The TTC has released the first draft of their 2025 Annual Service Plan for comment on their site. Readers with suggestions should use the TTC’s survey for input to the plan.
Updated August 9 at 5:20pm: The TTC has supplied new versions of maps for routes 49 and 405, as well as for the Etobicoke Blue Night service change proposals. On their behalf, thanks to readers who have flagged issues on the original versions.
The consultation looks at three areas of TTC service:
- Proposed 2025 Changes
- The One Fare Program
- Community Bus Routes (4xx series)
There will also be pop-up consultations at various locations around the city.
| Date | Time | Location | Routes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 7 | 4:30 to 6:00 am | Bus ride-along | 395, 385 and other affected night routes |
| Aug 7 | 6:00 to 8:00 am | Kennedy Stn | 334 |
| Aug 7 | 6:30 to 8:00 am | Rouge Hill GO | 385 |
| Aug 9 | Noon to 2:30 pm | Dufferin Mall | 402 |
| Aug 12 | 9:30 am to Noon | North Park Plaza | 400 |
| Aug 13 | 4:30 to 6:00 am | Bus ride-along | 337 |
| Aug 13 | 6:00 to 8:00 am | Kiping Station | 45, 49, 337 and other affected night routes |
| Aug 14 | 12:30 to 2:30 pm | Bus ride-along | 13B |
| Aug 19 | Noon to 2:00 pm | Coxwell Station | 22, 70 and 404 |
| Aug 19 | Noon to 2:00 pm | Main Station | 87A |
In a recent Stakeholders’ session which I attended, it became clear that some of the 2024 ASP proposals that had not yet shown up in service would be coming in fall 2024. I asked the TTC for details of the outstanding 2024 proposals, and this information is in a table at the end of the article.
A further problem is that the substantial changes already planned for the Line 5 and 6 openings cannot be implemented until Metrolinx actually begins service there.
One key item that is not addressed by this round of consultation is the matter of service frequency. Most of the routes TTC proposes to modify suffer from infrequent service, and the benefit of the route changes will be muted by the absence of buses as opposed to lines on the map.
Proposed 2025 Changes
| Daytime Services | |
| 145 Belfield | Replacement for 45B Kipling. Service extended to Viscount Loop at Pearson Airport. |
| 49 Bloor West | Extended north to Renforth Station |
| 13 Avenue Road | Midday 13B service to Gerrard discontinued. All trips will operate as 13A to Queen’s Park |
| 22 Coxwell / 70 O’Connor | Routes combined as 22 Coxwell to eliminate transfer at Coxwell Station. |
| 87 Cosburn | 87A service to East York Acres discontinued due to operational problems. |
| Scarborough Night Services | |
| 386 Scarborough Night Bus | New night service between Kennedy Station and Meadowvale Loop. |
| 334B Eglinton East Night Bus | Rerouted through Guildwood Village with service on Kingston Road taken over by 386. |
| 385 Sheppard East Night Bus | Extended east and south to Rouge Hill GO. |
| 395 York Mills Night Bus | Route changed to match 95 York Mills. Service on Meadowvale replaced by route 386. |
| Etobicoke Night Services | Restructure service to improve route spacing. |
| Common to both plans | |
| 353 Steeles Night Bus | Extend west to Martin Grove |
| 345 Kipling Night Bus | New service from Lake Shore (Humber College) to Steeles |
| 315 Evans Night Bus | Interlined with new service on Royal York north of Bloor. |
| Islington & Royal York Restructuring | Improve east-west spacing with new 345 Kipling. |
| Option 1 | |
| 373 Royal York Night Bus | New service from Royal York Station via Royal York to Steeles and then west to Islington. Interlined with 315 Evans Night Bus. |
| 337 Islington Night Bus | Discontinued. |
| Option 2 | |
| 337 Islington Night Bus | Rerouted between Dixon Road and Bloor via Royal York. Interlined with 315 Evans night bus. Service between Dixon Road and Lake Shore on Islington discontinued. |
Etobicoke Services
Two changes to daytime services in Etobicoke are intended to improve links to industrial areas on the Mississauga boundary.
