This article reviews the quality of service and crowding on the 129 McCowan North bus in September and October of 2024.

Updated Nov . 18/24 at 5:00 pm: Bus spacing charts were omitted in the original posts, and they have been added. Also, crowding and spacing charts have been added for Wednesday, October 2 as an example of route behaviour before the October 6 schedule change.

Summary

This route has two branches:

• 129A operates north of Steeles under contract to York Region to Major Mackenzie Drive.
• 129B operates to Steeles Avenue.

In the September schedules, much of the 129A service was provided as an “every nth” through bus on the Steeles service. This changed on October 6 so that the 129A and 129B services operate independently, and the 129B service changed from regular-sized to articulated buses. Service in peak periods is scheduled to be uneven even if it is “on time” by TTC standards.

With a combination of bus sizes and uneven headways, the effect on crowding can be severe if a smaller bus is travelling on a headway designed for a larger one.

Details of the scheduled service are in the main part of the article.

Construction at Sheppard severely affected travel times for much of the last two weeks in October. In turn, there was more bunching and gaps, and headway reliability declined considerably.

The segment of the route where bus crowding is most reported lies between STC and Steeles, and extends into York Region.

Service leaving Kennedy Station northbound shows a small range of headways only with the September schedule which had regular departure intervals. From week 2 of October onward, and compounded by effects of construction, headway reliability at Kennedy Station was poor. The situation was worse further north on the route. Southbound services merging at Steeles did not do so on a controlled basis even though the schedule purports a “blended” service.

Service north of Steeles can be quite erratic northbound. Southbound service benefits from recovery time at the Major Mackenzie terminus, but can still be uneven.

The remainder of this article contains many charts for readers who like the detailed analysis.

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