Many changes will occur on the TTC’s network on March 26 primarily with adjustments to schedules in response to lower ridership. This issue was covered previously in:
This article presents more detail about new schedules as well as information on several service reorganizations and diversions.
Updated March 23, 2023 at 10:30 am: The TTC’s map showing the 504 route diversions has been added to this article. Note that it does not match the route description provided in their service change notice.
Updated March 23, 2023 at 11:45 pm: A map of new bus bay assignments at Kennedy Station recently posted by the TTC on Twitter has been added.
Updated March 24, 2023 at 6:30 am: Times of the transition to less frequent late evening service on Line 2 BD added.
Updated March 26m 2023 at 12:20: Construction project schedule added at the end of the article.
How Schedules Can Change
When a new schedule is implemented on a route, one or more changes might be happening, and the same changes might not occur in each affected time period. This can produce confusing results as well as communications from the TTC that do not quite represent what is actually happening.
In the simplest case, a route needs more or less service because ridership exceeds capacity or because it has fallen below the level where a reduction is warranted. In this case, the change simply adds or removes vehicles while leaving the travel time unchanged. For example, on a route with a one hour round trip, a 6 minute headway (the interval between buses) would be provided by 10 buses. If two buses were added, the headway would be every 5 minutes, and the route’s capacity would rise by 20 percent.
A variation on this which exists in the current budget tightening era is that the standard for what is a “full” bus has changed. Peak periods have gone back to 100% of pre-covid levels, and off-peak have gone even further, close to peak levels. That undoes the “seated load” standard of the Ridership Growth Strategy that goes back two decades. If the standards allow more crowding, then fewer vehicles are needed to provide the new target capacity.
Other changes can occur independently or at the same time. Most common are adjustments to travel and recovery times in response to changes in congestion and/or construction projects. If a route operates more slowly under new conditions, more buses are needed to maintain the same level of service, or fewer if things speed up. The change in travel time can occur at the same time as changes in crowding standards so that the existing, or even fewer, buses provide less frequent service.
Almost all routes have some recovery time built into the schedule, but this is not a fixed amount. Partly the recovery time deals with expected variations in day-to-day or trip-to-trip travel time, and partly it could simply be included to make schedules work out properly. This is particularly true of branching routes where the time taken by each branch must be such that they blend together, at least on paper. Branching routes with wide headways can have very long recovery times to make schedules “come out right”. Conversely, when such a route has a change, it is possible to accommodate some or all of the change by converting recovery time to driving time.
The TTC has a bad habit of referring to travel time changes as “service reliability improvements” on the assumption that buses are more likely to maintain regular spacing if they have more time for their journey. This is not always borne out by actual operations, and the main effect on riders is that buses show up less often than before the change.
In the lead up to the March 26 changes, changes in headways were listed for several branching routes. The change cited applied to the common part of the route. Beyond the branch point, the change would be double what was originally listed.
Finally, some changes involve route reorganizations that interact such as interlining where two infrequent routes share a pool of buses between them. Combining the two routes reduces the number of vehicles needed for the linked services, while the headways might go up or down as the individual routes are changed to a new common headway.
There is one case in this round where a night bus “service improvement” is really the shift of trips formerly provided by daytime service to the night bus route number, but on the daytime frequency. Looking at the corridor as one route, this might not be as big an improvement as it seems. The same issue can arise when the balance between express and local service on a route is changed. One of the two services might improve, but not necessarily the route as a whole.
I include these caveats in the hope that readers will look closely at their before and after schedules to see exactly what is happening.
For details of changes in specific route headways, travel times and vehicle allocations, please refer to the spreadsheet linked here.
Service Changes March 26, 2023
Subway Service Changes
Service on Line 2 Bloor-Danforth will be improved in the AM peak, but will be reduced at other times on weekdays notably after 10pm when the scheduled headway will change to every 8’05”.
The late evening service begins at various locations on the line at different times. The widening from the 5’38” early evening headway begins about half an hour before the times shown which are the first scheduled gaps of 8’05”.