Night service changes include a westward extension of 353 Steeles and a new route 345 Kipling. The latter triggers a proposal to replace 337 Islington by a new 373 Royal York service in whole or in part.
Scarborough Night Service Changes
The 334B Eglinton East night bus will be rerouted through Guildwood Village, and the new 386 Scarborough will cover the portion of Kingston Road east of Guildwood Parkway.
The 395 York Mills will terminate at the same location as the daytime 95 service while 386 Scarborough covers Meadowvale from York Mills to Sheppard.
Toronto & East York Changes
The 13B branch of Avenue Road operates south to the hospital district at Gerrard between peak periods only. TTC proposes to drop this service and turn all buses back at Queen’s Park claiming this would make a service improvement possible. This only affects weekday midday service now scheduled every 30 minutes. Based on headways when the 13A service operates, this would probably improve to something like 22-25 minutes.
The 22 Coxwell and 70 O’Connor services will become a single route eliminating the transfer connection at Coxwell Station. What this will do to the headway on the combined route is not known, but the existing Coxwell service is more frequent than the O’Connor bus.
The off-peak operation of 87 Cosburn into East York Acres as 87A will be dropped. The loop through their parking lot is difficult under slippery conditions and when the lot is crowded. The 404 Community Bus, which uses Wheel-Trans vehicles, will continue to serve East York Acres, but much less frequently than the 87 Cosburn.
Community Bus Review
The five Community Bus services are not well-used, and the TTC seeks to improve ridership by addressing issues that discourage ridership. The survey has two branches depending on whether you are a current user or not.
Those who now ride at least one route are asked which one(s) they use, what their trip purpose(s) are, what their satisfaction level is with the service, what problems riders have encountered, and how the service could be improved.
Those who do not ride are asked why not and what might be done to improve the attractiveness of service.
These routes are not designed for speed, but to link many destinations in their communities that would be difficult for those with mobility challenges on the conventional network.
Service is infrequent with the best of these operating hourly. Requests for route extensions generally are addressed by making service even less frequent, not by adding buses.
One Fare Review
The survey asks for feedback on the One Fare scheme providing regional travel between the TTC, the 905 agencies and GO. The purpose is to find out how this has affected riders, if at all.
If riders make regional trips, they are asked how One Fare has benefited them and affected their use. For riders who have not used One Fare, the questions ask why not and what could be done to change their travel.
One Fare has an immediate benefit to existing riders, but expanding on that base depends not just on fare levels, but on service and connections between systems. A cheaper fare is worth little if buses run infrequently and unreliably, or if one’s trip is not served by the regional route network.
Budget Choices
The TTC’s 2025 Operating Budget is still in preparation, and it will be affected by many factors. Service will compete with other areas including safety, security, fare policy and maintenance. These lie mainly in the operating budget, but the political focus has been almost entirely on capital projects and funding.
One major problem with TTC service budgets that I have discussed before is that they are quoted in hours. All other things being equal, this would translate directly to more or less service, but the situation is not that simple.
If some of the new hours are soaked up providing more vehicles to deal with traffic congestion, then this provides no net new capacity beyond (possibly) improving the reliability of the target route. The result is that 100 pre-pandemic hours generally provided more service than they will in 2025, and saying we are back to 100% is misleading from a rider’s point of view. Moreover, new hours can be soaked up by new or significantly revised routes while other routes see cuts or no change.
It is not yet clear how much of the coming service changes in fall 2024 and later in 2025 will actually constitute service improvements.
Construction
A major issue in the 2024 plan was the way in which TTC handles major construction projects and diversions. This topic will be addressed in Round 2 of the ASP survey in the Fall.
The 2024 Planned Changes
The table below lists the route changes proposed in the 2024 plan and their status. Thanks to TTC for providing an update on these routes.
