As I began to write this on June 6 at 5:00pm, the TTC had not yet published the detailed memo of service changes for June 7. There is a web page listing World Cup related service changes, but no details about service frequencies. On an interim basis, I have used the electronic version of the June 7 schedules (GTFS data) as a source for info on scheduled service. On game days, there will be additional service as needed.
Updated: The TTC issued the detailed service memo in the early hours of June 7. Thanks to those burning the midnight oil to get this out. This article has been updated to consolidate info from the memo. Note that June service changes for subway, LRT and bus routes will not occur until June 21, and these will be covered in a separate post.
- 307 and 311 Bathurst night services: Stopping arrangements at Bathurst and St. Clair West Stations clarified.
- Streetcar route maps added at the end of the article.
- 301L route clarified to include extension to Dufferin Loop.
- Streetcar vehicle allocation tables added.
- Spreadsheet of detailed changes added. Revised to include 929 Dufferin Express.
- List of destination sign changes added.
Bathurst Corridor
- Night service on 307 Bathurst bus will be shortened to end at Bathurst Station. Service south to Exhibition will be provided by a 311 Bathurst night car running from St. Clair to Exhibition Loop.
- Service on 511 Bathurst will be improved (see table later in this article).
- Updates:
- 307 buses will loop through Bathurst Station, but will lay over and serve a new stop northbound on Bathurst at London (opposite the station).
- 311 streetcars will run out of service through St. Clair West Station.
Spadina Corridor
- Service on the 510 Spadina streetcar will be shortened to turn at Queens Quay Loop. Service to Union Station will be provided by 509/309 Harbourfront and by 310 Spadina. (Corrected)
Waterfront
- Service on 509 Harbourfront will be improved (see table later in this article), and a new 309 Harbourfront night car will operate.
Dufferin Corridor
- Service on 929 Dufferin express will be added on Sunday evenings on Game Days running every 8 minutes.
King Corridor
- Service will be improved on 504 King. On Game Days, the 504B from Broadview Station will turn back via a loop of King, Queen and Shaw without serving Dufferin Loop. See detailed map and schedule in the schedule section later in this article.
Queen / Lake Shore Boulevard West
- 507/501/301 Long Branch service will be replaced by buses due to construction at Long Branch Loop.
- Two branches of the replacement bus service will operate:
- 507 from Humber Loop to Long Branch Loop via Park Lawn.
- 507M from Humber Loop to the Humber Bay Shores area looping via Marine Parade Drive.
- This configuration will run until Labour Day weekend. In September, 507 streetcars will return as far as Kipling Loop, and the 110 Islington South will be extended west to Long Branch Loop.
- Two branches of the replacement bus service will operate:
- 508 Lake Shore streetcar service will be suspended for the summer season returning after Labour Day.
- Updated: 301L night buses will operate from Long Branch Loop to Dufferin Loop via Queen and Dufferin providing an overlap with the 301 Queen night car.
- See map in the schedule details later in this post.
World Cup Services and Support
On match days, service will operate as shown below.
During the June 7 schedule period, night services will operate as below.
Note that the 311 Bathurst night car will run north to St. Clair looping through St. Clair West Station. Buses will stop northbound at London Street outside of the station.
At Bloor Street, the night cars will stop on street both ways, but will not enter Bathurst Station.
Update: Not shown on the map below is the 301L night bus from Long Branch to Dufferin Loop via Queen.
Detailed Schedule Changes
Service frequencies are shown as “xx/yy” where “xx” is the headway until June 6, and “yy” is the headway from June 7 onward.
501 Queen
Updated: Service levels on 501 Queen are unchanged. All trips will end at Humber Loop due to construction work at Long Branch. Buses will run west from Humber Loop via The Queensway and Park Lawn. Service east of Park Lawn will be provided by the 507M bus (see 507 Long Branch below).
| Weekdays | AM Peak | Midday | PM Peak | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 501 Neville to Humber | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | –/10′ |
| 501 Neville to Long Branch | 10’/– | ||||
| Saturdays | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 501 Neville to Humber | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 9’/9′ | 10’/10′ | –/10′ |
| 501 Neville to Long Branch | 10’/– | ||||
| Sunday | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 501 Neville to Humber | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | –/10′ |
| 501 Neville to Long Branch | 10’/– |
504 King
Service on 504 King is improved in the midday, afternoon, PM peak and early evening on most days.
