Southbound 510 Spadina bus operations changed on July 8. Between 3 and 7pm on weekdays, buses do not operate south to Queens Quay, but instead loop east on Front, then south and west on Blue Jays Way to Spadina.
The charts presented here were generated by Darwin O’Connor’s TransSee website. Basic functions of that site are available free, and some chargeable features are free for Toronto streetcar routes. O’Connor uses the NextBus data feed as his source on a real time basis whereas the analyses I publish here use a monthly data extract provided to me by the TTC from their Vision system.
This article will be updated from time to time to show the evolution of travel times on the 510 Spadina replacement bus operation.
There are two locations of interest where congestion occurs:
- Southbound approaching Front Street
- Northbound approaching Bloor Street
Updated July 16 at 6:50am: Data for July 15 added.
Monday, July 8, 2024
Southbound King to Front
There was much interest in the first day of the new operation including CITY-TV coverage from the site. However, things went mostly well because Monday traffic is the lightest of the week.
The TTC continues to operate buses in mixed traffic even though there is a streetcar right-of-way. On Monday, the light traffic produced only occasional delays between King and Front, but this will increase as the week goes on.
The chart below shows travel times from King to Front for weekdays from Wednesday, July 3 to Monday, July 8 between 1 and 8pm. Monday’s data are in red, and there is only a brief peak around 5pm at about 15 minutes. However, data from the previous week show values up to half an hour, and this is likely to recur in coming days.
The initial “everything is mostly ok” coverage is unlikely to survive the week.
There is supposed to be work underway on the streetcar right-of-way, but there is little sign of this yet. The TTC really needs to find a way for this work, when it occurs, to vacate the right-of-way especially during the PM peak so that it can be used by buses. Alternately, they may have to begin the diversion further north to avoid the extent of congestion which can reach well north of King Street.
Updated July 10 at 6:20am: The original chart here has been replaced with one where the y-axis starts at zero.
Northbound Harbord to Bloor
There is also a problem with congestion at the north end of the line. Travel times up to 25 minutes were seen in the PM peak on July 8.
Bus Bunching
The extended travel times on these route segments can produce severe bunching of vehicles. Here is the NextBus view on July 8 at 3:30pm where most buses were stuck at both ends of the line rather than providing service along the route.
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Southbound King to Front
Travel times peaked at about 3:30 and then settled down to values under ten minutes
Northbound Harbord to Bloor
Travel times continue to be high through the afternoon and PM peak.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Southbound King to Front.
Travel times southbound build just before 3pm, but drop again for a while as buses shift to the left turn lane toward Front which moves at a better rate. But the effect does not last and until 7pm travel times from King to Front are still extended.
Northbound from Harbord to Bloor
Northbound to Bloor from Harbord, travel times are long all afternoon with a brief respite just before 7pm.
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Service on Spadina was badly disrupted by a collision near Spadina Station at about 5pm. Road construction in the area limited where buses could divert.
Southbound from King to Front
Northbound from Harbord to Bloor
Northbound travel times show a big spike at 5pm due to the service blockage.
Friday, July 12, 2024
Southbound from King to Front
Northbound from Harbord to Bloor
Monday, July 15, 2024
Southbound from King to Front
Northbound from Harbord to Bloor
For the week of July 15-21, the intersection at Bloor and Spadina is closed for complete reconstruction. Buses are diverting via Harbord and Spadina to St. George Station.
Tracking information on this diversion is not available.
Steve Munro 
Hi Steve,
i happened to travel northbound on July 8 ( yesterday) on the replacement bus. The main issue is 2 fold -congestion on Spadina road just south of Bloor and congestion within the bus terminal of buses not having space to park while their operators take a break. Many buses were offloading their passengers on the street outside the bus terminal at Spadina station rather than within the bus terminal due to this. The 127 bus was also caught in this mess trying to navigate to its designated pick up bay.
Steve: Thanks for the intel. I was not able to get over to watch the line in person and had to make do with online monitoring and media reports. The way the buses were bunched at the north end suggested that some of the congestion was due to layovers. An “own goal”.
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Was it an oversight not to make the streetcar ROW accessible for buses? Or perhaps a shortsighted way to save money?