See also:
| Northeast Scarborough | Status |
| 134 Progress: Routing change (outer end) 42 Cummer: Extension to Markham Road 130 Middlefield: Revised routing | Implementation of the approved service changes is dependent on the installation of new stop infrastructure throughout the study area. Note that implementation needs to occur concurrently as these adjustments were planned to maintain / expand service coverage throughout the study area. TTC is working on determining when stop infrastructure may be installed. |
| 902 Markham Road Express: Extension to Steeles | Implemented in 2023 |
| Scarborough East | |
| 54 Lawrence East: Extension of 10 minute network to Morningside Ave | September 2024 |
| 154 Curran Hall: New service | September 2024 |
| 12D Kingston Road: Midday service | November 2024 |
| York-Mills Leslie | |
| 78 St. Andrews: Extend to Bayview Village | Implementation planned for Q1/Q2 2025 pending resource availability. Note that this adjustment requires corresponding changes on route 115 Silver Hills as most trips are currently interlined with service on 78 St. Andrews. |
| 122 Graydon Hall: Improve east end | Implemented May 12, 2024 |
| 151 Leslie North: Break 51 Leslie at Sheppard | Awaiting Line 5 opening. |
| North Etobicoke | |
| 906 Airport-Humber College: New service to Viscount Station | Awaiting Line 6 Finch West opening |
| 37 Islington/996 Wilson Express: Extension to Humberwood Loop | Awaiting Line 6 Finch West opening |
| South Scarborough-Beaches | |
| 503 Kingston Road: All day service | Implemented in 2023 |
| 31 Greenwood: Revised south end routing | Implemented in 2023 |
| 8 Broadview: Extension to Warden Station | Implemented in 2023 |
| 117 Birchmount & 69 Warden South: New two-way service replacing loop | November 2024 |
| South Etobicoke | |
| 80 Queensway: New 80B replacing 176 Mimico GO and 145 Downtown/Humber Bay Express | September 2024 |
| Zoo | |
| 200 Toronto Zoo: New route from Rouge Hill GO | Implemented in 2023 |
| Liberty Village | |
| 29/929 Dufferin: Adjustments for planned construction | Not required due to deferral of King/Dufferin trackwork until 2025 |
| 63 Ossington: Modified routing to address operational issues with layover | Partly implemented plus construction extension to Roncesvalles |
Steve Munro 
Wow Steve. Good work!!!
Steve: Thanks!
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Noticed that there maybe no changes to the 300A Bloor-Danforth Night Bus. It will run along 427 from Burnhamthorpe to Eglinton… with ZERO bus stops. There are condos and apartment buildings along West Mall and East Mall, parallel to 427, but no bus stop for the 300A.
The 300A looks good as a line on the map, but not for actual patrons trying to get home at 2 o’clock in the morning along West Mall or East Mall north of Burnhamthorpe. (They are also planning for new high rises along Rathburn at West Mall & East Mall.)
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You note re the Scarborough proposals “TTC is working on determining when stop infrastructure may be installed. ”
Does TTC not install their own STOP signage or are they talking about adjusting parking sign by-laws and signs and installing Astral shelters? If Transportation are the ones who install Stop signage it might be better if TTC did this.
Steve: If adding a stop requires changes including things like pads for a shelter, geometric street changes, etc., then it’s not up to the TTC. They just do signs.
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Will the express bus route update list the placement of the express bus STOPS? Currently, the 935 JANE EXPRESS bus does not stop at Annette Street (connecting with the 26 DUPONT bus). I’m sure the Baby Point Gates BIA’s merchants would like to see an express bus stop at Annette & Jane.
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Good to see an update of when those changes will be implemented, although some are still missing (118 ext, 150, 985C, etc).
Steve: Those changes were part of plans before 2024, and I did not ask about them. I do know that the 150 Eastern is on hold, although it has been substantially replaced by 114 Queens Quay East.