- Eastbound at Kipling: 10:09 pm
- Eastbound at Yonge: 10:32 pm
- Westbound at Kennedy: 9:20 pm
- Westbound at Yonge: 9:40 pm
Two gap trains will be scheduled in both peaks, although the pm peak trains will extend until 11pm. The pm peak will also, temporarily have four rather than two gap trains. The purpose of these trains is to provide additional capacity while Line 1 Yonge is still operating on a more frequent service. Changes to Line 1 are coming with the May schedules at which point the evening gap trains might also vanish.
Extra trains might be operated depending on spare operator availability on Friday evenings.
On Line 4 Sheppard, the service has been provided by four trains running every 5-6 minutes since the line opened. Service will now be reduced to three trains running every 7-8 minutes.
Scarborough Town Centre Terminal Construction
In preparation for the shutdown of Line 3 SRT in fall 2023, the bus terminal at Scarborough Town Centre will be reconfigured to accommodate more buses. This construction project will affect several routes from March 26 until, tentatively, May 2023.
Stage 1 will operate from March to May 2023, and stage 2 (details TBA) from May to November 2023.
The following changes will occur in stage 1:
- 9 Bellamy and 134 Progress will terminate at McCowan Station.
- Service to Centennial College now provided by 134C and 913 Progress Express buses will be replaced by a new branch of Sheppard East Express, 985D, running from Don Mills Station.
- The 21A and 21B Brimley services to STC and Steeles respectively will be replaced by the 21C to Steeles via STC during weekday peaks and midday.
- 985A Sheppard East which now terminates at STC will be extended to McCowan Station.
- All other routes continue to serve STC but will load on the south side of the station as shown below. They will loop via Brimley and Borough drive and operate through the north side of the station without stopping.
Kennedy Station Bus Bay Changes (Added Mar 23/23 at 11:45 pm)
The TTC did not include information about bus bay changes at Kennedy Station in their service memo, but it appeared via Twitter. Here is the map of new bay assignments.
Wilson Station Lower Level Reopens (Added Mar 23/23 at 11:45 pm)
Construction work on the lower level of Wilson Station bus loop have completed, and routes will resume their normal locations on March 26.
504 King Overhead Conversion for Pantographs
Streetcar service will be removed from King Street between Shaw and the Don River while overhead east from Bathurst is adjusted for pantograph-only operation.
(In the initial pan/trolley co-existence mode, the contact wire remains straight, there are frogs to carry trolley shoes through intersections, and skates to carry pans under the frogs. In pan-only mode, the contact wire is slewed side-to-side to even out pan wear, and most frogs are unnecessary at intersections. Another change in pan-only construction is the addition of self-tensioning overhead that corrects for temperature changes without manual adjustment.)
Service will operate over three branches of route 504:
- 504B streetcars from Broadview Station to Dufferin Loop diverting via Queen between the Don Bridge and Shaw.
- 504C buses from Dundas West Station to the Distillery District looping at the Distillery via south on Cherry, west on Mill, north on Parliament and east on Front. The stop at Distillery Loop will not be served, and buses will lay over on Front west of Cherry.
- 504D buses from Exhibition Loop to Broadview & Gerrard. At the west end the buses will run south via Strachan to the Exhibition. At the east end they will turn west at Gerrard, laying over just east of St. Matthews Road, and then follow the same route as the 121 Front Esplanade bus to King Street via Gerrard and River, not via Broadview and Queen.
Updated March 23, 2023: Since this article was published, the TTC has issued this map. Note that the streetcar diversion in the west end is shown as a loop via Shaw, King and Dufferin to Queen, not to Dufferin Loop as claimed in the service change notice.
This entire scheme will change again in May when Roncesvalles reopens for streetcars and King is again available for streetcar operation.
110 Islington South Extended to Kipling
The 110C branch of the Islington South bus will be extended to Kipling Loop as shown in the map below.
The current service loops via west on Lake Shore to 12th Street, to Garnett Janes, Ninth and Birmingham back to Islington. The new route will extend west on Lake Shore to Kiping Loop, and will return east to 13th Street where it will pick up the current loop route back to Islington.
128 Stanley Greene and 101 Downsview
The Stanley Greene neighbourhood will be served by an extension of 101 Downsview and by a new peak only route 128 Stanley Greene. During periods when both routes operate they will provide a combined 15 minute service leaving Stanley Greene alternately to Downsview and Wilson Stations. During off-peak periods, only the 101 Downsview will operate and it will run half-hourly. Service will end at 10pm nightly.