Steve: There’s only so much road width to go around and transit got only as much as it needed for streetcars. Spadina north of Front uses spans across the width of the street whereas south of Front there are centre poles that make it particularly difficult for buses.
I remember during the design debates about St. Clair, the TTC was adamant about using centre poles although this actually makes the right-of-way wider and takes space away from the sidewalk. It was a street where the overhead they were replacing was strung from side poles, but they just had to make the change. A related problem was the spacing of poles Toronto Hydro wanted for street lighting which turned out to be overly generous (and hence the street too dark) and had to be changed to roughly the spacing that would have supported the TTC overhead.. This was a classic case of designers with an agenda for their own scheme.
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I can only offer an ‘outside’ observation of the Spadina bus situation, as even if I was travelling on the TTC, I’d avoid the route right now due to the present situation.
I have cycled across Spadina a number of times in the last few days, and each time when crossing, (usually College, Dundas or Queen) glanced up and down Spadina only to witness buses tailed back five or six at a time.
One wonders what compels so many of the Spadina passengers to not find alternatives?
Steve: The TTC does an excellent job of driving riders away. Whether they return is another story.
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I was on Dundas today and wanted to go south (to King). The streetcar stop is south of Dundas the replacement bus stop is north – not quite what one would expect. At least, the orange signs need arrows pointing to the replacement stop.
I also noted that there appeared to be no enforcement of the paper No Parking signs along Spadina so lots of vehicles were blocking curb lane. All in all, much as one might expect.
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Last Thursday (4 July, so before the change) at around 4pm I walked north from Harbord to Spadina station, and passed nine northbound buses. (That means they were facing north in the northbound lane; there was almost no actual movement going on…) At least a couple were signed Not in Service, though it wouldn’t have made a difference to any prospective passengers (uh, “customers”).
Looking south from Harbord before I started to walk I could see two more between Harbord and the circle. Certainly the sidewalk construction on the SE corner of Spadina & Bloor was a big contributor (Spadina was down to one lane each way at the south side of the intersection), and one hopes that that’ll be finished much sooner than many related projects.
For what it’s worth, the earlier (about 2:30) Southbound trip from Spadina to Harbord was great – lots of buses and all of them moving nicely. The single biggest problem I observed in that direction is that buses have to turn left out of the station onto Spadina into backed up SB traffic. Drivers are variably wimpy about pushing that turn. There’s potential for genuine (not metaphorical) gridlock there if one bus is across Spadina on the turn and another NB across Bloor.
In any case this is all of no direct import to me because that’s a totally walkable trip (for most people), but obviously those buses aren’t serving the rest of the line.
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According to the Star, someone is working on this – imagine giving public transit priority. Not very likely in Toronto!
Dedicated bus lane eyed as fix to ease Spadina traffic congestion
A bus lane would mean Spadina’s southbound lanes between Richmond Street and Lake Shore Boulevard would be reduced from three to two.
Steve: I cannot get over how the TTC simply refuses to entertain using buses in the right-of-way north of Front southbound, and figuring out how to restore streetcar service to the south end of the line as soon as possible. Their stock response to construction these days seems to be to simply shut down lines for months on end.
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Steve said: I cannot get over how the TTC simply refuses to entertain using buses in the right-of-way north of Front southbound, and figuring out how to restore streetcar service to the south end of the line as soon as possible.
This is similar to their general reluctance to build any streetcar lines unless they have their own separate ROW when it is obvious that streetcars CAN operate in mixed traffic (if one makes the effort.)
They seem to be unable to think outside the box and having the southbound Spadina buses running IN the Streetcar ROW while northbound ones run at the curb is clearly something they cannot envisage! As bus-titutions are not uncommon, it would certainly make an sensible organisation (and the City to insist) on planning for using transit ROWs for buses if necessary and not putting in poles that prevent this.
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Are they actually doing work on the right-of-way??? Can someone provide photographic and video evidence of this???
It wasn’t long ago when these fools shut down the intersection at King & Sumach for over a month but anybody who actually went down there to have a look saw that there was nobody present and no work being done!
That was also the situation on Kingston Road when they shut the line down for a 6 month period to do overhead work (like here) but anybody who went down there saw no one and no work being done week after week!
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