25 thoughts on “TTC Service Changes: October 6, 2024”

1. I wish the 503 would continue to Spadina forever. It makes it a more useful service to be able to get to either side of downtown. It also makes it was easier to catch eastbound, since there’s no eastbound stop on king until east of Bay.

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2. Where do you get the info from? I’m trying to figure out what is happening with the 114 in more detail.

   Steve: I get a copy of the TTC’s detailed memo about changes (and have for a few decades). They will post their own summary online soon, but I try to get the info “out the door” as soon after I get the memo as possible. Normally I include a detailed spreadsheet of the changes, but it takes time to pull together info from the list of changes and from existing schedules. I expect to add this to the article over the weekend.

   Specifically for 114 Queens Quay East service will be scheduled 2-3 minutes less frequently than it is now in many periods, and one or more buses will be added to the route. The combination of wider headways and more vehicles gives considerably more travel time to buses in the congested areas they run through with the intent that service will be more reliable.

   For example, in the PM peak, the new service uses 9 buses on a 10 minute headway compared to the existing service of 6 buses on 10 minute headway. The change from a 60 minute to a 90 minute round trip is entirely accomplished by adding buses.

   Midday weekday service will operate every 12 minutes using 6 buses compared to the existing 10 minute service with 5 buses. In this case the change from a 50 to 72 minute round trip comes from a combination of the wider headway and the additional bus.

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3. Starting on Sunday, October 6, the second phase of construction on TTC track on Queens Quay will begin.

   There will be partial restoration on the “509 Harbourfront” route of streetcars between the Queens Quay and Spadina loop and Union Station loop. What about the western stretch of the “509 Harbourfront” route ‘West Harbourfront’ – will it continue with shuttle bus operation between Queens Quay and Spadina loop to the Exhibition loop?

   Steve: From my article:

   509 Harbourfront streetcars will operate from Union Station to the loop at Queens Quay and Spadina.
   510 Spadina buses will be operated on two branches with alternate buses on each route at all times. This will substantially reduce the number of buses affected by congestion at the very south end of the route.

   510C from Spadina Station to King looping via Adelaide and Charlotte Streets.
   510D from Spadina Station to Exhibition Loop

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4. How will the 509 streetcars get to their route? Is the track on Spadina south of King actually usable? (And if yes, why isn’t service running Union to Adelaide/Charlotte? sigh)

   Steve: The 509 cars will operate via King and Spadina. I have asked about Charlotte Loop before, and the story is that multiple routes using the same loop would block each other. That is among the lamer explanations the TTC has mustered, especially considering how infrequent services using the loop would be. They seem to just be adamant about not running streetcars up to King.

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5. On which routes are the new articulated buses being assigned?

   On which routes are the old articulated buses being assigned?

   Steve: I do not know that there are specific assignments of old and new vehicles beyond whatever is available in the garages serving routes with artics.

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6. Steve, is there a possibility after all is done, that the Queens Quay East route would stay as it is and the Pape continues as the Thorncliffe Park replacement ?? That way, you have one route east-west and the other north-south. Just an observation. (And as someone pointed out in a previous post, Science Centre station has a 72 Pape bus sign/Bay).

   Steve: I suspect this arrangement will continue, but the TTC has not made any specific announcement. The main operational benefit of the 114 is that it cut this extremely congested segment of the waterfront off of both 19 Bay and 72 Pape.

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7. Steve, these recent service changes have been pretty mediocre aside from the regular fall restorations.

   When are the modd changes coming?

   Steve: Your guess is as good as mine. The TTC has been overselling pending changes, I think. The next big shuffle will be for opening of Lines 5 and 6, but we don’t know what service levels will look like yet.

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8. I wonder if the 501 service on Adelaide and Richmond will prove to be faster and more reliable than when it operated on Queen. Perhaps a before/after comparison is in order once the diversion has been in operation for a while.

   And while from a railfan’s perspective it’s nice to see full time service on Wellington Street, I agree the 503 would be more useful if it continued to Spadina (at least) to supplement 504 service and provide an alternative to cross the financial district.

   Steve: A “before/after” comparison will be tricky because there is no exact match for “before”. However, I will be looking at travel times for Queen cars on Queen, buses on diversion, and streetcars on diversion. The bus diversion has been affected a lot by congestion downtown particularly before the traffic agents wrangled order out of chaos there.

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9. It’s good to finally see the 129A getting improvements on weekends and same should go for weekdays and have the route operating whenever the subway opens and extend the 302 blue night to Major Mackenzie because people like me ride the bus in the overnight to get to their overnight shift or to the airport or union station terminal to catch their early morning departure.