The 101 Downsview currently provides a 20 minute service to a shorter route.
Bus Service Changes
For details of changes in specific route headways, travel times and vehicle allocations, please refer to the spreadsheet linked at the end of the article.
Wilson Station Bus Terminal
With the completion of rehabilitation work on the lower level of Wilson Terminal, routes 29 Dufferin, 929 Dufferin Express, 104 Faywood and 160 Bathurst North will move back into the terminal.
9 Bellamy
Route modified to terminate at McCowan Station during construction at STC. Headways widened at several operating periods to provide more running time.
21 Brimley
The 21A and 21B services south and north of STC will be consolidated into the through-routed 21C during construction at STC. This change will become permanent after Line 3 SRT is decommissioned.
Headways on the consolidated service will be slightly less frequent than for the separate routes in most cases.
Route 21 Brimley moves from Malvern to Birchmount division.
24/924 Victoria Park
Headways are widened during many periods primarily to increase running time and to use the same or fewer vehicles.
25/925 Don Mills
There is a variety of changes on Don Mills including peak period service and vehicle requirements. Off peak periods see a mix of service improvements and reductions, running time adjustments and vehicle assignments.
29/929/329 Dufferin
Dufferin will primarily see service and vehicle reductions, but in a few cases there are improvements. The transitions between 29 daytime and 329 night services will be improved .
31 Greenwood
Trips on the 31B Eastern Avenue service will be adjusted to better match shift changes at Canada Post.
34 Eglinton East
To the degree possible, service on the 34A Kennedy Station and 34C Flemingdon Park branches will be adjusted to provide a blended headway at Eglinton Station. These branches often run on different, incompatible headways causing a mixture of scheduled gaps and pairs as the branches go into and out of sync with each other.
35/935/335 Jane
Service levels and bus requirements during many periods will be reduced. The 935 express service will be suspended on weekday early evenings and Saturday early mornings.
Weekday service on 335 Jane Night Bus will be improved from every 30 to 20 minutes.
First and last trip times weekdays and Sundays will be adjusted to blend better with the 35 Jane day service.
36/936/336 Finch West
Service on 36 Finch West before the subway opens will be reassigned to 336 Finch West Night. Improvement from its existing 30 minute headway to every 10 minutes is due in part to the assumption of trips formerly provided under the day service banner.
Updated March 20/23 at 9:10pm:
A comparison of existing and planned services seen at Jane Street. At that location there is a service improvement westbound, and better distributed service eastbound. The effect of the overlap of existing day and night schedules is evident in the existing eastbound service. In the revised schedule there is a clear break where the 336 service ends and the 36 service begins.
- Eastbound
- Existing: 4:46 4:50* 4:56 5:16 5:20* 5:26 5:31 5:41 5:50 5:50* 5:55
- New: 4:50* 5:00* 5:10* 5:20* 5:30* 5:38* 5:40 5:47 5:54 5:58
- Westbound
- Existing: 4:50* 5:20* 5:43 5:53 5:59
- New: 4:50* 5:00* 5:10* 5:20* 5:25* 5:31* 5:37* 5:42* 5:49* 5:56 5:59
Times marked “*” are operated as 336 Finch Night Bus trips.
Service will be reduced during most periods of operation. This is a straight reduction of buses as most of the running times are similar between the February and March schedules.
37/937 Islington
Service will be reduced during many periods. This is primarily due to a reduction of buses assigned to the route combined with running time extensions.
40 Junction-Dundas West
Service will run less frequently during many periods primarily due to running time extensions, although in a few cases a bus is added and service slightly improves.
41/941 Keele
Service will be reduced during most weekday periods. The 941 express will no longer operate in the midday, although on a 20′ headway it did not make much of a contribution overall. The regular 41 local midday service will continue to operate every 10 minutes.
43/943 Kennedy
The 943 express service during peak periods on Kennedy will be suspended. There is no change to the 43 local service.
953 Steeles East Express
During peak periods, the 953A express to Staines Rd will operate via the Amazon Scarborough Facility, and its headway will be slightly improved. The 953B express service to Markham Road will be suspended.
