With the opening of Line 5 Eglinton on February 8, the former 35 Jane bus was split in two. This article reviews the headway reliability on the new services, with a look back at November 2025 as a comparison. Service in the Jane corridor was notoriously erratic. It has been proposed as a RapidTO red lane route, but nothing has actually been implemented yet.
The original service operated from Jane Station to Pioneer Village Station. At the north end, the service divides with half of the buses running via Jane to Steeles, and half via Hullmar. This arrangement is preserved in the new 35 Jane whose southern terminus is Mount Dennis Station. (Map on the left below)
The new 27 Jane South route runs from Mount Dennis Station to Jane Station. (Map on the right)
There was no change in the 935 Jane Express which continues to run directly between Jane and Pioneer Village Stations.
By comparison with the service in Fall 2025, operations on the 27/35 route pair are an improvement, but this starts from a very low bar. Headways along the route are scattered over a wide range of values making service for riders quite unpredictable. There is no change in service behaviour over the three month period indicating that there was no effort to improve performance, or there was, it had no effect.
An online meeting of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for Waterfront East transit was called for May 13. Normally these events provide significant new information about the project, and they are usually just ahead of a new round of public consultation or reports to Council.
That was certainly not the case for this round. What information was conveyed has already appeared in previous announcements and reports, and the presenters from Waterfront Toronto and the City’s Transit Expansion Office were loathe to part with details, assuming they knew anything about the project.
Notable by its absence was any detailed discussion of project phasing: which chunks of the Waterfront East will be built first and what the interim service plans will look like. Any further updates have been punted to early 2027 conveniently beyond the election.
I could not help remembering a conversation with then-Mayor Tory at TTC’s 100th Anniversary celebration at Hillcrest in 2021 where he was quite firm that the Waterfront line was a “priority” for him. We are still waiting.
The meeting was one of those embarrassing affairs with roughly the same number of public participants as staff. Notable by their absence was anyone from City Planning, the TTC or any Councillors’ office.
What was presented is already known:
There is now $3-billion committed by Toronto, Ontario and Canada to fund the project.
Council has authorized continuing with design work as well as “early works” this year in preparation for construction next year. The early work is construction of the ductbank on Small Street north from Queens Quay to Lakeshore to the site of a future substation to be incorporated in a new development there.
Planned construction will be on Queens Quay east but not all the way to Cherry, and it is unclear just how much will be done in 2027.
The opening date, as repeatedly stated, is now linked to the 2032 occupancy of new buildings on Ookwemin Minising (formerly Villier’s Island). It is almost as if all of the development already on Queens Quay does not exist or need better transit service as soon as possible. Reading between the lines, this will be the tail end of a service running east across Queens Quay from Spadina, but not yet to Union Station.
There is no staging plan yet. Obviously an east-west link on Queens Quay is needed first and that is impossible without interrupting service at Bay to Queens Quay and Union Stations. There is no projection for the duration of work that will first shut down streetcar service completely, then reopen only for through east-west travel pending completion of the Union Station rebuild.
Also uncertain is the timing of the branch north via Cherry to connect with Distillery Loop. This would provide an alternate link from the east, but there are timing issues with both Metrolinx work (Ontario Line), and the relocation of the Gardiner/DVP ramps. The legacy Cherry Street Tower just north of the rail corridor also needs to be moved.
This meeting did not discuss the many issues related to the Bay Street tunnel including work needed to expand the streetcar loop and to improve connections to the Ferry Docks at Queens Quay. It is ironic that hours before I wrote this, the City announced the names of two new electric ferries that will substantially increase capacity to the Toronto Island.
At the very least, some of these events already have dates or tentative plans, although they must be stitched together into an overall project. The “players” are notorious for changing plans without notice, and there is no guarantee a plan formed today will last until tomorrow. All the same, the public and politicians deserve to know what all the parts are and what issues might arise. We have $3-billion burning a hole in our pocket, but no idea of how to spend it or even if it will cover all of the planned work.
With the opening off to 2032 and full operation to Union beyond that, other projects potentially serving the waterfront also should be discussed including the Broadview extension south to Commissioners, and the extension of the WERTL east to at least Broadview. Waterfront planning has many moving parts, and nobody seems willing to unpack the complete list let alone speculate on costs and timeframes.
