46 thoughts on “TTC Launches the 900 Express Bus Network (Updated)”

1. Now if only the “express” routes will actually get “express” service at the traffic signals.

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2. …why? Once one memorizes the 18x and 19x express routes one takes, everything is fine. This is just more upheaval and memorizing for existing express riders. The only reason I can think of is the TTC plans many more express routes and wants space in the number scale. Or they just want better delineation/separation from the standard routes. Even though the 18x and 19x are quite distinct from the rest of the network as is. Or a drive toward standardizing? Someone wiser than me help. Change for the sake of change?

   Steve: They were quickly running out of numbers as new regular routes are already in the 17x range and rockets were working through the 18x.

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3. Can the buses fly at *900* miles per hour at least??! haha.

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4. Hopefully this can help improve some confusion for some people who can’t tell “E” is an express branch but all I can see is people will run to the bus at the station, read it at the angle and missed the 9 in front and think it’s a local bus.

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5. I miss the 190 and 185!

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6. For Scarborough, Express buses only reduce the number of stops. The failure is Mayor Tory who killed the Sheppard LRT to fund the sinkhole SSE. The planning department has failed to provide Scarborough with any 6 lane north/south roads for bus lanes. Victoria Park, Warden, Birchmount, as well as McCowan cannot provide efficient bus service, forcing residents to use cars. The planning department fails to understand the importance of roads are in transit planning. The TTC must work around the stupidity of the planning department.

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7. Is there any list of what stops are planned for the new ones? 989 Weston says Bloor to Finch where the 89 only goes to Wilson/Albion. There are a lot of schools that are not at major intersections on Weston.

   Steve: The 989 Weston Express will go to Steeles, but the stop list has not been announced yet.

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8. I live on Jarvis and Carlton, and work on Richmond and John. I can walk in 35 minutes, or drive in about 20, or walk over to the subway and that takes about 30 minutes if there are no delays. The subway just barely beats walking and you risk delays, and you have to walk to the subway anyways. Long story short, transit is rarely a viable option and if the weather is nice I walk and if the weather is crap I drive. Silly to drive from one downtown location to another, right? Maybe not,

   There is a 141 “express” bus that runs the same route that I drive. It stops in front of my condo and in front of my office. It is always empty and has lots of seats. I have never taken it. Why? Because it costs double fare. That makes it more expensive than parking. I am not paying double fare for a ride completely within downtown; it’s ludicrous.

   If the TTC is serious about alleviating crowding on the Yonge line, perhaps they should reconsider that there is no bus on church and the bus on Jarvis is double fare. There are a lot of condos going in on Jarvis, and I travel up and down Jarvis all the time. Are we all going to walk over to Yonge each trip?

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9. Wish that they could have a little more cash in the TTC budget for better full colour destination signage. Then, they can a different colour schemes for the express buses on the signage.

   Steve: There will be a new green “E” sticker on the stops. I don’t know what if anything will be on the vehicles.

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10. Steven wrote:
    … and think it’s a local bus.

    The TTC could paint/wrap the bus in solid fuchsia and they still would.

    Back when they implemented an express version of Birchmount 17, I was a commuter student at Ryerson and almost every single day initially and at least once per week well after the route was established would there be a person who rang the bell as soon as the bus turned on St. Clair. Back then, they had yellow cards about 12-18″ wide and about 4-6″ high with bold black lettering spelling “EXPRESS” placed in every window down the right side of the bus, but this still got ignored.

    I loved the look on some of those instant bell ringers’ faces if they were near me and I asked, “I take it you want off at Eglinton, which is the next stop?” 🙂

    On the subject of people missing things that should be obvious, is anyone starting a pool on how long it will be before someone drives through the new gates they are going to install on Queen’s Quay where the streetcars enter the tunnel?

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11. I think that it is a good idea overall.

    However, the convention that the TTC has chosen, utilizing a leading “9” to match express versions with regular versions of routes fails for all route numbers above 99 Arrow Rd. The clever solution for 131E Nugget cannot be universally applied.

    For example, the express route of 100 Flemingdon Park, should one ever exist would have to be Route 1000. That looks kind of cool actually, but completely goes against the purpose of having a 900-series route convention.

    Retaining and expanding the convention of using a trailing “E” to denote an express service might have been more durable for route numbering convention.

    Perhaps the “E” might have been promoted from being a trailing character to a leading character, denoting the Express series routes.

    For example, the 185 Don Mills Rocket could become the “E25 Don Mills Express.”

    To go a step further, and to fit in with contemporary marketing, the route series could be denoted with “X” instead of “E.”

    For example, instead of “E25 Don Mills Express,” it would be X25 Don Mills Express.”

    My two cents anyway, plus a few nuggets.

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12. Any details on the 913 Progress. Is it just an express version of 134C?

