Service Analysis

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Yet Another Streetcar Diversion

The TTC will be making repairs to the track at Church & King, a location that has needed serious tender loving care for some years. This project will run from 11pm Friday July 12 to 4am Wednesday July 17.

This event and the confusion it will add for downtown travellers is a direct result of delays in complete replacement of the intersection, compounded by the Queen Street closure for the Ontario Line and the still-incomplete work on the Richmond/Adelaide diversion around Queen and Yonge that limps along with a vague “fall” completion date.

501/301 Queen:

  • Streetcars in the east end will operate only to Parliament Street and will loop back via Dundas and Broadview.
  • The 501B shuttle buses will operate westbound via Richmond and eastbound via King between Church and University.
  • Night service will be provided via streetcars diverting onto Dundas as shown in the map below, and night service on the 301 bus covering the central part of the route on the same path as the 501B daytime service.

503 Kingston Road:

  • 503 Kingston Road cars will operate as far west as King & Sumach, and then turn south to Distillery Loop.

504 King:

  • 504A King Dundas West to Distillery: Cars will divert both ways via Spadina, Queen, McCaul, Dundas, Broadview, Queen, King and Sumach/Cherry to Distillery Loop.
  • 504B King Humber to Broadview Station: Cars will divert on the same route as 504A to Broadview, then run north to Broadview Station.
  • 504 buses will operate from Broadview Station to Bathurst over the regular King route.

508 Lake Shore:

  • 508 Lake Shore cars will divert via the same route as the 504B King cars.

How well any of these services will operate remains to be seen especially the 504A route that will be much longer than normal.

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Reserved Bus Lanes for Spadina?

Updated July 11 at 4:20 pm: The TTC has confirmed that planned overhead replacement on Bathurst shown on TOInview will not occur. They also confirmed that 2025 work on the west half of 506 Carlton will be done in stages, but have no further details at this point.

In response to the snafu with Spadina bus operations and traffic backlogs for the Gardiner Expressway, Toronto & East York Council has approved a proposal to implement a reserved bus lane between Queen Street and Queens Quay southbound. This must go to the full Toronto Council at its meeting of July 24.

The west curb lane would have all parking and cabstand space removed south of Queen. It would be reserved for transit vehicle and bicycles except for areas 30.5 metres north of King Street, Front Street and Fort York Boulevard which would be south-to-west right turn lanes. Between Richmond and Queen, stopping would be permitted outside of peak periods.

Speaking on CBC’s Metro Morning, Deputy Mayor Malik, sponsor of the motion, noted that planning for this type of event must substantially improve. The TTC was clearly caught out by the level of congestion on Spadina, something anyone who ventures downtown would know about. This did not appear overnight. A further question about the reserved lane proposal, which will be in effect at all hours, not just for the PM peak period, is how it will be enforced and what effect it will have on traffic feeding into this area.

A larger problem remains with the TTC’s planning for construction projects, and especially for streetcar replacements. In recent years, they have seemed quite willing to suspend service for extended periods in the interest of getting a lot of work done with a single closure. In practice, some of these have gone on far longer than they should have, and there have lengthy periods without any visible work.

The work on Spadina between King and Queens Quay, and later between College and Bloor, involves rebuilding the streetcar overhead to be fully pantograph compliant, as opposed to a hybrid pole/panto system. Some streetcar track repairs are likely during the streetcar replacement. This work should not take six months, the planned Spadina closure. This was originally announced as running only to October, but now to December. At Spadina Station the first stage of streetcar platform extension will occur taking advantage of excavation for a nearby condo project.

The City’s infrastructure plan viewer, TOInview, shows two other pending overhead replacement projects.

  • In 2024, Bathurst Street from Fleet to St. Clair
  • In 2025, College Street from Dundas to Yonge

Updated July 11 at 4:20 pm:

I asked the TTC if/when these projects will occur, and they advised that Bathurst will not be done in 2024. TOinview will be updated. College will be done in sections in 2025, but no further details are available yet.

It is not clear why at least the north end of Bathurst was not rebuilt while the St. Clair line was shut down for its own conversion and other projects along that route. This would have allowed streetcars to be based at Hillcrest as they were during previous roadworks on Bathurst. Do riders on St. Clair face another round of bus substitution?

College Street went through its own gyrations with substitute bus service during track replacement not long ago.

Many years have passed since the TTC streetcar system was entirely operating with streetcars, and the TTC seems to be happy to have some part of the network out of service almost all of the time. It certainly is not a question of vehicle availability, although their staffing is probably at a level where they could not field full streetcar service. This has implications for streetcar service levels generally, and for the resources more-or-less permanently “borrowed” from the bus network.

