This article continues a series reviewing major east-west routes in Scarborough. Previous articles are:

• Service Analysis of 95/995 York Mills, October-December 2021
• Service Analysis of 39/939 Finch East, October-December 2021

Service on Lawrence East is provided by two routes:

• 54 Lawrence East local service operates from Eglinton Station east via Eglinton and Leslie to Lawrence, then east to two destinations:
  • 54A runs to Starspray Loop near the eastern boundary of Toronto.
  • 54B runs to an on-street loop via Scarborough Golf Club Road, Brimorton Drive and Orton Park Road. The direction of this loop reverses after 3pm.
• 954 Lawrence East express service operates during peak periods between Lawrence East Station and Starspray Loop.

As part of a proposed route reorganization in Scarborough, the TTC proposed splitting off a separate Brimorton service, but this scheme is on hold.

Following opening of Line 5 Crosstown, the 54 and 954 services will be rerouted to Science Centre Station at Don Mills & Eglinton. As part of the RapidTO scheme, red lanes are proposed on Lawrence between Don Mills and Starspray Loop. This article reviews running service quality and travel times on three segments of the route:

• Port Union to Midland: Port Union is used as a screen line at the east end of the route because buses lay over at various places and in both directions making measurements right at Starspray Loop unreliable. Midland is the western screen line because it is just east of Lawrence East Station where buses might layover for various periods unrelated to traffic conditions.
• Kennedy to Victoria Park: Kennedy is the eastern screen line because it lies just west of Lawrence East Station. Victoria Park is the western screen line because this was the originally proposed western end of the red lanes.
• Don Mills to VictoriaPark: This section was added to the red lane proposals.

The schedules for both the local and express services are unchanged since September 2021.

Note that as in previous articles, data are missing for some days at the end of October and through November due to the cyber-attack on TTC systems.

In Brief

• As on other routes reviewed in this series, the distribution of actual headways is well beyond what is contemplated in schedules or even in the TTC’s Service Standards which aim to keep most service within a six-minute wide band of “on time” performance.
• Bunching and wide gaps are very common, even on comparatively “quiet” days like weekends and holidays.
• Severe congestion effects appear rarely and typically show up as bulges in average travel times for specific weeks and days pulling them away from normal levels.
• Headways on the express service 954 can be quite variable and the range of values exceeds the typical 5-minute difference in travel times between local and express operation between Port Union and Midland.
• Some improvement in service is possible with reserved transit lanes to make travel times more reliable, but this must be accompanied by dispatching service so that buses are regularly spaced.

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