    Steve: Yes, peak direction trips are the 134C renamed and changed to an express operation.

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13. Is Dufferin Express bypassing Dufferin Mall? If not, that defeats the entire purpose of having the express route on Dufferin St. Dufferin Mall stops are the biggest bottlenecks south of Bloor – the stops should be Bloor College Dundas Queen King Exhibition Loop. Anyone who takes the Dufferin bus will 100% agree.

    Steve: I published a map of the Dufferin bus express stops in a recent article.

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14. Steven may have a point…would wrapping the express buses in a “special” livery work, or maybe a reverse paint scheme (black & white with a wide red stripe) make them stand out?

    Identifying the bus from the rear (paint, wrap, digital sign) as an express bus might also help with traffic flow.

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15. Steven says, “Hopefully this can help improve some confusion for some people who can’t tell “E” is an express branch but all I can see is people will run to the bus at the station, read it at the angle and missed the 9 in front and think it’s a local bus.”

    All it’ll take is the first (and only) time for those poor people to watch as the bus goes whizzing by their usual local stop – and all the other “usual local stops” – on the route to figure out that they are on an Express bus. Next time, they’ll be making sure they have the right one…. (BTW, the TTC will be making a huge deal of this before it rolls out to avoid this kind of situation – and to amaze all the transit users that the system is actually improving!)

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16. So aside from new routes, are the others same routing, just name changes?

    Steve: Beyond the first wave, the details have not been announced. There are service improvements on many of the affected routes.

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17. They’ve been running artics on 134C and 134A/B since January on weekdays. Will they continue the artics on 134C/913 in Sept? Especially since Progress has the artic bus bay?

    Steve: The service change memo does not explicitly mention vehicle type, but equally it does not say that the vehicle type is changing. According to the schedule summary, the route is now scheduled for a mix of standards and artics in the AM peak, and for standards in the PM peak.

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18. “On the subject of people missing things that should be obvious, is anyone starting a pool on how long it will be before someone drives through the new gates they are going to install on Queen’s Quay where the streetcars enter the tunnel?”

    I am waiting for the first ice storm of the fall for a laugh when the gates freeze in the closed position.

    Steve: Please can it be winter before we get an ice storm, and then not a bad one?

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19. New names and new numbers. Will that improve service and schedule? Or, will it be SOS? Same Old “Stuff”.

    Steve: There are improvements on affected routes. Wait for my summary of the changes for details.

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20. First off, my apologies Steve for making you repeat yourself to reply to my previous question. I don’t know how I completely skipped over the 913 details your post.

    I’m curious to see if they will shuffle the articulated bus route assignments in the west end now or further into the implementation. Reading through the Plan to refresh myself I see they want to have artics on the Highway 27, Jane and Steeles West express routes. I’m sure this could be done without ordering more by pulling them off of Finch West and Keele Express (which never made sense to me as an artic route). At the very least they could convert Highway 27, reducing the amount of standing loads on the route while it’s on the Highway. It’s probably best that Finch West goes back to 40fts anyways as construction ramps up on the LRT project.

    Steve: None of the detailed service descriptions for these routes mention a vehicle type change. The only routes where this is happening is on Sheppard East and Dufferin. Wait for my detailed post on all changes for the details.

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21. “I live on Jarvis and Carlton, and work on Richmond and John.”

    You should consider a metropass with a Downtown Express Sticker, which is $43.00 more rather then double. It might be worth while if you also use transit on weekends as well, especially in winter.

    However your best option is probably the bike sharing system which is only $99 per year. Taking Church to the Richmond bike lanes would be a comfortable and safe route.

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22. Typos: You put 196 Wilson Rocket instead of 186 and 935 Don Mills Express instead of 935 Jane Express.

    Steve: Thanks for catching these. Too much cutting and pasting!

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23. The TTC is not making an effort to market their express services. When people see that the stopping patterns can change all the time, people will be reluctant to change their travel habits. YRT has special Viva stations that are different than the regular stops. People know that Viva stopping patterns will not change much and there is a sense of permanence. Even in Quebec City, their Metro Bus has special shelters.

    Metro Bus, Viva, Zum and Mississauga Transit have special liveries for their express buses. People need to able to identify an express vehicle without reading the destination board. Liveries do not cost extra money, but commuicate to the customers.

    Steve: There is marketing material, and there will be special markings on the bus stops. It just hasn’t been released yet because the change is a month away. As for marking the buses, if you can figure out a way for the TTC to guarantee specific buses on specific routes, good luck. I have never seen the TTC manage that sort of thing in the 50+ years I have been watching transit ops in Toronto.

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24. I personally don’t understand the need for the change in numbering. For example, I have always known that an ‘E’ was the express version of a bus route. Plus, why bring in all those new 18x runs in the last couple of years just to change the numbers? People are used to the numbers now. I know that the 188 is the express version of the 44 (although I admit that 944 makes a bit of sense in that regard) and it’s obvious that the 45E is the express version of the the 45 (‘E’ for Express – how is that not easy to market?)