   Steve: Any decision to extend service to Major Mac rests with York Region, not the TTC. It is a contract service.

   Also does the articulated bus applies to just the 129B or both branches?

   Steve: The artics are only on the 129B.

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10. The OpenData schedule shows the 129B headway being cut to almost 30 minute headways in peak periods with no improvement to the 129A. I don’t know how they call that service improvement regardless what type of vehicle the assign to it.

    The two branches are no longer blend during peak periods would lead to long lineups on the 129A branch. I’m pretty sure they will get a lot of complaints when headway gets as wide as 14-15 minutes. The route doesn’t even qualify on the 10 minute network anymore.

    Steve: Yes. Now that I am working through details of some changes, the descriptions do not always align with what is actually happening. I expect to update the article on Sept 29.

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11. One more question, when the 129 bus reaches Kennedy station, do some 129B buses become 129A there and vice versa? If so, then I would expect some articulated buses on the 129A branch as well.

    Steve: If you look at the details of the service design, there are no fractional buses on those services, meaning that buses stay on one branch. Only the 129Bs operate with artics, and the dominant branch is the 129A with standard sized buses.

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12. The inclusion of the 92 Woodbine holiday changes (which essentially means Thanksgiving) is interesting, as there’s always (supposed to have} been extra unscheduled buses added on busy beach days.

    Does it reflect an attempt to add some granularity to the all too-often overly-generic TTC schedules? Time will tell I suppose.

    Steve: I think this is just a timing thing with where the Board Period lands on the calendar. The holiday within the last Board was Labour Day and it would have had the summer service level.

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13. 70 O’Connor
    Last WB from Creighton/Pharmacy
    First WB from Creighton/Pharmacy

    Craigton Drive, not Creighton.

    Steve: Thanks. Will fix.

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14. I rode the 114 for three or four weeks this summer. Departing from Union to the portlands area a little after 9 AM, and trying to get from the portlands to Union 6 PM.

    Yes, there can be ridiculous traffic congestion in the evenings, and sometimes I try to figure out the optimum point to leave the bus and start walking. But some days it is relatively light, particularly Fridays. Monday may be another light traffic day, but I was not in the area at all on Mondays.

    So the thing is, while a round trip in the PM peak may well average 70 minutes, the times can vary all over. A big problem on the Gardiner, as one day happened with a dump truck, can increase your one-way travel time to almost an hour. Other days, the trip can take twenty minutes or less. And on the day of the first big rainstorm and flooding, everyone had abandoned downtown by 6 PM it seemed, and the trip to Union took under fifteen minutes!

    This is a route which could really use headway management, not trip management. Perhaps you would do a route analysis.

    It actually is a pretty popular route, and I think it could be even more popular if it was more reliable. The gaps in service were random and unpredictable. I could not possibly walk to Union in less than even the worst bus trip (I think), but lots of people along Queens Quay may just decide to hoof it to Union. Or use a bicycle–there is an amazing number of bikes using the Commissioners bike lanes, and a lot of those are bikeshare bikes. If I had a sharing station close to where I was in the portlands, I would consider that myself, as an alternative to the 114.

    Steve: I have been collecting tracking data since the 114 was established, and will do an analysis later this year once there is some experience with the new schedule.

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15. Honestly I’m a bit surprised with the changes to the Bathurst 307 bus especially Thursday to Saturday buses are extremely busy. Therefore I’m kind of shocked on why they aren’t using artics on those runs.

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16. If the TTC is deferring 501 Queen streetcar service along Richmond and Adelaide Streets until sometime after October 6, then will 503 Kingston Rd be continuing to Spadina Avenue to accommodate 501 streetcars remaining on Wellington Street?

    Steve: The TTC has not announced the interim arrangements yet. The new 503 schedule does not have enough time for the cars to reach Spadina. Considering that headways on both 501 and 503 are not exactly frequent, I can’t see a problem with them both looping via Wellington, pro tem.

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17. The loss of the 72B bus is a nightmare for so many people who are currently living around the Ontario line alignment. 114 buses bypass the terminus stop of the 72 frequently and the real issue with the 72 was that it crossed the Lakeshore instead of turning at Queens Quay and going back east. It’s gone from being a go-to route downtown for me to a waste of time.

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18. I’ve checked the Triplinx schedules for 129 to Steeles and that route still runs every nine to ten minutes all day every day.

