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.

29 Dufferin Local

King to Bloor

The charts below show the travel time in both directions, summarized by hour, between King and Bloor for November and December 2025 for the local service. The change from peak to off peak travel times is stronger northbound and it is trimmed somewhat in December compared to November.

Note that the purple line in the December chart is for the short week between Christmas and New Year when traffic is historically lower. All routes in the city show fewer congestion delays during this period.

The standard deviations (a measure of scatter in the values) are a bit lower in December northbound. Consistency of travel time is an important factor in maintaining regular service.

Evolution of Travel Times

These charts show the travel times for all weekdays for 2024 and 2025. Three lines are shown on each chart corresponding to the median (turquoise), and the 10th (purple) and 85th (orange) percentiles This filters out a handful of outliers in the data and shows where the travel times are concentrated.

A few notes:

• The section in Fall 2025 with zero values corresponds to the period when 29 Dufferin diverted around track work at King & Dufferin, and there were no King-Bloor trips for comparison.
• There is a clear reduction in values late in 2025 in the AM peak (8-8am) and PM peak (5-6pm), but much less effect for midday and evening values.

Christmas Day

These charts show the detailed data for Sundays and Christmas Day in December. Note that the Dec 25 data points and trend lines (turquoise) lie well below data for the Sundays through the month. Christmas day had benign weather (unlike Boxing Day, the 26th). This shows the very substantial difference in travel time on a day when both road traffic and passenger volumes were light.

Lawrence to Wilson

A major location for service disruption on Dufferin is at Yorkdale Mall northbound. This shows up in travel times for the segment from Lawrence to Wilson. Detailed tracking (not shown here) confirms that the extended travel time and low speed is concentrated near the mall.

These charts show the northbound and southbound travel times in November and December 2025.

Shopping Days

Extended travel times are concentrated between 5 and 7pm on weekdays (with November week 3 data as an example). In the pre-Christmas period (upper right) extended travel times are more pronounced, and the peak shifts earlier in the day on Christmas Eve. There were also peaks on Boxing Day the 26th, Saturday the 27th, and Tuesday the 30th.

Schedules designed for a “typical” day cannot possibly work with changes in travel times of this magnitude.

Evolution of Travel Times

The travel time charts for this segment are quite different from the King-Bloor segment above. In Spring 2024 construction restricted the road between Lawrence and Wilson, and this shows up in higher travel times. However, the large and consistent problem appears in the 5-6pm northbound data (third row below) where headways are spread over a wide range, and the 85th percentile value is 30 minutes or more in an area that buses usually cover in less than 10. By evening, travel times settle down.

Note that except for the construction effects in 2024 and the PM peak issue throughout the data, the travel times are quite consistent.

Headways Near Terminals

Although the red lanes made a small change in travel times where they are present, the route as a whole continues to have disorganized service. The charts below show the headways northbound at King and southbound at Transit Road, just outside of Wilson Station. Weekday values for mid-December as well as all weekend days (which include Christmas and Boxing Day) are shown, and the wide distribution of values is quite clear. Buses are not leaving their terminals on regular spacing, and the number of points near the x-axis shows a great deal of bunching.

929 Dufferin Express

King to Bloor

The charts below show the travel time in both directions, summarized by hour, between King and Bloor for November and December 2025 for the express service.

The data for the express buses behaves similarly to the local service, and I will not repeat the analysis above.

As with the local service, the SD values in December are lower for northbound service indicating less scatter in the travel time values.

Evolution of Travel Times 2024-25

Christmas Day

Lawrence to Wilson

Shopping Days

Evolution of Travel Times 2024-25

Headways Near Terminals

As with the local service, the express buses are leaving terminals both ways non widely varying headways that are well beyond TTC Service Standards. Bunching and wide gaps are common.