The TTC will alter services on March 15, but with far less upheaval than the February round of updates for the opening of Line 5 Eglinton Crosstown.
The primary changes are:
- Late evening service added on 6 Finch West.
- Service at Exhibition Place by 29/329 Dufferin modified for the World Cup.
- Service to Thorncliffe Park and to Leaside by 88 South Leaside changed for Ontario Line Construction.
Details follow the “more” break.
Full Service on Line 6 Finch West
Service on Line 6 will be extended to 1am, and this appears to be considered as the final version of the service plan. There will still be a gap between the end of LRT service and the end of connecting subway service which is after 2am. Riders will use the 336 Finch Night bus.
| Finch West Stn WB | Humber College EB | |||||
| Weekdays | Saturday | Sunday | Weekdays | Saturday | Sunday | |
| First Trip | 5:08 | 6:00 | 7:59 | 5:28 | 5:30 | 8:08 |
| Last Trip | 1:05 | 1:05 | 1:05 | 1:30 | 1:30 | 1:30 |
There is no change in the scheduled travel time in most periods. The round trip times will be set at 90 minutes (down from 98) on weekend service early morning and through the evening including the extended hours.
The Metrolinx Line 6 FAQ still claims substantially better travel times than the scheduled values.
Light rail vehicles on the Finch West LRT will take approximately 33-34 minutes to travel from end to end, for an average speed of 20-21 km/h (including stops). LRVs will reach a top speed of 60 km/h. [Finch West FAQ, March 12]
Supplementary Bus Service to Backfill 6 Finch
The TTC provides extra service on nearby routes to 6 Finch so that buses can be easily “borrowed” when things go wrong. Affected routes are 36 Finch West, 84 Sheppard West and 927 Highway 27 Express.
Ongoing Construction Projects
Diversion of routes 501 Queen, 503 Kingston Road and 504 King for construction on Queen west of Broadview continues. Judging by recent state of the work, the diversion could end well before the announce late April date, but the bus substitutions will not change until the next schedules at the start of May. This diversion began on February 23.
503 Kingston Road Bus service will be improved in the peak periods to compensate for the diversions around the Queen/Broadview project.
The diversion of 506 Carlton and 19 Bay continues during reconstruction of the Bay/College intersection. This diversion began on March 2.
Saturday afternoon service on 506 Carlton is reduced from every 8 to every 10 minutes.
Early Sunday service will now be provided by the 306 night car and shuttle bus.
These changes are described in detail in my Where Is My Streetcar page.
South Leaside Route Restructuring
Metrolinx Ontario Line construction north of Thorncliffe Park will close Beth Nealson Drive for an extended period. This street connects Thorncliffe Park with the east end of the Leaside industrial district, and is part of the large loop through the area by 88 South Leaside.
Service will be restructured into three routes:
- 88A South Leaside will run from St. Clair Station to Thorncliffe Park via Millwood and Overlea.
- 88B South Leaside will run from St. Clair Station to Laird Station looping via Wicksteed Avenue.
- 156 Millwood will run from Thorncliffe Park to Laird Station looping via Wicksteed Avenue. It will operate every 20-25 minutes daytime only 7 days/week.
World Cup Adjustments
Service through Exhibition Place to Princes Gates Loop will be suspended on 29 Dufferin. Night service will take an alternate route north of the closed area.
Miscellaneous Schedule Adjustments
508 Lake Shore will make two additional trips eastbound from Roncesvalles to Distillery Loop providing added AM peak capacity on King West. Two added PM peak westbound trips destined to Roncesvalles will be signed as 504 King to avoid confusion with through cars to Long Branch.
| Trips inbound from Long Branch | 6:46, 7:06, 7:24, 7:44, 8:04 |
| Trips inbound from Roncesvalles | 7:32, 7:52, 8:00, 8:10, 8:20, 8:30, 8:50 |
| Trips outbound from Distillery to Long Branch | 4:22, 4:42, 5:02, 5:22, 5:42 |
| Trips outbound from Distillery to Roncesvalles | 4:52, 5:12 |
512/312 St. Clair run in/out trips from Leslie Barns operate via Broadview, Dundas and Bathurst due to the College/Bay project.
114 Queens Quay East will now stop to unload passengers northbound on Bay at Front to reduce the transfer distance to Union Station.
203 High Park service resumes weekends during the daytime every 20 minutes.
Maps & Stats
Construction Projects
Streetcar Route Maps
600 Run as Directed Buses
Vehicle Allocation Tables
eBus Compatibility Table
Budgeted and Scheduled Service
Details of Service Changes
Bus Destination Sign Changes
Steve Munro 
The 156 Millwood route was intended, in part, to provide Thorncliffe Park riders with continued direct access to Line 5’s Laird Station, to compensate for the at least two-year loss of the 88B due to Metrolinx Ontario Line construction.
With a 20-25 minute frequency, daytime-only service design, the 156 will be nearly useless though, whether for full-time workers, shift workers, or students from Thorncliffe Park whose lives would benefit from Eglinton Line 5.
When the TTC does not really want to provide a service to a community, they always find a way to make it unattractive.
Leaside and the Leaside Business Park will continue to have access to Laird Station, and to St. Clair Station too, with the more frequent, all hours, 88A and 88B services.
But the TTC puts Thorncliffe Park on the slow bus to Laird Station, one of the top neighbourhoods for public transit ridership as a percentage of population, and a community that relies on public transit to prosper.
Message received loud and clear, TTC.
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That’s frigging ridiculous. What happened to the promise to return to 6-minute service on all days? Or the interim step of 8-minute service all days?