504B cars will operate to Dufferin Loop except on Game Days as shown below.
| Weekdays | AM Peak | Midday | PM Peak | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 504A Distillery to Dundas W | 8’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/10′ |
| 504B Broadview to Dufferin | 8’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/10′ |
| Saturdays | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 504A Distillery to Dundas W | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/10′ |
| 504B Broadview to Dufferin | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/10′ |
| Sunday | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 504A Distillery to Dundas W | 10’/10′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | |
| 504B Broadview to Dufferin | 10’/10′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | |
| 304 Broadview to Dundas W | 14’/14′ |
507 Long Branch / 501 Queen / 508 Lake Shore
Streetcar service west of Humber Loop is replaced by buses during construction at Long Branch Loop. 508 Lake Shore service is suspended for the summer.
Updated: Note that 301L night buses will operate from Long Branch to Dufferin bypassing Humber Loop via Park Lawn and The Queensway, then to Dufferin Loop via Queen.
In the detailed schedules, there is generally less time for a round trip on the 507 bus than the streetcar, but this is mainly achieved by trimming recovery time at terminals. Scheduled travel times are similar. This raises the question of whether streetcar recovery times will be similarly trimmed in the fall.
| Weekdays | AM Peak | Midday | PM Peak | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 507 Long Branch to Humber Loop | 10’/7′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/7′ | 10’/9′ | –/10′ |
| 501 Long Branch to Neville | 10’/– | ||||
| 508 Long Branch to Distillery | 20’/– | 20’/– | |||
| 507M Marine Parade to Humber Loop | –/15′ | –/15′ | –/15′ | –/15′ | –/22′ |
| Saturdays | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 507 Long Branch to Humber Loop | 10’/10′ | 10’/9′ | 10’/8′ | 10’/9′ | –/10′ |
| 501 Long Branch to Neville | 10’/– | ||||
| 507M Marine Parade to Humber Loop | –/25′ | –/25′ | –/25′ | –/25′ | –/25′ |
| Sunday | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 507 Long Branch to Humber Loop | 10’/10′ | 10’/10′ | 10’/9′ | 10’/9′ | 10′ |
| 501 Long Branch to Neville | 10’/– | ||||
| 507M Marine Parade to Humber Loop | –/20′ | –/22′ | –/25′ | –/20′ | –/20′ |
509 Harbourfront
509 Harbourfront service is substantially increased for added demand to Exhibition Loop, and to replace the 510 Spadina cars that will terminate at Queens Quay Loop.
Updated: Operator double step backs will be implemented at Union Station every day after 9am to “improve operational resiliency”. This change provides a relief break at Union for operators without the need to hold the streetcar.
| Weekdays | AM Peak | Midday | PM Peak | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 509 Union to Exhibition | 9’/6′ | 9’/5′ | 9’30″/5′ | 10’/5′ | 10’/5′ |
| Saturdays | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 509 Union to Exhibition | 10’/5′ | 10’/5′ | 9’/4′ | 9’/4′ | 10’/5′ |
| Sunday | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 509 Union to Exhibition | 15’/– | 10’/5′ | 9’/4′ | 10’/4′ | 10’/5′ |
| 309 Union to Exhibition | –/15′ |
510 Spadina
All 510 Spadina cars will terminate at Queens Quay Loop. 310 Spadina night cars will run through to Union Station.
| Weekdays | AM Peak | Midday | PM Peak | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 510A to Union Stn | 10’/– | 10’/– | 10’/– | 10’/– | 9’30″/– |
| 510B to Queens Quay | 10’/5′ | 10’/5′ | 10’/5′ | 10’/5′ | –/9′ |
| Saturdays | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 510A to Union Stn | 10’/– | 8’30″/– | 8’/– | 5’30″/– | 9’30″/– |
| 510B to Queens Quay | –/5′ | 8’30″/5′ | 8’/4′ | –/4′ | –/10′ |
| Sunday | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 510A to Union Stn | 14’/– | 10’/– | 9’/– | 6’/– | 9’30″/– |
| 510B to Queens Quay | 10’/5′ | 9’/5′ | –/6′ | –/10′ | |
| 310 to Union Stn | –/15′ |
511 Bathurst
Service on 511 Bathurst is improved during most periods due to added demand to Exhibition Loop.