    Sounds like people who need to feel that they need to justify their jobs. This is just like when the TTC changed all the designations. So, now the main Islington South bus is the 110C, not the 110 – and the 110B is the rush hour bus, while the 110A goes to Long Branch.

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25. You mentioned that the local 85 route will have its Artics replaced by standard buses, so that the Artics can be used for express service. Is that only for peak periods or also during off peak periods? If it’s the latter than during off peak periods, there will only be standard buses on the Sheppard corridor east of midland. I’m concerned about potential crowding issues on the route during those times.

    Steve: The midday service east of Midland will change from every 8’40” with artics to every 7’00” with standard sized buses. Early evening service will change from every 8’00” to every 7’30”, and late evening service will be unchanged at 10’00”. It will be interesting to see what this does to crowding. The TTC used to include an analysis of crowding level changes with its service memos, but has not done so for over a year.

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26. A special livery for express buses is pointless in my opinion. Buses can and will be switched around. In Toronto, the 192 Airport Rocket buses can be found randomly on other west-end routes, complete with their (ugly) wrap and luggage racks (which cut down on the number of seats). In Mississauga, bus spotters see MiWay express buses on local routes. My understanding of York Region Transit and VIva is that YRT and Viva are separately contracted operations, so there a different bus fleet is actually enforced. This is irrelevant in Toronto unless we build a whole series of parallel bus depots and never, ever have changeoffs or run adjustments to fill gaps.

    I don’t see any branch letters in the new route numbers. I wonder how long they will take to show up?

    As far as “E” being “Express”, well that’s not necessarily the case. One of the very earliest express routes, from Wilson station to York University, debuted as the 106A, and wasn’t changed to 106E until some years later. On the other hand, before the separate Finch East 199 route, riders had to remember that 39C, 39E, 39F, and 39G were all express runs.

    Steve: Part of the new branding includes the letter “E” in a large green circle. Probably just on the affected stops.

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27. Questions:

    1) given that “traffic” and “construction” are often provided as reasons why bus service is delayed/bunching how “express” are these routes really, especially during rush hour.
    2) how much travel time is actually reduced during rush hour for many of these routes?

    Anecdotally, taking the Jane bus between Pioneer station and Eglinton, the difference in commute time appears to be minimal (5-10 minutes) during periods of heavy traffic mostly because the largest number of people getting on and off the bus are at Finch/Weston Road/Lawrence where it seems that 2/3rds of the bus empties followed by 2/3rds of the bus refilling. During periods of light traffic (later at night) it seems that there isn’t a big difference in speed because the regular bus doesn’t make as many stops anyway. Again this could be purely psychological and doesn’t constitute solid evidence for much other than one rider’s experiences. On the other hand the express bus between Sheppard and Sheppard West (back when it was Downsview) was definitely faster so maybe it depends on the route?

    Steve: When I finish the detailed listing of the September service changes, you will be able to compare the scheduled travel times for the express and local services. Stay tuned.

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28. As a follow up to my previous question, I just wanted to clarify what local service will be during peak periods on the 85. I might be stating this wrong but the local route will use standard buses and the combined headway (express plus local) in terms of service east of Midland is 8’40”? Or is that headway for the express bus route only during those times and the local route has its own headway. Another question I wanted to ask was: Will service east of Meadowvale to Rouge Hill GO, which is only local, be affected? What type of buses will they use?

    Thanks again for your info.

    Steve: The local service on 85A and 85C will be 16′ on each branch (8′ combined) in the AM, and 15’30” on each branch in the PM peak. This will operate with standard sized buses. The express service to Meadowvale 985B will operate every 9′ in the AM and 8’30” in the PM peak using artics.

    During the midday period, the service east of Midland will be every 7′ local with standard sized buses (replacing the existing 8’40” headway with artics). There is no express service east of Midland in the off-peak as only the 985A branch to STC will operate at those times.

    Service to Rouge Hill will be with standard sized buses every 16′ AM peak, 28′ midday, 15’30” PM peak, 15′ ear;y evening and 20′ late evening.

    Detailed tables for all routes will follow when I consolidate the info from the TTC this weekend.

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29. While I know you have had your criticisms of the Transit city bus plan, I think that the bus plan was Giambrone’s and Miller’s gift that keeps on giving. This plan was able to provide better service to TTC patrons who felt ignored by city council because it was not a subway vs LRT debate. The bus network strategy is basically implemented (albeit a decade too late). Now we need the TTC to push for better bus reliability, bus lanes, and route management. Hopefully the new city council and TTC commissioners will continue to improve bus service, because apathy about bus service is the greatest barrier to good bus service (according to Jarrett Walker of human transit).

