With the imminent opening of Line 5 Eglinton LRT on February 8, the TTC has repeatedly been asked “will it be faster than the bus”. They have said, yes, but with few details.
On February 3, the online schedules (GTFS format) came out for the next period including stop-by-stop travel times for Line 5. This article compares these times with the existing schedules for the 32 Eglinton West and 34 Eglinton East buses. The LRT is almost always faster except late in the evening, and then on only part of the route.
Later in the article are charts of scheduled speeds and stop spacing for the bus and LRT operations.
Scheduled Travel Time Comparisons
Here is a comparison by time of day for weekday service.
| Eastbound | 7-8am Bus | 7-8am LRT | 1pm Bus | 1pm LRT | 5pm Bus | 5pm LRT | 8pm Bus | 8pm LRT | 11pm Bus | 11pm LRT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mt. Dennis to Kennedy | 1h29m | 54m | 1h29m | 52m | 1h46m | 54m | 1h10m | 52m | 54m | 52m |
| Mt. Dennis to Cedarvale | 25m | 11m | 22m | 10m | 29m | 11m | 16m | 10m | 11m | 10m |
| Cedarvale to Yonge | 18m | 9m | 17m | 9m | 19m | 9m | 12m | 9m | 9m | 9m |
| Mt. Dennis to Yonge | 42m | 20m | 39m | 19m | 48m | 20m | 28m | 19m | 20m | 19m |
| Yonge to Don Valley | 20m | 12m | 21m | 12m | 27m | 12m | 18m | 12m | 15m | 12m |
| Don Valley to Kennedy | 27m | 22m | 29m | 21m | 31m | 22m | 24m | 21m | 19m | 21m |
| Yonge to Kennedy | 47m | 34m | 50m | 33m | 58m | 34m | 42m | 33m | 34m | 33m |
And for westbound:
| Westbound | 7-8am Bus | 7-8am LRT | 1pm Bus | 1pm LRT | 5pm Bus | 5pm LRT | 8pm Bus | 8pm LRT | 11pm Bus | 11pm LRT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kennedy to Mt. Dennis | 1h22m | 52m | 1h21m | 52m | 1h36m | 54m | 1h10m | 52m | 55m | 52m |
| Kennedy to Don Valley | 20m | 21m | 28m | 21m | 29m | 22m | 21m | 21m | 17m | 21m |
| Don Valley to Yonge | 32m | 13m | 22m | 13m | 24m | 13m | 20m | 13m | 17m | 13m |
| Kennedy to Yonge | 52m | 34m | 50m | 34m | 53m | 35m | 41m | 34m | 34m | 34m |
| Yonge to Cedarvale | 14m | 9m | 14m | 9m | 20m | 9m | 13m | 9m | 9m | 9m |
| Cedarvale to Mt. Dennis | 16m | 9m | 17m | 9m | 23m | 10m | 16m | 9m | 12m | 9m |
| Yonge to Mt. Dennis | 30m | 18m | 31m | 18m | 43m | 19m | 29m | 18m | 21m | 18m |
Generally speaking, travel times are much shorter for the LRT with the least difference falling in the surface section east of Don Valley Station. This is partly due to traffic and signal constraints at cross streets, and partly due to stations being closer together preventing operation at high speed between them.
Scheduled Speeds
The charts below show the scheduled speeds for buses in January and trains in February 2026. The travel times are taken from the GTFS electronic schedules published by the TTC on February 3, as are the stop spacings.
Buses in January 2026
LRT in February 2026
Note that scheduled speeds are the same for many periods with only the peaks having slightly lower speeds on part of the route.
Stop Spacing
The issue of stop spacing comes up routinely when some advocates and professionals talk about speeding up transit service. The charts below show the spacing of stops on the existing 32/34 bus routes, and on the coming 5 Eglinton LRT. Note that the LRT stops are much more widely spaced.
Those who live between stops and do not wish to, or cannot, walk to a station will have to be content with the new 34 Eglinton bus running from Kennedy to Mount Dennis every 20 minutes.
Late in the evening when the LRT is closed, there will be a shuttle bus on top of the 34 service, but the shuttle will only stop at LRT stations running, effectively, as an express service. The 334 night bus consolidating the existing 332 and 334 routes will make all stops.
TTC Service Standards provide that stops on local surface routes should not be more than 400m apart making a maximum walking distance of 200m assuming no obstacles such as hills, and not including access distance to the main transit street from inside of street blocks.