Note that early morning service on Sundays will switch from the 307 Bathurst night bus to the 311 Bathurst night car running between Exhibition Loop and St. Clair West Station Loop.
Updated: Operator double step backs will be implemented at Bathurst Station every day after 9am to “improve operational resiliency”. This change provides a relief break for operators without the need to hold the streetcar.
| Weekdays | AM Peak | Midday | PM Peak | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 511 to Exhibition | 6’/6′ | 6’/5′ | 6’/5′ | 10’/5′ | 10’/5′ |
| Saturdays | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 511 to Exhibition | 10’/10′ | 6’/5′ | 6’/6′ | 9’/6′ | 10’/5′ |
| Sunday | Early AM | Late AM | Afternoon | Early Eve | Late Eve |
| 511 to Exhibition | 6’/5′ | 6’/6′ | 9’30″/5′ | 10’/5′ | |
| 307 to Exhibition | 12’/– | ||||
| 311 to Exhibition | –/12′ |
**On match days, all stops west of Fleet Hub are only in service for customers with accessibility needs.
Transit Priority
Various levels of transit priority have been added on several streets including some routes that do not serve the World Cup area, but where spillover traffic from other routes is expected.
Incident Response
Among the incident response categories are support for manual switches at sundry locations. This does not speak well of the TTC’s faith in its own track technology/condition. Also, some streetcar corridors will be monitored for power supply issues. It is clear that the TTC has not been keeping its power infrastructure at a level that can support additional service.
Streetcar Network Maps
Streetcar Carhouse Allocation & Vehicle Summary
Steve Munro 
From what I can tell from physical signage, the 311 Bathurst night streetcar doesn’t go into St. Clair West station, it just does the westbound stop at St Clair and Bathurst then turns back south on Vaughan.
Steve: Thanks for the update. According to the GTFS schedule it has a stop at St. Clair West, but just turning west on St. Clair makes more sense.
Updated: According to the detailed service memo, cars will loop through St. Clair West Station out of service. From a rider’s point of view, only the surface stops are used.
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Looks to be an error in the 511 update as it identifies double step backs occurring at Union while I expect it should say Bathurst Station or Exhibition loop.
Steve: Ah the joys of cut and paste. Thanks for catching this.
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What’s the project at Long Branch Loop? Better integration with the renovated GO Station?
Steve: See the TTC’s project page about this work.
Also, perhaps a typoo?
Surely you mean Bathurst, not Union.
Steve: Yup, I copied and pasted that from the 509 description, but didn’t catch all of the site-specific changes.
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This is kind of cool, I could see some real utility of running 511 service south via St Clair West to Exhibition. What is the reason for this not being a thing? Could it ever become a thing?
Steve: The demand pattern on Bathurst does not make St. Clair a logical break point between routes, and it’s not as if the segment between St. Clair and Bathurst Station is going to generate a huge amount of business. The buses would still have to come down to Bloor to connect with the subway, so why duplicate them with a streetcar, let alone force a transfer at St. Clair.
If you watch passengers getting off of 7 Bathurst buses and 511 Bathurst cars at Bathurst Station, a minority of riders actually transfer between them. Most are headed to/from the subway. Also the station is not designed for a streetcar service entering from the north.
Unrelated but, also wondered why, with all the new condos on Church St. and Dundas from Church to Jarvis, why the TTC does not provide some kind of service from Front to Carlton. There must be demand for it with all the new buildings, and the village being right there. Plus zero service on Church or Jarvis. And the track is there for it.
Steve: There’s a catch 22: How many people actually want to travel north-south? If not many, even a now-and-then bus service would not be well-used. From Church, people tend to walk over to Yonge which has closely spaced stations in the core.
Yes, track is there, but it’s not clear how cars would turn around at the north end.
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Surely track renewal for a small loop wouldn’t take this many months. Those power upgrades better be the best power upgrades we’ve seen in the world.
Steve: Yes, it is mysterious why this project will run so long.