    Steve: My problem with the Transit City Bus Plan was that it was not aggressive enough. The new “Express Network” looks good on paper, but much of it simply rebrands existing routes with only modest actual improvements in service.

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30. Hello Steve,
    Couple of questions based on the Sheppard Rocket changes
    1) You mentionned that the new 190 Route will use artics, is this for 7 days a week or just Rush hours?

    2) I’m sure you’re almost ready but when are you releasing the September service changes? We are all curious to see if there are any major service level improvements?

    Thanks!

    Steve: Working on it. There are a lot of changes. I wanted to push info about the express routes out first so people could see this while I worked on the more detailed piece on all of the changes for September.

    The artics will only be on what is now the 190 on weekdays (all hours) not weekends.

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31. Hmm – that’s strange. The service summary always says artics are used on Saturdays on 85 but they’ve never put one out on a Saturday. I wonder why. And there is no mention of artics on the service summary on 134C on off peak and PM hours yet they are on all day on weekdays.

    Btw, don’t they have enough artics at Malvern to do 134C/913, 53E/F, 85A & B and 985?

    Steve: I checked back in the Scheduled Service Summaries, and in October 2015 the designation for Saturday changed to artics even though there was no change in the level of service, nor any change noted in the memo detailing the changes for that board period. I think this is a cut-and-paste error in creating that summary that has just been carried forward unchanged.

    Service today on the 134C only shows partial artic operation in the AM peak, and that disappears with the new 134/913 schedule. The 53 schedule is not changing this board period, and the total number of artics used on the 85/985 is the same in the new and old schedules.

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32. One more quick question. The artics are supposed to be on the 85 Sheppard East bus Mon-Sat but they are never on the 85 on Saturdays. Do you happen to know why by any chance? Thanks.

    Steve: See my previous response to this question.

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33. Buses aren’t always the ‘fix’, but they’re pretty good, including flexibility. It’s a start to have some express services enhanced, but more is needed, beyond storage issues (and I’m still kinda sad about the McCowan land being built on). I did depute suggesting that Mt Pleasant Express service could become far more of a Yonge Relief option if double fare were dropped, but we have to wa$te billions in Scarborough.

    Speaking of Scarborough, good to hear that it too suffers from less-good planning, though it is likely the politicians not the planners that made the roads on the narrower side, a factor in the core as well. At least there’s a fairly regular grid. I think a key to Scarborough is use of the Gatineau corridor for transit (bus to start but ‘clean’). It’s very wide; on-surface; the diagonal allows for both north and east travel and it’s off-road so transit can be improved quickly without really harming the cars/votorists. It also comes pretty close to major destinations, and I guess part of that list can be the STC. It’s also potentially 401 Relief, if GO could use it to bring buses to Eglinton near Victoria Park, those mobility hub opportunities likely being built upon right now.

    With express bus tho, let’s hope they aren’t too badly jolted with bad roads, and don’t pass any cyclists too closely or kill anyone.

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34. The 86E Scarborough express could be rebranded as another branch of 905 Eglinton East Express.

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35. I wonder if they will consider rebranding the Eglinton express bus to avoid confusion.

    I can see people calling it the 905 Express and well.. you can see the problem with that.

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36. To Richard White about the 905 Express. There is a 416 in Durham and in St. Catharines.

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37. @wklis

    Unfortunately people have a bit more common sense in the 905. I can see a few locals arguing with operators over the name.

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38. I find it interesting the difference between TTC and Brampton Transit. Brampton decided what they needed to develop the key routes, and did the full job. Branded service, special buses, special bus stop shelters, time to next bus, and queue jump lanes where they made sense. The TTC just reorganizes what they have. Construction of three queue jump lanes a year? I can see why Brampton is getting double digit ridership growth while the TTC is struggling to keep the customers they have.

    Steve: When you have a Mayor and Council for whom holding the line on taxes is paramount, and a fleet plan that shows minimal growth over a decade or more, of course all they can do is to shuffle buses among routes. On top of that, a good deal of PTIF money is going to pay for replacement buses, not for net new, because they have no garage space.

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39. Steve, is the 102 Markham Rd express coming in September 2018, because in other reports the TTC states the route is coming in 2019? And will the bus operate local from Sheppard to Steeles or will service return southbound from Sheppard?

    Steve: Some of the express route implementation dates have been moved up to 2018. The 102/902 change is in the September service memo. The full list of affected routes and dates, to the extent they are known, is based on information from the TTC.

    The service runs express both ways. The stop list (taken from the service memo) is in the article.

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40. Perhaps they should rename the subway/LRT under the 900 banner as well. 901 – Yonge-University, 902 – Bloor-Danforth, etc. Of course, the Markham Rd Express would have to change its number, but it would signify that that these are rapid/limited stop transit lines.

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