60/960 Steeles West
The 960 peak period service west of Pioneer Village station will be improved in the pm peak. The 60C local service west of the station will be suspended.
78 St. Andrews / 115 Silver Hills / 122 Graydon Hall
Service on 78 St. Andrews and 115 Silver Hills will be interlined on weekends. This will make a slight improvement in headways on both routes except late evenings. The weekend interline between 115 Silver Hills and 122 Graydon Hall will be dropped.
Peak period service on 78 St. Andrews will be reduced. Midday service on 122 Graydon Hall, now every 19 minutes, will be cut to every 30 minutes to match all other off-peak periods.
84/984 Sheppard West
Weekday service during many periods will be reduced, and running times will be extended.
Weekend local service will be improved during many periods, but the 984 express service will be dropped.
985 Sheppard East
A new 985D service will be added running from Don Mills Station to Centennial College replacing the 985A branch to STC. Buses will change from artics on the 985A to standard buses on the 985D because all of the bus bays at STC station on the active side of the platform are designed for the shorter vehicles.
The 985D partly replaces service to Centennial now provided by the 134/913 Progress routes.
86/986 Scarborough
Service during many periods will be reduced, and running times extended. In some cases buses are added because the extra running time cannot be accommodated at a headway that will match demand with the existing bus allocations. It is ironic that this and a similar change on 905 Eglinton East express occurs on the RapidTO corridor which is supposed to speed buses.
87 Cosburn
Headways are widened during most periods to provide more travel time for buses.
101 Downsview Park / 128 Stanley Greene
The 101 Downsview route is extended to the Stanley Greene neighbourhood. Headways change from 20 to 30 minutes to handle the longer route.
The new 128 Stanley Greene will operate from Wilson Station half hourly during peak periods.
Service will be blended leaving Stanley Greene for a 15 minute headway between the two routes.
110 Islington South
Service is adjusted through most operating periods with wider headways and additional running time. The 110C branch to Lake Shore is extended west to Kipling Loop.
133 Neilson
Service and vehicle assignments during many periods are reduced, and running times are increased slightly.
134/913 Progress
The Progress bus will not serve STC during construction, but instead will end at McCowan Station.
The 134D and its counterpart the 913 Progress Express services to Centennial College will not operate, but they are replaced by the 985D Sheppard East Express extension to the college.
905 Eglinton East
This route will now operate with articulated buses from Malvern Division (it is now at Birchmount). Headways will be widened roughly in proportion to the capacity of the larger vehicles.
This vehicle type change was not flagged in the TTC’s original list of March 26 changes prompting great concern about crowding. In any event, the 905 service is quite irregular and if this is not corrected, the even wider headways with artics will lead to very wide gaps.
Route 905 moves from Birchmount to Malvern division.
Fleet Utilization
Streetcar Carhouse Allocations:
With the many suspensions of streetcar service, the peak fleet utilization is down to 125 cars, although this will improve with the restoration of 501 Queen, 503 Kingston Road and 504 King as the year goes on.
Streetcar Peak Vehicles:
Bus Peak Vehicles:
The bus peak vehicle usage drops to 1,366 buses (am) from 1,435. With a fleet of over 2,100 buses, there is a very large pool of spares that could provide more service if only the TTC had funding to operate them.
Buses Operating on Streetcar Routes:
Construction Project Schedule
[Added March 26/23 at 12:20pm]
Steve Munro 
One of the reasons I don’t take transit as much as I used to is the crowding. I’m only taking it when absolutely necessary. Crowding is particularly problematic for those with mobility aids such as canes or walkers, those with strollers, and those who use wheelchairs. TTC is trying to push those using Wheel-Trans to use regular routes which is impossible when the vehicles are crowded.
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“Service on 36 Finch West before the subway opens will be reassigned to 336 Finch West Night. Improvement from its existing 30 minute headway to every 10 minutes is due to the assumption of trips formerly provided under the day service banner.”