I’m getting really tired of these lying maroons.
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Thank you Steve for sharing the small service changes. At least May to September boards will be interesting since the TTC has yet to implement the rest of the 2026 ASP; but they have yet to drop the “C” letter from the 21 BRIMLEY bus since they’ve removed the “A” letter from the 105 DUFFERIN NORTH in November.
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Ah what a relief. I was just thinking we’d gone more than a day without more service cuts to a streetcar route.
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Guess the 203 High Park bus (and the Line 2 High Park Station) would make High Park itself “accessible”. Along with the 501 Queen along The Queensway on the south side of High Park and the 506 Carlton at its High Park Loop.
But they’ll still complain their automobiles even with handicap permits will not be able to enter on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) and public holidays, beginning Friday nights at 11 p.m. until Monday mornings at 7 a.m….. for now.
Steve: You’re in an even more curmudgeonly mood than usual. I’m not impressed with the generic dismissal of “they”.
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Do we know when the north side of Kennedy bus terminal platform A will open? Your table mentioned this year but is there a source for that? Thanks.
Steve: The construction project table is the TTC’s, not mine.
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Could you PLEASE LOWER THE VOLUME of announcements (which are also way too long) on the new line 5?! The loudspeakers are practically crackling from the excessive loudness!
And, is there any chance that line 32 bus (continuation of the new subway line 5 from Mt. Dennis all the way to Renforth station) can have an EXPRESS version? It would speed up the trip along Eglinton west, where there is so much of the construction going on for the future extension of subway line 5.
Steve: All TTC/Metrolinx folks who read this blog please take note!
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I took the Eglinton LRT for the first time last Thursday: 15 years to construct, $14 billion, screen stated streetcar arriving in 2 minutes, arrived 14 minutes later and stated NOT IN SERVICE but it was not NOT IN SERVICE, took it for just one stop (could have walked faster), up going escalators didn’t work on the brand new LRT (Forest Hill station). Something much better and faster could have been built with that much money, this thing is a complete waste.
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What’s preventing TTC from getting an EV bus to serve route 203 High Park? With this whole Green theme you would think TTC would transfer this route to Mount Dennis and use an EV bus. It’s only one bus, and the route only runs on weekends. I’m sure there’s a spare EV charged up and ready to go for Saturday and Sunday. It appears to be a missed opportunity or lack of awareness on TTC’s part.
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Could a 203 EV bus be plugged in at High Park Station during its waiting/dwell time at the station? If the schedule is every 20 minutes, the route loop likely will not take 20 minutes. Unless there are no plugin facilities at the station, which they should rather than travel back to the garage to charge up. Unless it’s not in the bus driver’s contract (though it would be similar to reconnecting the trolley bus’ trolley pole back in the day).
Steve: The TTC is not using plug in buses. They are equipped with pantographs which can connect to an overhead charging point. However, installing one for a one-bus service would be a considerable waste. The likely locations would be Keele and Jane stations where there is frequent service.
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I like how Steve avoids tackling the tough issues on this site. As you know, Israel and the USA have been waging a war of aggression against Iran yet again since the end of last month. Iran has restricted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz in response as a result of which oil and gas prices are rising sharply. How will this affect TTC and GO/UPX operations? Does this not make the need for electrification of GO/UPX trains plus the bus fleets even more urgent? How will this energy crisis affect transit ridership? I suspect that it will increase as people avoid driving cars but it could also decrease due to a switch to remote work and learning as in pandemic times. Steve writes good articles but avoids tough geopolitical issues such as the ones mentioned.
Steve: First off, Canada has no shortage of oil. It is only the cost which would be an issue for TTC and GO. Fuel costs in 2026 are about $73 million out of a $3 billion budget. If these costs rise, there will be an effect but not a catastrophic one. Electrification of the bus fleet is constrained by delivery of new vehicles and the need for additional charging stations. This is not a project that can simply be ramped up on demand. As for GO/UPX, Metrolinx has been pushing that electrification project off into the future for some time. You might like to talk to the Premier about the foot-dragging at Metrolinx. Recent media coverage suggests that their organization has been severely lax just in current ops and maintenance, let alone provision for substantial service increase.
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Quite sure an EV bus could make it through a 203 service day without recharging. It’s a 2.5 km round trip, there’s 34 trips per day, that makes 85 km daily distance. Add in a 15 km round trip to and from Mount Dennis garage, and that’s 100 km for the service day – well within the shortest 150 km category in the eBus compatibility table.
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Since the opening of Line 5, i noticed that articulated buses are appearing on the 35 Jane more and more often, though it’s usually only 2 or 4 runs that get them. It’s a much appreciated change since 35’s ridership has always warranted artics but is there any plans to increase that number further so more runs are articulated buses? It’s still a slog trying to use the 35 during any sort of peak travel due to how overcrowded this route can be.
Steve: The TTC’s just-published Ridership Growth Strategy (such as it is) does acknowledge that some routes are overcrowded, but without specifics. As for more artics, the current problem is that some of them are up for replacement, but there are no artic electric buses yet. Whether TTC will come to its senses and order hybrids remains to be seen.
Speaking of the 35, has there been any movement or discussion around the construction of rapidTO lanes from Eglinton to Steeles lately? It seems to have gone quiet despite the success of these lanes on Dufferin, Bathurst and in Scarborough.
Steve: The Jane project appears to be stalled. The RGS speaks of Finch East, Lawrence East and Dufferin, some of which still need detailed study and plans, but not Jane.
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