Also from the background, I see that the 396 would run along Albion instead of the current Westhumber+Elmhurst. Could it be a possible change in the future or an error on their end?
Steve: I will inquire about this.
Updated: TTC advises that this is an error in the base map and they are not going to change the route. The map will be updated.
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The old Downtown Express Routes (14X) were suspended during covid and no longer appear on the TTC website. Maybe time to admit they are gone and remove the physical stops?
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I hope the Islington Night Bus isn’t discontinued, it’s quite a distance from Kipling in some areas. The new Kipling Night Bus is very exciting, it’s a great street to provide night service to.
The new 49 Bloor and 145 Belfield route changes are really good too, I’m glad that there’s effort to bridge more services into Mississauga.
Though, I wonder how fare collection for the 145 will work outside of Toronto. A few years back, I had to take the Lawrence West bus into Mississauga and had to pay a double fare (apparently my Presto card didn’t pay 2 fares worth, and I had to give cash to the bus driver).
With the One Fare Policy in effect, I wonder how payment would affect those services.
Thanks Steve, it’s really great to see some positive news; it’s a breathe of fresh air. Thanks for your hard work, I hope you have a wonderful day.
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Is the combining of the 22 and 70 still going to loop through the subway station, like the 64 Main used to do? Or is it going to serve a stop on the street like the 72 does now? Coxwell Station is a fair distance from Coxwell and Danforth for mobility impaired persons.
Steve: Yes, it will loop through the station. The 72 stops on street now only because Pape Station Loop is under construction for the Ontario Line.
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The 70 service is messy mostly due to the peak traffic on the O’Connor bridge. I feel merging with the 22 will make the 22 more unreliable. If anything they could extend 22 to O’Connor (to service the hospital and the schools) and loop back around south.
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Any updates on the 901 Airport-Eglinton Express? Do you think it has been dropped?
Steve: It is supposed to be part of the changes for Line 5 whenever that opens.
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But the EFFICIENCY! Think of the efficiency!
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What is the 137 route shown in the map for the 49 Bloor West extension?
Steve: I have asked TTC about this and await a reply.
Updated: TTC advises that they were planning a new route, but then pulled it from their proposal. They missed this in the base map, and will re-issue it.
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And what is route 155 shown on the route 405 map?
Steve: Awaiting a reply from TTC.
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Steve – you mentioned that they were looking at a route 137 – does the TTC ever disclose what other routes were being considered but dropped?
Steve: No.
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The 155 was the Emmett route that appears in some Line 5 plans. Previously they used the number 170 but now it’s replaced with a 73B extension.
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It could be that 137 was going to be the Rexdale branch of 37, like 145 becomes the Belfield branch of 45.
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Any word on the 904 SHEPPARD-KENNEDY EXPRESS and the 185 SHEPPARD CENTRAL routes?
I’m pretty sure those were approved for the 2024 ASP as well.
In addition, wouldn’t it make more sense for the 395 to be extended further to Rouge Hill GO along with the 385? The current plan has it stopping in a dead end when it could go a few kilometres further to link with GO services.
Steve: The 904 and 185 route numbers were simply rebranding of existing services for clarity with 904 replacing 985A, and the 185 giving a separate route number to service between Yonge and Don Mills. As we have been through the SRT replacement route change process without seeing these modifications, it’s fair to assume that they are not happening.
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This is a bit of speculation.
Replying to Ed’s comment: The 137 is shown to take the same routing as the 123B/C/D Sherway bus branches so it has nothing to do with Islington or Rexdale.
There are 2 branches of 123 on that map thus they probably wanted to reorganize service along the current 123. 123A would replace some of the 123 branches and 123B would replace 123F. Perhaps the 137 would bypass Sherway Gardens and continue down Brown’s Line which would make sense for having a different route name. It would make more sense for the East Mall branches.