I had a real sense that the presenters were clearly the City’s “B” team, the kind of people one sends to a public meeting with a script to say as little as possible. Either they did not know what the options and decisions are on the table, or they were not telling even with repeated chances to clarify. SAC members had expected an update on staging this spring, but now we (and by extension Council and voters) must wait until 2027 after the election.
In some doublespeak worthy of Metrolinx we learned that the former Waterfront East LRT has been renamed the Waterfront East Rapid Transit Line. The purpose is to distinguish it from Lines 5 and 6, with the WERTL being an extension of the existing streetcar network. A rose by any other name.
Years ago, the TTC’s planning function was spun off to the City’s Transit Expansion Office, a group that has never felt like an “A” team. They seem to have taken over this project from the City’s Planning Department who gave a sense they actually knew what was happening having been involved for so long in redevelopment of the eastern waterfront.
Toronto deserves an open and honest discussion of waterfront transit issues, not a once-over-lightly presentation with almost no detail.
The TTC has announced via a service advisory that 6 Finch West will be closed by Metrolinx from Friday, May 15 to Monday, May 18 (Victoria Day). Regular service will resume on Tuesday, May 19.
The purpose is “planned infrastructure and system improvement work”, but with no details.
Shuttle buses will operate while the line is closed. The 336 night bus service is not affected.
There is no further information on the Metrolinx Finch West site as of May 14 at 5:40am.
Update: The Metrolinx notice went up on May 8, but it is not on the 6 Finch page but rather on the general Media page which is not where riders would look for info.
With the many route changes for the opening of Lines 5 and 6, an obvious “project” is to review how all of the new and updated routes are operating. I cannot guarantee that I will get to them all, but will nibble away at the list.
We still cannot see vehicle tracking data for 5 Eglinton LRT, but a route we can see is the vestigial replacement bus 34 Eglinton.
Full disclosure: The Eglinton East corridor is one I have used all of my life, and quality of service affects me personally. However, it also affects the many would-be riders along the line for whom transit “service” has all but disappeared.
This route shows a classic laissez-faire attitude of TTC management where buses appear to run more or less on a schedule of their own making. Riders on other routes are familiar with this problem, but 34 Eglinton shows how an infrequent service can be left to rot and discourage riders from using it. TTC has even talked of the 20-minute service as “interim” and that it might be cut in the future.
The idea of a parallel surface bus was to provide accessibility for those who could not walk to an LRT station, and this is, in theory, a key part of accessibility for the line. However, service is so erratic on this nominally 20-minute route that actually catching a bus requires good timing through a transit app to find one. To add insult to injury, the TTC removed several stops along Eglinton just before Line 5 opened, adding access time to the remaining riders in the name of speeding up a frequent bus service that was about to vanish.
TTC talks about its “family of services” scheme that encourages potential Wheel-Trans users to make part of their trip on the conventional system. 34 Eglinton demonstrates just how badly they actually deliver alternatives.
There is no excuse for the poor quality of service on this route, and three months’ data show that the current operation is “normal” with no visible effort to rein in irregularities.
This article updates a series of posts looking at the 7 Bathurst bus and the effect of transit priority changes made on that route. Originally the City and TTC had proposed red lanes from Bathurst Station north to Eglinton. This was substantially changed to parking and turning restrictions, and the elimination of some transit stops. The changes predominantly affected northbound travel and in the interest of brevity, I have included mainly northbound data here. The changes implemented were:
Extendind the no stopping period on the east side of Bathurst between Eglinton and Bathurst Station North Exit from 2:00 to 7:00pm, weekdays, and from noon to 7:00pm, weekends, except public holidays. Previously, there was no stopping from 4:00 to 6:00pm or 3:30 to 7:00pm, Monday to Friday, depending on the segment
No left turns northbound from 7:00am to 7:00pm Monday to Saturday, except public holidays (Toronto Transit Commission vehicles excepted), at Bathurst & Davenport northbound, and at Bathurst & Dupont southbound. Previous hours were 4:00 to 6:00pm weekdays northbound at Davenport, and 7am to 6pm southbound at Dupont.
The existing no left turns restriction northbound at Bathurst & Dupont from 7:00 to 9:00am weekdays was removed.
