7 Bathurst Update: Data to February 2026

This article updates previous posts on service quality on the 7 Bathurst Bus with data added to February 2026.

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This route had small changes in transit priority in Fall 2025 with removal of parking on the south end of the route during selected periods, and removal of three stops both ways between St. Clair and Eglinton. Although TTC cites stop removal as a travel time saving, this depends on two factors: how often buses actually stop at them, and whether there is a traffic signal that can add to the delay of stopping and falling out of the general traffic flow. None of these stops had signals.

Meanwhile 7 Bathurst is also supposed to be part of the TTC’s pilot to reduce bunching and gapping. That project began in March 2025 on several routes, but was scaled back to peak periods in October.

The tracking data show little effect of the changes which were quite limited in scope. Headway reliability remains a major problem from both ends of the line, and even worse midway along the route. There is also a very large difference between off-peak and peak travel times affecting many parts of the route, not just the portion south of Eglinton.

Improvements are needed both to deal with peak period congestion delays, but also to improve the reliability of vehicle departures and spacing on an all-day basis. With the results to date, it is hard to believe that substantial new ridership will be attracted to the line especially with its chronic problem of irregular headways.

Travel Times Between Barton and St. Clair

The charts below track the change in travel times both ways between Barton (just north of Bathurst Station) and St. Clair. Northbound and southbound data are show side by side, and each row shows data from various times through the day.

Some dips are seasonal (typically at year-end) and do not represent a change in operating strategy.

The blue lines are the median values (half of all data points above, half below) while the orange lines show the 85% percentile (15% of trips take longer than the time shown by this line). Northbound trips generally show more dispersion in values with “spikier” 85th percentiles especially in the PM peak. There was some reduction in this behaviour in late 2025 and early 2026, although this is partly masked by weather delays.

Travel Times Between St. Clair and Eglinton

Between St. Clair and Eglinton, the only change was the removal of three minor stops each way. This does not appear to have made a noticeable difference in travel times.

Travel Times Between Barton and Steeles

The charts below show how travel times have evolved over the full route. Note that the scale starts at 30 minutes compared to charts above which start at zero. Both peak periods show the end-of-year dip in values, but travel times return to the usual level in January.

The largest variations occur in peak periods and directions.

Headways Northbound at Barton and Lawrence

Headway reliability on Bathurst has always been an issue, and the recent pilot to better manage service does not appear to have had much effect. The first set of charts below show northbound headways measured just north of Bathurst Station at Barton, and midway along the route at Lawrence.

The blue line shows the median value, and even this bounces around quite a bit. The orange line is the 85th percentile, and the purple line is the 10th. This means that 3/4 of the actual headways lie between the orange and purple lines, but 1/4 of the data points lie above or below that band.

Leaving Bathurst Station, many days show a range of roughly five minutes (the service standard allow buses to be five minutes late), but this is not consistent. By the time the service reaches Lawrence, the services more spread out over a band roughly 10 minutes wide.

PM peak service leaving Bathurst Station is particularly erratic compared to other parts of the day.

Headways Southbound at Steeles and Lawrence

Service southbound from Steeles mirrors the situation at Bathurst Station. Headways can lie in a band roughly six minutes wide, but by the time service reaches Lawrence, the band is much wider showing a lot of bunching an wide gaps. This continues through the day and even into the late evening.