Bus in January 2026
LRT in February 2026
Steve Munro 
I’m having difficulty reading the LRT stop spacing chart. The chart shows Birchmount station as 1km from Golden Mile, but the stations IRL are 800-820m apart, depending upon how you measure.
Steve: The spacings are from the TTC’s schedule info which show the two stops as .975km apart.
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What about the diamond bus lane signs on Eglinton? Will they be removed? Were they even enforced before February 8th? Will the diamond signs still be there for the 34 Eglinton bus?
Steve: I doubt anyone remembers they exist.
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Will be interesting to see if the dwell times are shorter or longer. Many more doors to enter, and the payment on the street should get dwells sub 20 seconds hopefully.
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Just a question but the new revamped 334, will it come out of any other Garage/division outside of Eglinton and I would guess, Mount Dennis? What about the other new routes?
Steve: I have not yet received the details of the operating plans. When I get them, there will be the usual spreadsheet and article.
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Hey Steve nothing to do with this but when are you going to the TTC service changes for February 8th?
Thanks
Steve: When the TTC issues the detailed service memo.
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Thanks Steve!
I’m curious what the actual travel times are for 32/34? The buses seem to sometimes be very far behind schedule.
Steve: I was planning to do a comparison of actual times for buses and LRT on Eglinton and Finch, but there is no tracking data for the LRT cars.
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Thanks Steve for your detailed analysis as always!
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Not happy about this at all, as someone who lives on Leslie Street north of Eglinton the loss of the 54 is a great disservice. Yes, I know the 51 and 51B will still service us. However, the 54 shows up on a consistent basis (every 10-15 minutes), whereas the 51 bus has too large of a gap where busses come every 20-30 minutes.
Furthermore, the 54 serviced people on Leslie up until 2 am on a nightly basis before turning into the 354 night bus. What will be the last run time for the 51 bus? Will it run the same hours or something similar in lieu of the 54’s absence? No one knows yet at this point (including TTC staff). For the 54 bus to go to Don Mills is an insult to people that live on Leslie Street as Don Mills has multiple buses servicing that street 24/7 365, and now the TTC took Leslie Street’s only efficient bus route as I can already infer the 51 bus won’t run on a consistent base. Not fair at all.
Steve: I am working on an article about the details of the service changes using the GTFS version of the schedules that was issued on Tuesday evening. Here is an overview of the new 51 service:
From Leslie Station southbound: from 5:29am to 1:33am to Donlands Stations. Short turn garage trips to Eglinton & Leslie at 2:03 and 2:33am. AM peak service every 22 minutes, midday every 24, PM peak every 22, early evening every 24, late evening every 25.
From Lawrence southbound the 51B branch to Don Mills kicks merges in. Combined service: AM peak 11, midday 12, PM peak 11, early evening 12, late evening 12-13. How well these services will mesh is anyone’s guess, but experience on other routes is not promising.
First 51B northbound from Donlands Station at 5:41 am (outside station before opening), then 51A at 5:53 inside the station. Last 51A from Donlands Station at 2:07am (this should be timed for the last eb train).
Weekend service looks like 22-24 minute headways north of Lawrence, 11-12 to the south.
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In addition to having a longer walk to the “stops”, it will take more time to access wherever the LRT stops. Even in the case of mid-street running, you will have to wait for the traffic signals to get to the platforms, instead of just waiting at the curb bus stop.
The time to navigate the underground station layout is to be determined, but it’s not likely to be quick.
This is inherent to separated and underground transit. The point is that you should be transported quickly with minimal waiting once you have put in this overhead. Otherwise what’s the point?
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This is awesome, thanks for all your hard work. Curious where we can see the actual schedule of Line 5? You mentioned stop by stop travel times were released on Feb 3.
Steve: They are in the electronic version of the schedules published in GTFS format for use by trip planning apps. The raw data is on the City’s Open Data site, but you have to do some slicing and dicing to extract schedules.
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Did I read somewhere that the TO runner who out-did the Finch, also did the same with some of this new line? At least it was in the 1957 plan… and it goes in a straight line, which theoretically tends to be less-costly and may give better service.
Steve: The run was only against the surface section, and of course the runner did not have to stop to serve passengers, and probably got across some intersections as a pedestrian while the LRVs were waiting for left turn to clear. Classic BlogTO clickbait.
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