Consultation for the TTC’s 2025 Service Plan is about to get underway, and one topic planned for this is “construction”. Indeed, “doing diversions differently” is one goal of the current plan. On Spadina, that looks like an “own goal”.

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510 Spadina Bus Modified Diversion Tracking

Southbound 510 Spadina bus operations changed on July 8. Between 3 and 7pm on weekdays, buses do not operate south to Queens Quay, but instead loop east on Front, then south and west on Blue Jays Way to Spadina.

The charts presented here were generated by Darwin O’Connor’s TransSee website. Basic functions of that site are available free, and some chargeable features are free for Toronto streetcar routes. O’Connor uses the NextBus data feed as his source on a real time basis whereas the analyses I publish here use a monthly data extract provided to me by the TTC from their Vision system.

This article will be updated from time to time to show the evolution of travel times on the 510 Spadina replacement bus operation.

There are two locations of interest where congestion occurs:

  • Southbound approaching Front Street
  • Northbound approaching Bloor Street

Updated July 16 at 6:50am: Data for July 15 added.

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512 St. Clair Streetcars vs Buses: June 2024

With the June 23, 2024 schedule change, buses were replaced with streetcars running from St. Clair Station at Yonge to Gunn’s Loop west of Keele Street. Buses operated mostly in the regular traffic lanes, not on the streetcar right-of-way.

This article reviews the travel times on the 512 St. Clair bus and streetcar services to compare travel times over the route.

Although the streetcars in week 4 of June (beginning on June 23) are overall faster than the buses they replaced, the degree of this advantage varies by location and direction.

This is a companion piece to my review of the streetcar-to-bus change on 510 Spadina that happened at the same time.

The overall observation here is that although travel times are now shorter for many riders, headway reliability is very poor and gaps can undo the benefit of a faster trip.

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510 Streetcars vs Buses: June 2024

With the June 23, 2024 schedule change, streetcars were replaced with buses running from Spadina Station at Bloor to Queens Quay. Buses operated in the regular traffic lanes, not on the streetcar right-of-way.

To no surprise, during periods when Spadina Avenue is congested, primarily with traffic queued for the westbound Gardiner Expressway ramp at Lake Shore, the buses made glacial progress. This was not, however, the only place where buses were delayed by traffic.

The TTC has announced that it will change the south end loop in an attempt to speed service during the PM peak. No buses will operate between Blue Jays Way and Queens Quay, but instead they will loop via Front eastbound, then south and west via Blue Jays Way to Spadina. Traffic Wardens will assist with the turn at Front Street.

However, the congestion on the south end of Spadina can extend north to King and sometimes beyond Queen Street. It is not clear whether the new loop will address much of the problem. Buses will not be using the streetcar right-of-way, even though it has no centre poles north of Bremner Blvd. to bypass the traffic jam.

The TTC advises that this is an interim arrangement, and that they are working with the City on further, unspecified, changes to the bus operation.

It’s Not Just the Gardiner

An effect unexpected by some, I am sure, was that at uncongested parts and times, the buses make faster trips than the streetcars had only a week before the changeover. Anyone who rides the 510 Spadina car will know of their glacial progress through intersections thanks to the system wide slow order on all special trackwork. Spadina has many intersections. This type of pervasive delay is seen all over the streetcar system, but is worst on rights-of-way where one would expect streetcars to operate as quickly as possible.

Buses have a further advantage in that they are stopping nearside, and therefore can serve stops while awaiting a green signal, and then leave without a second farside stop.

The absence of priority with extended green phases for Spadina transit service affects the modes differently because an extended green would allow streetcars to reach their stops before a signal turns against them. Even if bus is caught on the nearside of an intersection, it will be stopping to serve passengers.

The left turn phase for auto traffic that blocks streetcars also blocks buses, and so this particular delay is common to both modes.

In addition to congestion at the south end of the route, buses also encounter problems during some periods approaching Bloor Street northbound.

The remainder of this article reviews travel times and service reliability on the main part of the 510 Spadina route over June 2024. (There is a companion article about the return of streetcars replacing buses on 512 St. Clair.)

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100 Flemingdon Park: June 2023 – May 2024

In comments on a recent article, a reader asked me to review the 100 Flemingdon Park bus route. As it happens, I have been tracking the route for almost a year and so have lots of data.

The picture is not a pretty one. This route has been affected by construction at various times, but the major problem is with headway management, or rather a lack of any, on some days. Very large gaps with bunches of three or more buses are common.

