This article includes reviews of the 29/929 Dufferin local and express services to the end of 2025. The major item of interest is the introduction of “red lanes” south of Bloor Street and their effect on the bus service. Detailed charts are included here for:

• November and December travel times in both directions between King and Bloor.
• January 2024 to December 2025 historical stats on travel times.
• The segment between Lawrence and Wilson that does not have transit priority, but which has much more congestion than at the south end of the route thanks to Yorkdale Mall.

General observations:

• The benefit of the red lanes is more pronounced for northbound than for southbound trips, and only at certain times of the day.
• There is much more severe disruption of service northbound near Yorkdale Mall, but no transit priority measures are proposed there.
• Headways on Dufferin remain widely scattered near terminals (northbound at King, southbound at Transit Road just outside of Wilson Station).
• Even on Christmas Day when weather was relatively benign and travel times were lower than normal, headways were not reliable.

Part of the improvement in travel time in December 2025 could be due to seasonal effects. When the data are in for early 2026, we will see how long-lived the saving actually is. I will publish an update to this article in a few months when the pattern is clear.

There are a lot of charts in this article, and I have put them all after the “more” break. Those who are interested in the details can open the full article.

I will turn to a review of 511 Bathurst streetcar and 7 Bathurst bus which both saw recent changes in future articles.

Update: For clarity, the red lanes currently extend only as far north as Dundas. After work up to Bloor is completed in the Spring, I will publish an update showing the effect.

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