Looking at the online schedule data for March, I think there is a service increase associated with this change, and not simply a reassignment. At Finch and Weston for example, there are currently 5 trips heading west between 4:45 and 6:15, while under the new schedules, there are 11. Not sure if it’s the same for the east…
Steve: I have to look at the detailed schedules too. The info in the service memo is not entirely clear. Once I look at the two schedules for various places on the route, I may update the article. What bothered me was that the increase in headway on the night bus was being touted by the TTC as a service improvement when it seemed only to be rebranding of 36 trips as 336.
Updated 9:20 pm: I have added a table to the article showing the service both ways at Jane Street. Eastbound the number of trips is roughly the same, although they are better organized. Westbound there is more service. In both cases, the 336 service stops and the 36 service starts without overlaps and odd gaps/bunching.
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Not helping to bring people back to transit after the pandemic on top that gridlock continues to clog the city and probably will have a dangerous precedent of some people changing their behaviors.
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I believe you made a typo with 29 and 25.
Steve: Thanks for catching that. I have fixed the text.
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Talia writes:
I’m in exceptional health for my age (mid-Seventies) save for a massively irreparable shoulder cuff tear, ironically from a cycling accident *in the City*! (I do thousands of kms in the country, no problem, I have solicitors handling a claim against the City for broken pavement) but even I’m having serious issues during rush-hour, or even approaching it, on the TTC.
Trying to grab for a pole when standing is a real challenge for me, and contrary to the claims of lower ridership, the TTC is packed close to or at maximum at peak.
This seems to inversely buttress Steve’s point:
This is a form of inflation! They’re still packing in the sardines as tight as they ever have, but there’s less tins to the carton, and most are getting charged more for the privilege. (Small mercy, Senior fares stay the same, albeit getting a priority seat is more difficult than ever).
I’m counting the days until I have my bike back from the framebuilders. It’s truly the better way.
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Why the increased hiring of transit operators if service cuts are on the rise?
Steve: Attrition and staffing up for Lines 5 and 6 opening.
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When it comes to the division allocations for the 504 replacement bus, is Birchmount doing the 504D and Wilson doing the 504C?
Steve: Yes.
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What streets the 128 and 101 buses will use when it loops around the Stanley Greene neighbourhood?
Steve: From Keele Street east on Downsview Park Blvd, south on Frederick Tisdale Dr, west on Locust Lodge Gardens, north on Stanley Greene Blvd, west on Downsview Park Blvd to Keele.
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I was wondering what divisions will do the 78, 115, 122 Steve?
Steve: They will all stay at Wilson.
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Steve,
Do you know what the TTC’s rationale is behind extending the 110C to Kipling? This strikes me as an idiotic decision with no merit whatsoever to anyone who uses that service.
I don’t see why students would use the service when the 44/944 is a quicker route to the subway, while current riders of the 110C aren’t going to use it to go to Kipling. The TTC will use the same number of buses so this is only going to screw current riders by further increasing the headways while making run time on the route a bigger mess than it already is. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Steve: According to the service change memo, the extension will “improve its end-of-line and address customer concerns”. Yes, an off street loop and layover is preferable to an on street one, but I don’t know what the custoer concerns might be. It does give another route to Humber College, but as you say there is much better service on the 44/944.
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In the end of February, I’ve submitted couple of complaints.
One is about larger headway on 49 Bloor West (the route I use often with 50 Burnhamthorpe) during the morning rush. According to the post which you posted few weeks ago, the service level 49 Bloor West during the morning rush is just 45% of the pre-pandemic. I referred to it on the complaint.
I also made a complaint on huge cut on late evening service on Line 2.. which seems to dismiss any chance of crowding after the big events in the downtown (Jays game, Concerts, etc)
I always make service complaints every time there is an unreasonable delays, and I typically got responses within a week.
However, I didn’t hear anything back from the TTC close to a month into my complaint.
I just feel like the TTC is starting to shut down all the public complaints and go full steam ahead on dictatorship.
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Losing the 984 Sheppard West Express on weekends is idiocy squared… It took a lot of pressure off the 84 between Sheppard West Stn and Sheppard Yonge. Often you can see 20+ minute headways on the 84 Saturday and Sunday afternoons with 3 bunched together and a 16-20 min gap after them. It will make it impossible to get on a bus east of Bathurst heading to Yonge.
I agree with the earlier comment – the TTC has effectively “shut down” responding to complaints of service non-management and excessive headways – they don’t even respond to web complaint forms anymore.