    Steve: Yes, the combined service is every ten minutes, but most of the buses run north to Major Mac (only every 3rd bus turns at Steeles). This means that the Steeles service headway is 30′, while Major Mac gets alternating 10′ and 20′ headways for an average of 15′.
    

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19. When is the precise date for Phase 2 of Queens Quay overhead and track work ending and the precise date of Phase 3 beginning? There will be a pause between these phases, for when Taylor Swift is in Toronto, to accommodate visitors.

    Steve: The changeover will be at the next scheduled period on November 17.

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20. Starting on Sunday, November 17, Phase 3 will begin. Work on the tracks and overhead will move west of Bathurst Street to the end of the line (Fleet Street tracks) to the Exhibition loop. This requires the “511 Bathurst” streetcar to be rerouted to the Union Station” loop via Queens Quay West between Bathurst Street and Bay Street.

    Which route(s) will provide the necessary shuttle bus operation between Bathurst/Lakeshore/Queens Quay/Fleet intersection and the Exhibition loop?

    Steve: The Spadina bus which is already running to the Ex.

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21. Steve: Yes, the combined service is every ten minutes, but most of the buses run north to Major Mac (only every 3rd bus turns at Steeles). This means that the Steeles service headway is 30′, while Major Mac gets alternating 10′ and 20′ headways for an average of 15′.

    From 7-9AM and 3-7PM, there are 14-15 minute gaps when there is no 129B between pairs of 129As. Also around 6PM, the 129 changes to a 30 minute headway (likely from the contract), but the departures are staggered as if it still came every 15 minutes, with 15 – 7.5 – 7.5 minute gaps. Later it does return to a 10 minute headway thankfully.

    And with the lack of route supervision, even a 7.5 minute gap somehow turned into a 15 minute wait. Hooray!

    Steve: The schedule design is not exactly ideal complete with built-in gaps. I plan an article on the behaviour of this route and have been collecting tracking data for it.

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22. Steve, will there be a precise date when TTC customers no longer to be able to pay their fares with exact-change cash fare and obtain a valid transfer, the old-fashioned way?

    This past summer, I was riding a southbound “511 Bathurst” streetcar, and there was a pair of fare inspectors aboard. They were checking to see if customers were paying their fare. One customer had a valid transfer because he paid with exact-change cash fare, whereas the rest used PRESTO. This old-fashioned way may eventually be phased out.

    Steve: In discussions about fare evasion, there has been talk of phasing out “legacy” fares (any tickets and tokens still in circulation) at the end of 2024, but no firm decision yet. Cash would still be accepted on buses, although there’s talk of “registering” fareboxes that count the change and issue a machine readable fare receipt. There is an obvious question of whether the cost of the new fareboxes would be recouped in additional revenue. The premise behind this is that some riders just throw a handful of change into the box today, not necessarily a full fare. Therefore the additional revenue would only be the delta from what such rider pay on average and a full adult fare.

    On streetcars, cash fares can already be paid in the fare machines although this is tedious, and the receipts they issue are not machine readable. There might be a fare “modernization” report soon, likely with the budget. This was discussed at the July and September Board meetings.

    One proposal is to eliminate concession cash fares so that regardless of your status (child, senior, etc) the discounted fare would only be available on a Presto card.

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23. Steve, when is the overhead and track work on the Queens Quay West and later the Fleet Street tracks and overheads expected to be completed, and the 509 Harbourfront, 510 Spadina, and 511 Bathurst (streetcar) routes return to their regular routing?

    Steve: The current stage, aka Phase 2, runs to November 16. In Phase 3, work shifts to the section west of Bathurst. The Spadina replacement bus will continue to operate west on the Harbourfront route to Exhibition Loop. The 511 Bathurst car will run to Union Station. This will last until the January schedule change on January 5 when everything goes back to normal.

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24. Steve, what will happen to to “509 Harbourfront” (streetcar) route in mid-November when Taylor Swift is in town for performances, from November 14 through 23?

    Steve: Details have not been announced, but the expected change for the November 17 schedules is that 511 Bathurst will be rerouted to Union Station while work west of Bathurst to Exhibition Loop is underway. Given its current frequency, I would expect to see some 509 service to Spadina on top of the 511 cars.

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25. Steve, it’s official. From November 1 to 24, the entire “509 Harbourfront” route will operate with streetcars – from the Union Station loop in the east to the Exhibition loop in the west. This is part of the TTC service increase in order to transport to and from Taylor Swift concerts and festivities.

    Steve: Yes, I know. I wrote it up in another article two days ago.

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