcar routes will run until Saturday, December 31, the day construction on the retaining wall between the Exhibition GO train station platform and the TTC’s Exhibition Loop will be completed. There will be some events at Exhibition place during this period, most notably the Fall Home Show (September 22-25), the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (November 4 to 13, 2016), and the One-of-a-Kind Christmas Show and Sale (November 24 to December 4, 2016). People attending these upcoming events would be taking the “511 Bathurst” or “509 Harbourfront” streetcars and be transferring to shuttle buses.
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