Steve: There are minor improvements to the 84 Sheppard West local service, but not proportionately to the capacity of the express service that will be removed. In a classic TTC piece of misdirection, their service adjustments page says:
Way down at the bottom of the same page, under the 984 service description, they say:
This is true, but it produces mainly an increase in running time for “reliability” but little change in the scheduled frequency. I will be tracking the behaviour of Sheppard, among many corridors where “reliability” improvements are claimed to see just what happens with the service.
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So, the 504 will be a pan-only route fully operated by streetcars again some time in May? When they finally reinstall the overhead on Wellington (they are busily putting up new poles) I assume the 503 will also return to streetcars so we will see no buses on King again.
Steve: “Again” is a long time. Various works are in the plans for 2024, although these will likely be shifted both due to budget constraints and competing projects, notably the Ontario Line, affecting downtown traffic. I hope to receive an updated construction timetable for coming years soon.
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Hey Steve, Just curious is the TTC route 122 Graydon Hall moving back to Wilson or is it staying at McNicoll for the March service changes?
Steve: As I previously noted, all three of 78, 115 and 122 stay at Wilson.
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Hey Steve, Also another question i have: Does Queensway have RAD Crews for the March 2023 service changes cause it will be nice to see a Queensway OG Bus on a Scarborough/east/ North York route again. Not on 300 Bloor-Danforth Blue Night.
Steve: If you look at the last page of the spreadsheet linked from the article you will see the distribution of RAD crews.
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Sorry to bother you again Steve but I can’t find the spreadsheet linked from the article I will see the distribution of RAD crews and can you please send me the link to that spreadsheet you are talking about? Thanks
Steve: There is a link just above the heading “Subway Service Changes”.
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The 110C was always an uncomfortable interline with 110A/110B. The branches to Long Branch loop already had more running time than they needed, while the 110C to Lake Shore was tight. Now to keep the branches in synch, 110A and 110B both are going to run slower and less often.
Time to bring back the 38 HORNER!
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@Vic,
I was talking about this with my mum, who lives on the south end of the 110C and our thought is that the students who will use it are ones who go up Islington. That said, there probably aren’t that many. I don’t know how many who live in the apartment buildings at 12th, 10th, and 9th would use the 110C to get home if it goes to Kipling.
My first thought was also about the layover point. Buses usually would layover on 12th or Garnet Janes. Another thought was that with the construction at Islington Station having a layover at the south end made more sense than at the station.
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John Tory’s final gift to Toronto?
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Won’t these function basically as weird short-turning Queen cars? For people heading west from downtown, even if they’re going past Shaw, they’re not going to transfer to the 504B between Shaw and Dufferin, and the ridership to the 2 stops on Dufferin isn’t huge. Other than clogging up Queen and Shaw with turns (no chance of transit priority being installed in time there), why not officially give up on King and only run a Broadview-to-Distillery streetcar route?
The 504C will now be the same route as the 504A, why not call it that?
Dear TTC, remind me again why this work wasn’t done when west end of King was running with buses for the _past two years_? How many people work on overhead at the TTC – two?
When is Queen and Yonge closing to streetcars, again? May?
Steve: Yes, the preservation of the King car does look rather odd. I suspect the intent is to have a “Dufferin” service in place so that service can be shifted back to King Street before a formal schedule change if the overhead work finishes reasonably quickly.
Timing? Yes, the scheduling of overhead work leaves a lot to be desired with extended outages where streetcar service is disrupted.
Queen and Yonge closes in May. The exact date has not been announced.
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To anyone who wonders about the 110 Islington South why it’s going to Kipling Loop when the 44 Kipling South is quicker. There are other instances of two routes ending near same place (not necessarily starting in same place). 68 Warden Vs 17 Birchmount for instance. I know it’s not the same starting place in the case of 44 vs 110. However. It does provide options for people not having to transfer along Lake Shore and Islington, and not having to back track.
Also 106 Sentinel Vs 108 Driftwood, 9 Bellamy Vs 16 McCowan do the same thing.
Side note: it’s interesting the 101 Downsview Park is terminating at Downsview Park station. It was identified that buses couldn’t get into Downsview Park station, the roadway being too tight. Maybe serving other side?
