Updated Feb 18, 2025 at 12:55pm: A TTC report with more extensive information about the proposal was posted today as part of the Board’s agenda for February 24. Information from that report has been merged into this article.
In the long wait for any kind of transit improvement for the eastern waterfront, the City of Toronto and TTC now plan to install reserved bus lanes on Queens Quay between Bay and Parliament Streets. A short stretch is also proposed for Front Street between Bay and Yonge Streets eastbound.
The proposal would add red lanes:
- eastbound on Queens Quay from Jarvis to Parliament,
- westbound on Queens Quay from Parliament to Bay, and
- eastbound on Front from Bay to Yonge.
The Martin Goodman Trail (cycling) will not be affected. A new westbound right turn lane will be added on Queens Quay at Jarvis. Parking spaces will be removed on Front east of Bay Street.
Updated Feb. 18, 2025: Maps of the proposed changes to Queens Quay and to Front Street are included in the TTC report.
There is more reservation westbound on Queens Quay than eastbound, and that is the direction with the worst congestion problems. The south side offers less space for creation of a bus lane, and in some cases there might be lane narrowing to free up space for the north side.
The reserved lane westbound is generally in the curb lane, but between Sherbourne and Jarvis it will be the second from the curb. The curb lane will be dedicated to right turns given the high demand for this at Jarvis. With this change, the westbound stop at Richardson Street will be removed. The lane disappears between Cooper and Yonge Streets due to space constraints, but reappears west of Yonge in an area now used for Motorcoach loading.
On Front Street, although this is a “red lane”, the intent is for storage of up to five buses, not for speedy travel. Moreover, the bus stop will be shifted further east adding to the walking distance for riders to Union Station.
The accessible loading zone will shift west behind the bus layby. The layby area is now occupied by ten parking spaces which will be removed. This area will be shared by 114 Queens Quay, 19 Bay and 202 Cherry Beach.
For further details on the proposal, please see the TTC Report at pp 12-15.
[End of Feb. 18 update]
The area is now served, albeit infrequently, by a mix of routes that can often be snarled in traffic. The intent is to save up to five minutes travel time between Bay and Parliament. The reserved lanes will also host future improved service to developments on the eastern waterfront pending construction of the planned, but long-delayed Waterfront East LRT.
- In May 2024, 114 Queens Quay replaced the southern end of 19 Bay which now terminates at Front Street. From a loop via Front, Yonge, Wellington and Bay it runs south on Bay then east on Queens Quay into the Port Lands. The 114 operates every 10 minutes in peak periods, 12-15 minutes at other times. This is the primary route serving waterfront developments.
- 202 Cherry Beach (summer months only) runs from the same downtown loop as the 119 and follows its route as far as Parliament where it shifts north to serve the Distillery District. The 202 then turns south via Cherry Street to a loop at Cherry Beach. In summer 2024, this route operated every 20-30 minutes with no service in the AM peak.
- 75 Sherbourne has a south end loop via Sherbourne, Queens Quay, Jarvis and The Esplanade. It operates every 6-8 minutes during weekday daytime, and 20 minutes or more during most other periods.
- 65 Parliament loops at the George Brown Campus on Queens Quay. (This loop was the former eastern terminus of 19 Bay). It operates every 8-9 minutes during peak periods, 13-15 minutes at other times. Overnight service is provided every half hour by 365 Parliament.
The service between Union Station and the waterfront on 114 Queens Quay is not on a par with other routes that have dedicated lanes, and real improvement in accessibility of the waterfront will only come with much better service and eventually the LRT link via the Bay Street tunnel. A recommendation and decision on staging of the LRT should come to Council and the TTC later in 2025, but the project is not funded.
Public consultation will be held via a survey that is active until Thursday, February 20, and via three sessions:
- Tuesday, February 18, 2025, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. This session was held via webex.
- Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at the George Brown Waterfront Campus:
- 3 – 5 p.m. A pop-up event will occur in the main lobby.
- 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. An in person session in the 2nd floor main auditorium, room 237.
This page will be updated when more information is available.
Steve Munro 
If they are serious, they need to look at parking on the east side of Lower Jarvis from Queen’s Quay to Lake Shore. It has No Parking from 4pm-6pm but the 75 bus frequently gets stuck in that block – should probably be No parking 24/7.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The meat of the survey is the question, “How do you think a dedicated bus lane between Bay and Parliament would impact your commute?” in the categories “Travel time”, “Service reliability”, and “Overall commute experience”.
What is the point of this survey? Does the TTC not employ professional engineers and planners? If all the respondents say that it’s going to make their commute worse, are they going to throw out the modeling they’ve done—Internet survey respondents know best?
Steve: It is a bad survey in another way – it does not account for those who travel to/from the waterfront other than as a commute trip.
LikeLike
Unrelated question: Why did the TTC create a special position “Chief Strategy and Customer Officer” just for Josh Colle?
This position was not advertised and so, nobody else could apply for this position. If this position had been open to others, then I am sure that the TTC would have found someone far more qualified and capable than Josh Colle. This kind of nepotism and corruption is exactly why the TTC is in such disarray. Use Josh Colle’s high heeled salary to fix the subway slow zones instead.
Steve: The position did exist before Josh Colle got it. It was originally called Chief Customer Officer, and was held by the late Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas. She was succeeded by Scott Haskill on an acting basis, and during his tenure, the name was expanded to Chief Strategy & Customer Experience Officer. Haskill retired and was succeeded by Wendy Reuter, also on an acting basis.