Concurrently with these changes, the TTC removed stops from the route, mostly north of St. Clair, with the premise that fewer stops would make faster trips. The actual effect varies depending on how heavily a stop is used, whether each bus or only some trips actually stop there, and whether there is an associated traffic signal that could compound the delay of serving a stop.
A saving of 1/3 in travel times has been claimed between Bathurst Station and Dupont, but this is not supported by actual tracking data. There may be best case comparisons where there is a 1/3 saving, but this does not apply across the board. The primary intent, as explained in the presentation to Council at the time, was to improve the reliability of travel times, not to speed up service.
A major issue on Bathurst is that the service is infrequent (generally every 10 minutes) and very unreliable. How much road capacity should be dedicated to such a route by comparison with other priority implementations such as on King Street or Eglinton Avenue East?
The first set of charts in this article shows the evolution of travel times between Barton (just north of Bathurst Station), St. Clair and Eglinton. The second compares April 2026 with April 2025 in detail. The third reviews the history of headway reliability on the route.
The past six months brought a seemingly endless string of construction projects and streetcar diversions, and with them an ever lengthening page documenting them. The Fall-Winter 25/26 page is now retired, and a new one for mid-2026 is up.
You can access it through the sidebar on desktop displays, or from a link at the bottom of any page in the mobile version.
The TTC will make many changes to its schedules and services on Sunday, May 3. Many of these are seasonal adjustments for reduced traffic to school locations, as well as summer-only routes. Some routes will see service changes, and some construction projects will, at long last, finish. Toronto gets a reprieve for the World Cup period from major road disruptions, but this will not last long.
Other changes include some streetcar stop removals to attempt to speed up service. We will see just how effective these are after a month’s operation.
Updated May 2, 2026: Route description for 329 Night Bus corrected. Note about additional early morning trips added.
Updated May 3, 2026 at 6:30pm: The spreadsheet showing details of changes to service plans is now available.
Updated May 3, 2026 at 11:30pm: There are few destination sign changes, but a list of them has been added.
According to a bulletin from the TTC’s Safety and Environment Department, effective May 24, 2026 some speed restrictions that hobble streetcar operations will be dropped.
At crosswalks and signalized intersections, streetcars are now restricted to entering at 25 km/h. This will change so that cars can operate at up to the posted speed limit.
The 10 km/h speed restriction at intersections on The Queensway will be removed, and cars can operate up to the posted speed limit.
Intersections with special work, or with other explicit restrictions, continue to be subject to slow orders.
Notwithstanding these changes, Operators are expected to drive defensively and adapt to road and weather conditions.
This is a first step in attempting to speed up streetcar routes, but the limits at special work (switches, crossings) remain in place. This will not change, if at all, without a thorough review of factors contributing to that long-standing policy including:
Reliability of electric switch controllers,
Benefits of double-blade switches for Flexity streetcar movement through turns, and
Signaling to provide a positive indication for operators that switches are set and locked to the desired route.
That study is underway, but we are unlikely to see major changes quickly especially if replacement of existing track and controllers is needed. Related issues include:
The number of manually operated switches at locations where streetcars regularly turn for diversions and short turns, and
The degree, if any, of aggressive transit signal priority provided at existing and future switch locations.
Removal of speed restrictions related to trolley pole operation notably at low underpasses.
It is not clear why there is a delay of over three weeks for this change to take effect, but it will be in place before the World Cup games.
Effective April 27, streetcar service on 501 Queen resumed its normal route between Broadview and Parliament rather than diverting via Dundas Street.
The 503 Kingston Road bus also resumed its normal route between the Don River and Parliament running via King rather than via Queen.
The split operation of 504 King with all streetcars running to Distillery Loop and a 504D shuttle between Parliament and Broadview Station will continue until the schedule change on May 3 when full streetcar service over 504 will resume. Similarly the split 304 King night car and 301 Queen night bus operation will be replaced with 304 streetcars over the full route.
This change has been announced by the TTC via a press release, but does not appear on their Service Changes page. The underlying online schedules will not be updated until May 3, and so trip prediction apps will not give valid information for 501 and 503 services between Broadview and Parliament in the interim.
For a complete list of current and past streetcar diversions, see my Where Is My Streetcar page.