If nothing else, the Flemingdon Park shows that you don’t need streetcars fighting downtown traffic to have chaotic service. Too often there are assumptions about “typical” problems without looking too hard for the details.

Service on this route is unreliable during most of the 11 months covered by the data here. Erratic headways also generate uneven loads on buses. The theoretical capacity of a route might be capable of providing comfortable service, but with bunching most riders have longer than scheduled waits and crowding that is worse than the theoretical average. Riders complain about actual service conditions. Management responds with averages that hide the problems while claiming that they meet the “board approved” service standards most of the time.

Scheduled Service

The schedules in effect on June 1, 2023, saw the Flemingdon Park buses running between Don Mills & Eglinton south to Broadview Station. A former link west to Eglinton Station was replaced by a separate 34C Eglinton East bus to isolate the 100 service from construction delays on Eglinton.

On June 18, 2023, the southern terminus shifted from Broadview Station to Pape Station and the route was interlined with 72A Pape. This change was part of a general restructuring of routes during construction at Broadview Station and the surrounding neighbourhood.

On November 19, 2023, the Flemingdon Park buses returned to Broadview Station, and this has been their terminus ever since. Although a new schedule was issued in May 2024, the service details are the same except that the route now operates from Eglinton rather than from Birchmount garage.

The remainder of this article looks at various months over the June 2023 to May 2024 period in detail to see what the service actually looked like from a rider’s point of view.

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Streetcars Return to St. Clair

The TTC has announced that streetcar service will be restored on St. Clair with the June 23, 2024 schedule changes. This follows a long period of reconstruction at several points along the route:

  • Upgrade of overhead power systems for pantographs along the route, at loops and junctions.
  • Worn rail replacement at some stops.
  • Improved lubricators for Oakwood and Earlscourt loops to reduce wheel squeal.
  • City of Toronto work at the Barrie corridor west of Caledonia.
  • Toronto Water construction.

Reconstruction of St. Clair West Station loop will continue through the summer and fall, and streetcars, like the interim bus service, will not enter the station. Riders connecting to/from the subway will have to walk to nearby stops at Bathurst or Tweedsmuir.

This chart gives an overview of the various projects along St. Clair. For complete description of the project, see the TTC’s project page.

Full details of the service changes planned on June 23 have not yet been released, but the electronic version of schedules used by trip planning apps were posted recently.

WeekdaysSaturdaysSundays
AM Peak M-F
Early Morning S-S		8′10′11′
Midday M-F
Late Morning S-S		8′8′9′
PM Peak M-F
Afternoon S-S		8′8′8′
Early Evening8′9′9′
Late Evening10′10′10′

Night service will also change. Streetcars will operate as 312 St. Clair from Yonge Street to Gunn’s Loop west of Keele matching the daytime service. A separate 340 Junction night bus will operate from Gunn’s Loop to Dundas West Station via St. Clair, Jane and Dundas.

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TTC Updates and Extends Spadina 510 Bus Replacement

Updated June 13, 2024 at 8:00 am: A table comparing scheduled service levels on Queens Quay has been added.

Updated June 13, 2024 at 2:00 pm: A table comparing scheduled service levels on the 510 streetcar with proposed bus service has been added.

In April, I reported TTC plans to replace 510 Spadina Streetcars with buses from June 23 through the summer and fall. The TTC has now updated the announcement and extended the program from October into December. Here are the April (left) and June (right) versions of the maps for comparison.

The TTC’s construction notices can be found here:

The scope of work includes:

  • Track reconstruction at Spadina Station
  • Enabling works for Spadina Station Loop expansion. Condo construction east of the station will expose part of its structure, and the TTC will make provision for extending the streetcar loading platform.
  • Overhead reconstruction from Spadina Station to College Street, and from King to Queens Quay.

There is no information about the segment from College to King which was omitted due to resource limitations according to the TTC. It is unclear whether there will be another shutdown in 2025 to finish the work. I await clarification on that issue from the TTC.

Buses will operate in mixed traffic, not on the streetcar right-of-way. According to the Transit Notice:

  • The City will be deploying traffic wardens to assist bus operations on Spadina Avenue.
  • Narrow lane width and centre overhead poles in certain sections preclude bus service on the streetcar right-of-way.
  • Overhead crews will be actively working in the right-of-way in different sections of Spadina Avenue.
  • Operating in both the streetcar right-of-way and in mixed traffic lanes would require new signals and
    limit any travel time benefits.

