The TTC has announced that it will recall 132 more workers effective October 2, 2020. Of the 450 who were laid off in April, 150 were recalled in September. This leaves 168 still awaiting recall.

The TTC intends to use these drivers for “demand responsive service” with buses (and a few streetcars) that are dispatched as needed on routes where scheduled service cannot handle demand. The return of students to in-school classes adds to system load, and more service is needed.

The layoffs are a temporary measure with all operators to be recalled when the TTC reaches 50 per cent of pre-pandemic ridership levels on all vehicle modes (before the pandemic the TTC was carrying 1.7 million rides on a typical weekday day). At the lowest point of the lockdown, the TTC was moving roughly 15-20 per cent of pre-pandemic ridership. Currently, the TTC is seeing daily ridership in the 35-40 per cent range (or more than 630,000 customers each weekday).

TTC Press Release Sept. 17, 2020

This statement clarifies a confusing element in past announcements where it was unclear whether the 50% criterion would apply to selected portions of the network where demand was strong or to the network as a whole. Because demand into the core area, particularly on the subway, is much lighter than usual, the bus system will have to reach a level well over 50% of pre-covid riding before overall system demand will trigger full service restoration.

In previous articles, I have been tracking the level of scheduled service on many routes (the final article will appear soon) as well as the irregularity of headways (the time between buses) both in the schedules and in actual operation.

What is missing is any report of where the standby buses the TTC operates are used. With an increasing proportion of service provided by unscheduled vehicles, knowing how they are allocated is important as well as how this correlates to on-board crowding.

There is roughly a two month lead time for changes in the scheduled service, and the next two sets of schedules will come into effect at Thanksgiving and in late November. Details of proposed changes are not yet public, but at this point it is fair to assume that the October schedules are locked down and the November changes are well along in draft state. These lead times are required to give time for workforce and fleet planning, and to organize sign-ups for crews.

Using standby or “run as directed” service allows the TTC to have a pool of vehicles and drivers that are not pre-allocated to specific times and locations, and this gets around the lead time problem for scheduled service. The downside is that systems that depend on schedules including public information and vehicle tracking don’t “see” the extra buses.

One member of the TTC Board, Commissioner/Councillor Shelley Carroll, plans to move a motion at the September 24, 2020 Board Meeting that full service be restored. The earliest that is likely to happen would be year-end on a formal basis, and if all remaining drivers are recalled they would likely be used for standby buses until then.

The agenda for that meeting will be published soon, and we will see whether management has any specific proposals to address this.

Still at issue is the question of service standards both to deal with crowding levels and for “poor performing” routes where the Ontario Government wants transit systems to consider alternative means to provide service.