I always think the 123 Sherway is one of the most confusing routes in the system. I would split the route into 3 different routes. One route for the West Mall service, one for North Queen and one for East Mall. It’s easy to say take any 123 to Sherway Gardens but more confusing if the destination is elsewhere. The 123C North Queen branch is the most popular as it goes to all the shopping destinations but people always confuse it with other branches.
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Based on future changes, I would make the following modifications:
337 Islington Night would be kept as it follows, and 315 Evans would be extended to Albion Road and Wilson via Royal York. So residents of Royal York, including myself, would have more options.
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Splitting up 123 can be done next period. It’s simply renaming/numbering the routes to reduce confusion. Why would that need to take 3 years?
Same with 52 and all the branches, bring back 58 Malton. Too many branches just makes it confusing for customers and drivers. TTC split up the branches to their own routes along the Wilson corridor, yet do the complete opposite on Lawrence west. At least be consistent. And it’s not like you need extra buses either.
It’s all in the destination sign, you don’t even have to adjust the schedule either. That’s how simple the changes can be to implement. When the comes to adjust service, simply adjust. 52A, B, D can easily be 58A, B, D.
Some of the changes where it’s just renaming routes and branches shouldn’t take till 2025 to implement. I could understand if they’re making a new route or redirecting a route, and you want/need more input.
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Just curious, is there a plan to add a Blue Night Service on Markham Rd as well. Also maybe have the new Royal York blue night run up Weston Rd to Steeles. That would be good.
Also why don’t they merge the 995 York Mills Express with the 996 Wilson Express and have one Express route between U of T Scarborough and Humber College. Currently the two express route cannot handle the overcrowding in the mornings. Bring the 95B York Mills to U of T Scarborough local bus to help the 95A out. Just sayin.
Another suggestion would be to have the 51 Leslie run between Steeles and York Mills Stn and have the 56 Leaside extend from Donlands Stn to Leslie Stn. Also extend the 78 St Andrews East from York Mills Stn to Leslie Stn and eliminate the 115 Silver Hills to save cost in a low ridership route.
Steve: Please be sure to submit your requests to the TTC’s own survey site.
I have not heard any talk of a Markham Road night bus.
A merged 995 and 996 would be immensely long and I suspect the TTC would prefer two separate routes with a transfer at York Mills Station.
The Leslie bus will be split into two routes when Line 5 opens. The south route will be an amalgamation of 56 Leaside and 51 Leslie.
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I do not live in the Toronto area, but I am a transit enthusiast and I’m inquisitive to see when the 118 gets extended, as well as the future of Route 33 Forest Hill and how the restructing of the 97 will look like. My guess for the 97 restructurings is all the branches are combined into a single branch.
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In the 2024 Service Plan they talked about bus 80B replacing the 176 for Humber Bay Shores. That never happened… Was that plan not implemented or does it take a couple of years for things to happen?
Steve: If you scroll down to the table at the end of the article, you will see that the 80B is listed for September 2024 implementation.
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Steve, do you know what date in September 2024 that the September changes (Lawrence East, Curran Hall, Queensway, etc.) will be put into effect? Thanks for all you do!!
Steve: Sunday, September 1, although the Harbourfront change doesn’t begin until Tuesday the 3rd to finish out the CNE.
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Back in 2022, wasn’t the 118 supposed to be extended to Clearport Cres. and it hasn’t happened.
Steve: Yes, it was, but this has not happened yet (among other changes).
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Finally, more service to this underserved area along Mill Road from just below Burnhamthorpe Road up to the Renforth Station. Thank you for providing service through Centennial Park, as well as providing various options (from Royal York Station, Kipling Station, or Renforth Station) to get to this part of Etobicoke. I’ve lived in this area almost 40 years and have seen a bus route removed as well as the frequency of the buses become less and less over time.
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Any update on the 384 Sheppard West Night Bus being extended via Weston and Steeles to Islington?
Steve: I have not seen anything on that yet, but more changes are coming later this year.
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