Some of this does not entirely make sense. There are centre overhead poles only south of Front Street. No work is planned between College and King. It is not clear that completely new signals would be needed for buses to shift between the streetcar right-of-way and curb lanes, especially at College and at King where there are already priority signals for streetcar turns northbound and southbound. Some reprogramming would be necessary.

As for traffic wardens, they will be little use on lower Spadina where traffic is regularly backed up from the Gardiner Expressway. I would not be surprised to see many buses short turn at Adelaide rather than attempting the trip south to Queens Quay.

Service on 509 Harbourfront will be improved, but the details have not yet been published.

I will update this article as more information is available.

Comparison of Service Levels on Queens Quay

The table below shows the existing scheduled service on Queens Quay until June 22 with the 509 Harbourfront and 510 Spadina cars, and from June 23 with the revised 509 service. It is quite clear that there will be less service on Queens Quay from June 23 onward.

The values shown below are headways in minutes and seconds, and vehicles/hour e.g. “10′ (6)”.

509 Harbourfront to June 22510 Spadina to June 22Combined 509/510 to June 22509 Harbourfront effective June 23Percent Change
Weekdays
AM Peak7’15” (8.4)10′ (6)4’10” (14.4)6′ (10)-31%
Midday9’30” (6.3)10′ (6)4’53” (12.3)7′ (8.6)-30%
PM Peak9’30” (6.3)10′ (6)4’53” (12.3)6′ (10)-19%
Early Evening9’15” (6.5)10′ (6)4’48” (12.5)7′ (8.6)-31%
Late Evening10′ (6)9’30” (6.3)4’53” (12.3)8′ (7.5)-31%
Saturdays
Early Morning8’30” (7.1)9’30” (6.3)4’49” (13.4)8’30” (7.1)-47%
Late Morning9’15″(6.5)8’30” (7.1)4.25 (13.6)7′ (8.6)-37%
Afternoon8’15” (7.3)7’45” (7.7)4′ (15)4′ (15)Nil
Early Evening9’15” (6.5)5’15” (11.4)3’21” (17.9)7′ (8.6)-52%
Late Evening10′ (6)9’30” (6.3)4’53” (12.3)8′ (7.5)-39%
Sundays
Early Morning15′ (4)15′ (4)7’30” (8)10′ (6)-25%
Late Morning8’45” (6.9)9’45” (6.2)4’35” (13.1)7’30” (8)-39%
Afternoon8’15” (7.3)9′ (6.7)4’17” (14)5′ (12)-14%
Early Evening9’15” (6.5)6’15” (9.6)3’44” (16.1)7′ (8.6)-46%
Late Evening10′ (6)9’30” (6.3)4’53” (12.3)8′ (7.5)-39%

Comparison of Service Levels on Spadina

The table below compares the existing streetcar service on 510 Spadina between Spadina Station and Queens Quay with the proposed level of bus service. Note that streetcars carry two to three times the load of a standard bus. Values are shown in minutes and seconds, with vehicles per hour in brackets.

510 Spadina to June 22510B Spadina Bus effective June 23
Weekdays
AM Peak5′ (12)3’45” (16)
Midday5′ (12)3’30” (17.1)
PM Peak5′ (12)2’30” (24)
Early Evening5′ (12)3’30” (17.1)
Late Evening9’30” (6.3)6′ (10)
Saturdays
Early Morning9’30” (6.3)9′ (6.7)
Late Morning4’15” (14.1)2’45” (21.8)
Afternoon3’52” (15.5)2’45” (21.8)
Early Evening5’15” (11.4)4′ (15)
Late Evening9’30” (6.3)5′ (12)
Sundays
Early Morning15′ (4)9′ (6.7)
Late Morning4’53” (12.3)3′ (20)
Afternoon4’30” (13.3)3′ (20)
Early Evening6’15” (9.6)4′ (15)
Late Evening9’30” (6.3)6′ (10)
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505 Dundas Headways: April 2024

In the previous article, I reviewed travel times on 505 Dundas for the month of April 2024. Now, here are charts of the headway data.

Service on this route comes nowhere near meeting the TTC’s own rather lax standards for service quality. The TTC measures On Time Performance (“OTP”) with the assumption that if cars are on time, then regular service will take care of itself. However, there is considerable leeway in the words “on time”.

OTP is measured only at terminals and compares the scheduled trip time to the actual one. If a car leaves no more than 1 minute early or 5 minutes late, it is “on time” for the stats. There is no measurement of OTP along the route, and the spacing from terminals is rarely maintained.