TTC Plans for service to the six World Cup games to be played in Toronto, as well as to the nearby Fan Fest area, were covered in a presentation deck in a recent TTC Board agenda. Because the Board had been rather chatty on previous items, this one was not presented although there was a media scrum afterward.
The plan for transportation to the venues depends on a combination of routes. However, the description of the service varies between the presentation deck and info on the TTC’s World Cup web page.
On the left, the presentation clearly shows the 63 Ossington bus as a World Cup route, but it is missing on the web page.
According to the web page, there will be “expanded service” on subway lines 1 and 2, and “enhanced sevice” on 29/929 Dufferin. Service on 504 King, 509 Harbourfront and 511 Bathurst will run every 5 minutes all day on game days.
Because the 509 and 511 streetcars merge at Bathurst and Fleet, this will mean a 2’30” combined service to Exhibition Loop. That is substantial by current TTC streetcar standards, but it will only provide 24 cars per hour with a capacity of 3,600 riders, generously allowing for 150 per car. The stress on service will be stronger after games when many fans want to leave in a short period. Whether the combined streetcar, bus and GO train service will be able to handle this remains to be seen.
Note the planned access routes to the queuing area on Fleet Street includes fare payment points. This will allow the loading to occur from a fare paid zone without the delay of on board taps, and without the need for fare enforcement in a congested area. This is also shown for access to a contingency bus area at Fort York and Lake Shore, and it is reasonable to assume the same approach will be used at Dufferin Loop.
Aggressive transit priority measures will be needed to keep streets clear. Toronto does not have a good history in restricting motorists to leave the streets for transit service, and the affected areas are not just the downtown business district but residential streets.
Both Bathurst and Dufferin Streets will, by the time of the matches, have RapidTO red lanes south from Bloor. Early plans for Bathurst called for express streetcars and local bus service, but that scheme has been dropped.
I asked Josh Colle, TTC’s Chief Strategy and Customer Experience Officer, about this, and here is his reply:
Earlier iterations of our conceptual service plan envisioned removing intermediate stops along 511 Bathurst to increase the speed of travel along the corridor during the World Cup. Bus service would be provided to serve all existing stops.
With the expected travel time improvements from RapidTO, the implementation of 6-minute or better service, and further service increases during the World Cup period, the express streetcar concept was abandoned. There were also concerns about buses operating in the dedicated lanes and needing to merge in and out of potentially congested curb lanes to serve curbside stops.
This was originally seen as an opportunity to pilot a stop removal program for streetcar while operating a local bus service. However, given the recent priority to improving streetcar operations through other initiatives, our focus remains providing the best service for all customers during the World Cup period.
The TTC intends to provide Blue Night service as shown on the map below beyond the usual level.
Things do go wrong, inevitably, and here are the TTC’s preparations:
Service delivery and performance:
Supplementary supervisors in stations, on-street, and at key locations
Additional standby and change-off vehicles on all modes
Enhanced station staff, customer service and ambassadors
Real-time system oversight and coordinated decision making
Infrastructure readiness:
Streetcar switch duty operators at critical points
Extra janitorial and vehicle cleaning crews
Additional line mechanics, elevator, overhead, subway, signal, and track crews
Standby streetcar support and service trucks
Emergency safety:
Added security personnel on match days
Toronto Police paid duty officers EMS at key locations
Coordinated approach with Station staff, Transit Control and Special Constables
Continued access to social supports and resources through partnerships
This is substantially more than we see for day-to-day operations, and there may be some lessons to be learned about the level of supervisory and support services needed to handle major events and their demand.
(The reference to switch duty operators is a tad embarrassing considering that the planned streetcar routes do not involve any manual switches, and this does not show great confidence in their existing technology.)
There will be “testing exercises” although the exact scale of these is not yet known.
Finally there are plans for enhanced and visible safety and security with the use of Special Constables, Fare Inspectors (Provincial Offenses Officers) and contract security staff. Ideally, as many riders as possible will pass through fare controls at some point in their journey and extensive fare checks on board will not be needed. More important will be visibility of staff who can intervene, if only to report issues and act as a visible deterrent.
Management will bring an updated plan to the June 3 Board meeting.
Steve Munro 