Do you know off hand if 128 Stanley Greene is serving Wilson Station UPPER or LOWER? By chance.
Steve: Route 128 will run from bay 7 at Wilson.
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A few things I have in mind:
– Do you have the spreadsheet regarding the changes?
Steve: There was already a link to the spreadsheet in the article. I have made it larger.
– What will the routings of the 9, 134 and 985A/D will look like?
Steve: Route 9 Bellamy: “This route will be adjusted to terminate and layover on Bushby Drive at McCowan Station due to construction at Scarborough Centre Station. It will reroute via west on Bushby Drive, north on McCowan Road, east and south on Consillium Place, and east on Progress Avenue, back to its usual routing.”
Route 134: “All other branches of the 134 Progress will terminate and layover on Bushby Drive at McCowan Station due to construction at Scarborough Centre. They will reroute via west on Bushby Drive, north on McCowan Road, east and south on Consillium Place, and east on Corporate Drive, back to their usual routing.”
Route 985D: “The 985A Don Mills Station-Scarborough Centre Station will be extended to McCowan Station to provide an accessible connection between McCowan Station and Scarborough Centre Station all day, every day. It will turn around via east on Triton Road, north on McCowan Road, east and south on Consillium Place, and west on Bushby Drive to McCowan Station, returning to route via north on McCowan Road, and west on Triton Road.”
– While the 115 will move to Wilson, 122 is likely to remain at McNicoll but it is unclear.
Steve: I have already reported that the three related routes 78, 115 and 122 will all operate from Wilson.
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Re Islington 110C route change:
I assume the stop on 12th will be out of service (as the bus has to detour via 13th-as there is no left turn from Lakeshore eastbound onto 12th). However wouldn’t the stop eastbound on Lakeshore at 13th not be available as the bus has to make a left turn?
Steve: Yes. The stop on 12th will be removed, and a new stop northbound on 13th will be added.
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Negative. 115 is only moving to Wilson, 122 remains at McNicoll per one Mt Dennis operator.
Steve: I am quoting from the Service Planning Department’s memo about the changes which shows all three routes at Wilson. 78 and 115 have to be at the same garage because they are interlined. As for 122, Planning must have got it wrong.
Secondly, on that day, electric vehicles will now be debuting out of Birchmount. Routes 65, 72 and 121 are excluded. Will they gain control of 172 and 175 in the May board in which they will introduce some of the changes introduced in the 2022/23 ASP? I’m still waiting for the new 154 CURRAN HALL and 178 BRIMORTON bus routes.
Steve: TTC has already said more than once that the 2022 ASP routes are on hold due to budgetary limitations. May Board details have not yet been announced.
Have you forgot to mention the bay changes at Kennedy since you didn’t post the map? The 905/986 is taking the 116’s bay which was once held by the 21/131. 116 is moving to the bay used by the 334 (formerly used by 57).
Steve: If there is a map of Kennedy Station changes on the TTC’s website it is well hidden. There is no mention of this change in the service memo. I publish the info I get or can find. For example, the map of the revised King route only appeared yesterday on Twitter. It was not in any of the omnibus announcements of changes.
I tracked down the Kennedy map and it appears to exist only on social media, the @TTCHelps Twitter account, the same place as the King map. This is an example of the chaotic nature of TTC information. Another thing that only appears to be on social media is the restoration of routes to Wilson Terminal.
I am referring to the ones that mention “Old Veh” and “New Veh” as well as the headways like in the past spreadsheets.
Steve: It’s there. The link is just before the heading “Subway Service Changes”. I have moved it to its own line rather than being a hotlink from the word “here” at the end of the previous paragraph.
You might get a tad more respect from me if you didn’t treat this site as somehow falling down on the job. I am not the TTC and don’t get paid for this, although I spend a lot of time correcting some of their errors and presenting their info in a more consistent and useful format.
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Just a fast question if anybody knows… (and for the record I did ask the TTC and got nowhere) If a bus tracks on the nextbus app, and is shown on the map – is it supposedly in service? I am getting 2-3 every morning, between 5:45-6:10 am that are tracked on Sheppard W, going to the subway, but run by “out of service” – is this new as of this period – have a few of the operators figured out how to avoid the starting half trips work?