The six minute window this provides allows service to be quite erratic, but still counted as “on time”. For example, on a route like Dundas with a 10 minute headway, cars could alternately be 5 minutes late and 1 minute early. This would produce the following departure pattern:

Scheduled12:0012:1012:2012:3012:4012:501:00
Actual12:0512:0912:2512:2912:4512:491:05
Headway4′16′4′16′4′16′

The cars on short headways would inevitably catch up with the cars on wide headways, and pairs 20′ apart would travel across the route. There is nothing in TTC standards to measure this. and reports will blissfully say that service is “on time”. In fact, the TTC does not even achieve its own lax standard.

There is also no metric for missed trips caused by absent cars. Conversely, a trip at a terminal can legitimately be missing if a car was short-turned to restore regular service. The TTC’s focus on OTP stats to the exclusion of any other metric is one reason for the no short-turn policy. This can do much damage by blocking legitimate service management techniques. In the article on travel times, there are many examples of short turns to preserve service on the central part of the route rather than letting vehicles pile up at terminals.

This article shows how service leaving the terminals of 505 Dundas is disorganized from the outset, and how this evolves along the route. For an organization that hopes to win back riders, this is not an ideal example of what service should look like.

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505 Dundas Travel Times: April 2024

On the Toronto Council agenda for May 22, 2024, there was a motion asking for Transportation Services to investigate changes in traffic regulations on Dundas Street in anticipation of coming work on Spadina Avenue and at Spadina Station. This will replace streetcars with buses for a period from late June to mid-December, 2024, and the buses will not operate on the streetcar right-of-way.

Community Council Decision Advice and Other Information

The Toronto and East York Community Council requested the General Manager, Transportation Services to report directly to the May 22, 2024 meeting of City Council on recommended temporary parking, loading and traffic amendments on Dundas Street West that would support timely and reliable streetcar service on Dundas Street West between Spadina Avenue and McCaul Street during construction at Spadina Station.

Summary

During the June to December 2024 closure of the 510 Spadina streetcar for construction at Spadina Station, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) wishes to enhance alternate routes for customer movement to and through the Chinatown neighbourhood. One key alternate route is the 505 Dundas streetcar. Unfortunately, this streetcar is frequently delayed by acute traffic congestion between Spadina Avenue and McCaul Street. To improve timeliness and reliability of 505 Dundas streetcar service through Chinatown during the Spadina closure, TTC is requesting that Council temporarily modify left-turn prohibitions, reduce on-street general-use parking, and add no stopping restrictions in strategic locations and timeframes along Dundas Street West between Spadina Avenue and McCaul Street. Designated loading zones may also help to reduce conflicts with streetcar service while supporting local businesses.

Transportation Services has replied to this request with a recommendation for changes in parking, stopping and turning restrictions on Dundas between McCaul and Spadina. Current curb lane restrictions are for no parking or stopping only in peak periods, with a mixture of paid and unpaid parking allowed at other times. There are also various turning restrictions (see the reply for details). The proposed changes are:

  • Between McCaul and Spadina, Dundas would be a No Stopping zone in both directions at all times.
  • Between University and McCaul, the peak direction (eastbound AM, westbound PM) would be a No Stopping zone.
  • Left turns eastbound and westbound at Dundas and Spadina would be banned between 7 am and 10 pm on all days.

A coach loading zone will be preserved in front of the Art Gallery (south side of Dundas, west of McCaul), and “consultation will be undertaken with the Chinatown BIA to identify areas where loading zone could be designated”.

Council amended the staff recommendation to asked for a “report back to the Toronto and East York Community Council by the fourth quarter of 2024 on the effectiveness of these changes for streetcar operations and a recommended long-term plan for parking, loading and traffic regulations on Dundas Street West between Spadina Avenue and McCaul Street.”

How much these changes will contribute to the Dundas car’s operation remains to be seen. There are already peak period restrictions on Dundas, and so there would be no change at those times. As always, the question of enforcement in practice vs regulation in theory is a problem. Moreover, 505 Dundas service is much less frequent than the combined services on King, and transit’s presence on Dundas is nowhere near as dominant. At most times, the scheduled service is every 10 minutes, and the most frequent service, 7 minutes, is on Saturday afternoons.

There is much more to the 505 Dundas route than the short section east of Spadina, and any review of the route should look at it over all. The travel time between University and Spadina, even on “bad” days, is under 10 minutes and the likely saving of any restrictions will be at best 4 minutes, likely less. Focus on a single segment will not address wider problems along the route.

The remainder of this article looks at travel times for 505 Dundas cars in April 2024 as a “before” point of reference, and to high light other areas where cars are (and are not) delayed.

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