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I am very disappointed with the new Bathurst streetcar. I live right on Bathurst and why was there no public consultation? How are we to sleep with these atrociously noisy streetcars running all night? And our city councillor is completely useless, we will show her in the next election this October.
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I’ve heard reports that the 941 Keele Express and 945 Kipling Express are to be temporarily suspended for the entire summer. What’s the reason for this? Also, will there be any compensation for the lost service or will those on Keele and Kipling have to suffer worse service for the season?
Steve: Yes, four express services will be suspended over the summer. In addition to the two you mention, there is also the 944 Kipling South Express and 968 Warden.
On 41 Keele, service will be improved in the early morning and PM peak periods, and some trips will operate with artics for added capacity. On 44 Kipling South, service will be improved by varying amounts on weekdays from early morning to the PM peak. On 45 Kipling, service will be improved in the early morning, AM and PM peaks. On 68 Warden, one tripper to Steeles will be added in the PM peak.
I am working on the very long list of bus service changes for June 21, but don’t expect to publish that article for a few days because there are so many changes for the summer. Stay tuned!
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Another question came into my head about the Long Branch loop shutdown. If the 507 and 508 are mothballed until late this year then why aren’t the 15 streetcars being redeployed to the 503? They can’t use their never-ending operator shortage as an excuse.
Steve: Service is increased on 504 King (6 cars), 509 Harbourfront (4 cars) and 511 Bathurst (2 cars), offset by a reduction of 510 Spadina (1 car). The 503 will be in limbo until late Fall after completion of the reconstruction of King & York planned for September-October.
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James whined:
Noisy streetcars? When I lived on a hilly piece of Gerrard near Coxwell it wasn’t the streetcars going up the hill in the middle of the night when the window was open. It was the Coxwell bus chugging away trying to climb the hill from the red light.
A diesel bus going up a hill isn’t quiet. Perhaps they don’t have diesel buses in Belorussian bot farms …
Will anyone remember a 6-week long temporary service come election time?
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Why can’t the 301/501/507 use Kipling Loop before Labour Day?
Steve: I believe they are doing spot track repairs along Lake Shore, but, yes the TTC seems to take any chance to shut down a streetcar line rather than make full use of their fleet.
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Steve, the last time they had buses going along Lake Shore to the Long Branch loop, the buses would never drop off people in the loop. Pick them up yes….drop them off there, no. Buses would line up when they arrived parking in the curb lane between the entrance on to Brown’s Line and the exit off next to the loop. Trust me, it was a long walk to the loop with a very sore foot from a bus at the back of the line. Are they doing this procedure again???
Thanks for all you do.
Steve: According to the TTC’s project page:
Yes, that previous arrangement with clouds of buses queueing up on Lake Shore east of Brown’s Line thanks to grossly excessive running time in schedules has not materialized. However, I am keeping an eye on vehicle tracking info to verify that this problem does not return. Right now, it appears that buses are laying over east of the loop, although not in the numbers we saw the last time around. This makes for an inconvenient transfer connection, obviously.
And, you’re very welcome. Thanks for reading.
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I saw a pretty good line-up of buses laying over on Lake Shore yesterday afternoon, at least four and probably more like six (I didn’t explicitly count).
Yes, if you want to catch a TTC bus at the loop, you are in for a walk. You are probably better off backtracking to either the northbound stop for 123/110A in the turn lane to Brown’s Line northbound (in front of No Frills) or the streetcar/bus stop at 37th for 110B. Of course in that case, get off at 37th St.
If you want to catch Miway, then you are in for a longer walk, possibly past the loop because the new Ogden route lays over on Lake Shore itself.
If you want to get to Long Branch GO, you have a nice walk in front of you as well.
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Quick question: When was the last time the Bathurst streetcar had scheduled service north of Bathurst station?
Steve: February 1966 before the Bloor subway opened.
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I took a stroll over to Long Branch loop this evening.
A few weeks ago they were jackhammering up the concrete at the west end, but I could not see much more.
But from Exmoor Drive, I saw today that where the westbound main track and spare track had been, there’s a trench at least 1 metre deep. The eastbound tracks are still just visible.
I am not sure what created the need to excavate that deeply. It will be interesting to see what gets put in there instead.
Steve: Thanks for the update.
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