Steve: This is due to ops who are getting back on time by running express, possibly because they were late out of the garage. There is no way for a bus to communicate its actual status beyond signing off the tracking system. This shows up a lot near terminals where vehicles disappear on or shortly before arrival, and don’t always reappear immediately on leaving. It plays havoc with predictions.
If NextBus tracks it, then the bus is in the “in service” schedule. You can cross-check this against the TTC’s published schedules on their site. What stop are you getting on at?
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According to Transit Toronto, routes 905 and 21 are swapping divisions between Birchmount and Malvern?
Steve: That is correct, according to the memo from Service Planning. I will add notes about this to the article. Thanks for catching that.
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Getting on at Easton Road… there are 2-3 every morning last week… tough to believe they are all “late” especially when arriving at the subway they are sitting in the backfield of the bus platforms taking a break.
Steve: On the Feb-Mar schedules, the scheduled trips eastbound at Easton between 5 and 6 am were at 5:11, 5:13, 5:22, 5:31, 5:40, 5:49, 5:55 and 5:58.
On the Mar-Apr schedules, they are at 5:22, 5:32, 5:42, and 5:55. I suspect you will not see the “Not in service” trips now, but if you do, please let me know.
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As mentioned above, the bulk of the 504 route is now operated by bus on King while the TTC adjust the overhead for pans only between Bathurst to Queen – the whole downtown section of the route. This is clearly a good idea but it is somewhat ‘ominous’ that the TTC gives no date for it being completed.
Do you have any idea when they hope to finish this work? (I can see a couple of places where they will probably need to install new poles). Of course, if the streetcars are not running it would be a great time to do some concrete repairs on the ‘margins’ between the concrete & track-work area and the asphalt. There are quite a few sections ((e.g. near Peter & John and George & Frederick) needing repair and it would, obviously, be best to do this when the streetcars are not running. However, I suspect that the overhead silo and the concrete repair silo at TTC do not communicate!
Steve: The streetcars are supposed to return in May. As for co-ordinated repairs, yes, you really are asking a lot. I have added the construction project list to the end of he article.
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Hi Steve,
I would like to ask if you have any knowledge or have heard of what is causing the significant delays on the Yonge line nowadays? It seems almost everyday there are significant delays or some sort of subway suspension happening, most definitely noticeable in the last two months. I know there are other social factors that are out of the TTC’s hands but it almost seems like ATC is the culprit in causing numerous trains to bunch and requiring the now parroted: “we are holding here for service adjustments.”
Maybe one day you’ll have a comparison of before and after ATC operations.
Steve: TTC delay data for the subway are kept at an extremely fine-grained level, but these details are not loaded into the City’s Open Data portal in real time. For example, the subway delay data were last uploaded on Jan 23 with data to the end of 2022. We won’t get get the March 2023 data until midway through the year, assuming the TTC refreshes the download. Conversely, the day-by-day delay announcements use only a few standard phrases such as “operational problem” to cover a wide variety of issues. Cross-referencing these two sources of info is, shall we say, challenging.
There are two additional sources of problems that are ATC related: one is that the implementation of ATC is in a follow-up phase to retrofit some fixes as well as changes at Eglinton Station related to stopping patterns for the expanded interchange with the Crosstown LRT. (Trains will stop further north than they do now to better distribute the transfer riders in the middle of the train.) The other is that with the move to one person train operation (aka OPTO), there is a potential for greater terminal delays. This is not an “ATC” problem, per se.
I too have noticed the apparent increase in the frequency of delays, although the overall incidence of signal problems definitely declined during the rollout of ATC. One more data mining project too add to my backlog. 😉
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Hi Steve
I was wondering if you had a source for this quote in the article: “Peak periods have gone back to 100% of pre-covid levels, and off-peak have gone even further, close to peak levels.”
Thanks,
Nick
Steve: This was in the February 2023 report on service changes which brought in the revised standards:
Point 2 sets a standard for off-peak loads that is close to the peak level, and is well above the standard from Ridership Growth Strategy days when the idea was to plan for a seated or very light standing load for comfort, service resiliency and room for growth.
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