We can debate how Colle got the job, but the position was not created for him.
LikeLike
The stretch on Front between Bay and Yonge is interesting. Most of the time what I see there are buses simply idling for 15 minutes at a time. This looks more like it’s to have reserved parking spots than a reserved travel lane.
Steve: The report just published (Feb 18) on the TTC’s website confirms that this area is intended as a layover space. I will update the article later today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know, this is all so late. The entire waterfront is a mess of zig zag roads and street car tracks that are hard to follow for residents and impossible for tourists!! So now in the one section not yet developed they’re gonna have a bus route? I guess they didn’t think far enough with that severely overcrowded at rush hour street car that it would be developed all the way? City planning IS an oxymoron!! I guess hindsight changes are better than none. Maybe they can do it without zig zagging back and forth across the roads cars drive on this time?!
LikeLike
This is excellent news, this kind of higher order transit (BRT) serves this community right.
LikeLike
Is there a reason that the bus can’t use the new bus terminal that was built for GO/Intercity coaches so that people can load off-street and have a direct transfer into the station? Is there no capacity?
Steve: A good question, although that terminal is plagued by traffic congestion at times to the point where GO terminates bus trips elsewhere. Also note that the walk through Union Station to the subway is not exactly short.
As a terminal, it is not set up for direct drive-in, drive out the way bus bays are at subway stations. The frequency of bus service that Queens Quay East requires, especially looking at future growth, would likely strain the terminal’s capacity.
LikeLike
Reserved lanes on Queens Quay westbound will save much more than five minutes in the evening. If they work properly. I fear that the right turn lane for Jarvis won’t be long enough to hold all the right-turners, and the bus lane will be impacted one way or another.
I found that many 114 buses would off-load on Bay, just before turning onto Front. That’s more convenient for passengers as well as being quicker, but of course there is construction in that area as well, so various barriers around there, which is likely why the official stop is around the corner on Front.
LikeLike
Thanks, Steve. It’s been a while since I’ve lived in Toronto, and I haven’t actually seen the new bus terminal. Why was it designed that way? Feels so wasteful.
Steve: I think it’s the compound effect of wanting to redevelop the Bay Street site and, in theory, getting the GO (and other carriers’) buses clear of downtown traffic. It looks nice on a map. As for the bus bay design, that’s how coach terminals work to squeeze in more bays per linear foot of platform, and especially with considerable layovers for loading.
LikeLike
It’s not a question of capacity. This is a private sector run bus terminal which means efficiency and things run on time something the TTC drivers are not capable of. If TTC buses were allowed to use this terminal, then TTC drivers would park their buses and disappear to goof around which will prevent other buses from using the platforms.
Steve: This is a ridiculous statement. GO and other buses are routinely parked for extended periods on their bays with no driver in sight. This is a scheduling issue.
But you have never even seen the terminal and already dismissed it as allegedly wasteful. Go and take a look first and then tell us what feels so wasteful about it.
Steve: Rob said that it feels wasteful, not that it was, and he was clear that he makes the comment from afar.
LikeLike
I am glad that BRT is being implemented as streetcars are just way too slow and unreliable. These streetcars get stuck in bad weather as well as good weather alike and for the minutest of problems. I stopped taking streetcars many years ago because they are just too unreliable.
Steve: BRT is only an interim step pending LRT construction. There is a major problem with snow clearing. We have “snow routes” but they have not yet been plowed clear to the curb.
LikeLike
Perhaps the “streetcars get stuck” crowd might want to take a bus ride along, say Eglinton Ave West, where buses have to stop and wait to let traffic in the other direction pass because there simply isn’t enough room for two-way traffic (for wider vehicles) in the road space that remains after cars have parked each side. As I witnessed today.
(If it is not obvious to the oblivious, it can be a long time for the traffic in the other direction clear enough to let the bus proceed.)
LikeLike
Hi Steve,
Can you do a route analysis on 91 Woodbine? Rush hours are extremely problematic and also Sundays. This route is very infrequent and even when 1 bus is late, then the entire line is a mess.
Steve: I am planning to review several of the smaller, “minor” routes in the Spring. These have problem across the TTC.
LikeLike
Ahhhhrrgg. Very mixed feelings on this.
This corridor deserves, and will need, streetcar / LRT. Oh sure, the bus way is billed as a “temporary” measure. My bet is that this is the nail in the coffin for a decade or more for any rails being funded in the area.
That being said, I have mixed feelings on the whole corridor. The closure of the Carlaw ramps has, despite what high paid consultants claim, resulted in permanent and significant delays on Lakeshore and Queens Quay east of Jarvis. That whole stretch of road went from being basically empty at the worst of times to *significant* traffic at the best of times. At a PM rush hour, it is not uncommon to take the better part of an hour to make it from Carlaw to Jarvis.
Queens Quay East has seen significant impacts because of this traffic, but it is still able to barely function because it has two lanes in each direction. I fear that sacrificing one of those lanes for either BRT *or* streetcar / LRT, before a solution to the Lakeshore congestion is found, will prove catastrophic. In theory new Cherry Street ramps will provide the relief needed, but they seem to be on the same pace of progress as the Eglinton LRT. And to be clear, I don’t think cars should get the priority – the region needs transit badly – but there is not any transit alternative for the volume of traffic that makes this section so brutal. And while I do think transit should take priority over cars, I don’t think that cars should be completely left to dry just out of spite or vengeance! Both manners of transport serve their purpose. It’s just a shame this city seems to mess up both.
LikeLike