by

Reviewing Subway Delay Data 2025-2026

The TTC recently updated its delay records for subway, bus, streetcar and LRT on the City’s Open Data Site. These files are raw data, and some slicing and dicing are required to put them in an approachable format.

I have consolidated the data from January 2025 to April 2026 with the full set linked and explained at the end of this post. Extracts of interest are in the main article.

Caveats:

  • The accuracy of this information depends on what the TTC chose to log. I have no reason to believe that they omitted any incidents.
  • When a delay period is cited, this is the length of the event, but there is no indication of the pervasiveness on general operations and riders through multi-train delays or service suspensions. This information is not included in the logs.
  • There are many separate codes for events that are reported publicly as “operational” or “mechanical” problems. Getting a handle on these requires a second level of analysis to group related items. I have not done this here in the interest of getting the basic data into an article for discussion.

Much debate about subway delays and safety has focused on two areas:

  • Track level incursions and the benefits of Platform Edge Doors (PEDs)
  • Security of riders

Unauthorized access to track level is far more common than cases where a train strikes a passenger (733 incidents vs 26 over 16 months). Prevention of track level access requires a physical barrier that will dissuade all but the most determined from getting off of the platform. Other related delays involve debris which could be a source of fires. This requires a true barrier.

Security incidents take many forms, but they are quite numerous. Not all of them represent a threat to riders. There has been much hype thanks to Provincial regulations regarding open use of drugs, but other types of security and safety events are far more numerous. New arrest powers will only make a small dent. This is security theatre, not a real response to the broader range of public disturbances, aggressive behaviour, mental and other health problems. The TTC and City recognize this in the recently announced increase in various types of services to be provided on the system.

That said, I do recognize that there are problem areas on surface routes, but security in that part of the network is much less present, and current attention focuses on the subway.

What is very striking about the list is the prevalence of events related to equipment and infrastructure. These are “internal” to the TTC in that any reduction will require improvements in TTC practices. The TTC needs to address areas they can fix on their own rather than, as happens too often, they focus on issues external and beyond their control. This will not eliminate all delays, but should produce real benefits in reliability and quality of service.

Detailed breakdowns follow the “more” break.

Continue reading →
by

TTC Plans Major Maintenance Work on Line 1

Regular users of the Spadina branch of Line 1 YUS will know that speed restrictions have been common in the open cut section of the line between Eglinton West and the north end of Wilson Yard. They appear on the map of reduced speed zones, vanish, and reappear a few weeks later.

Part of the problem is the temporary nature of some repairs, and partly due to underlying problems in the track support system. There are similar problems elsewhere on Line 1, and some of these go back years. A major issue in mounting a repair campaign is that closing a subway line for an extended period is a major upheaval especially over an extended distance or on a busy day.

A major project from June 1-8 will address:

  • Southbound Yorkdale to Wilson: Concrete slab repair to ensure long-term structural integrity, requiring two full days for concrete to cure.
  • Northbound Yorkdale to Wilson and Glencairn to Lawrence West: Installation of new rail.
  • Northbound Dupont to St Clair West: Replacement of track hardware

These areas correspond to some of the remaining RSZs on the current map.

In order to achieve this work, the Spadina branch between St. George and Sheppard West Stations will close early, at 11:59pm, Monday, June 1 to Thursday, June 4. On Friday evening, June 5-6, this section will not close until 12:30am to accommodate an event at the Rogers Stadium.

From Sunday, June 7 at 12:30am to Monday, June 8 at 6:00am, there will be no service over this section. A partial closure will continue through Monday until 6:00am on Tuesday, June 9 with single track operation on the northbound rail between Wilson and Lawrence West Stations. This will necessarily not be at the usual subway frequency.

Shuttle buses will run, but riders are encouraged to use the Yonge branch of the subway via bus and LRT services on Sheppard, Wilson, Lawrence and Eglinton.

This type of major repair is long overdue, and the proliferation of RSZs was a testament to the level of TTC maintenance for many years. This has been compounded recently by availability and reliability issues with the subway work car fleet. A proposal to rebuild Line 1 south of Eglinton Station goes back to the Byford era, but it has always been regarded as impossible due to the volume of riders there and the extent of the work involved.

What we do not know is whether there are additional major works yet to be announced, when and where they would occur. TTC owes it to riders to give a sense of what they actually plan, painful though some of this work may be.

The TTC’s move to a larger scale project is welcome, but is this is a temporary surge to remove as many problem areas as possible for the World Cup period, or will we see a continued effort to deal with and permanently repair track infrastructure problems as they occur. Riders next winter who are not football tourists are entitled to the same level of effort as our summer visitors.

by

TTC Board Meeting: June 3, 2026

The TTC Board will meet on June 3 with several items on the agenda.

The morning portion of the meeting will deal with various confidential items, and the meeting will move into public session in the afternoon, time to be announced.

Some items are forwarded from the Audit, Finance and Risk Management Committee meeting of May 26 How much debate they will get in the full Board’s public session remains to be seen.

Items of interest include:

  • CEO’s Report
  • Advancing Safety on the TTC: 2026 Focus Areas
  • Bloor-Yonge Capacity Improvements Project – Platform Edge Doors and Net Zero
  • Financial and Major Projects Update for the Period Ended April 26, 2026
  • Toronto Transit Commission – 2026 Follow-up – Status of Previous Auditor General’s Recommendations
  • Draft Consolidated Financial Statements of Toronto Transit Commission for the Year Ended December 31, 2025

Four items are administrative inquiries, or member motions including one forwarded from the recent Council meeting:

  • An inquiry about the usage and cost of Community Bus Routes from Chair Jamaal Myers
  • [From Council]: Safer Subways: Making Public Safety a Priority and Restoring Confidence to Toronto Transit Commission Riders Across Toronto
  • Review of Subway Capacity Constraints and Infrastructure Readiness for Protected/Major Transit Station Areas Compliance and Provincial Densification Mandates – by Commissioner Liane Kim, seconded by Commissioner Josh Matlow
  • Requesting a 7 Bathurst Express Bus – by Commissioner Josh Matlow, seconded by Commissioner Dianne Saxe

In this article I have grouped related items together.

Continue reading →
by

27/35 Jane: Service Analysis for Feb-Apr 2026

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.

Continue reading →
by

A Very Disappointing Waterfront East Update

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.

Continue reading →
by

Line 6 Finch West to Close for Repairs May 15-18

Updated May 14 at 9:30am:

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.

by

Service Analysis of 34 Eglinton: February-April 2026

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.

Continue reading →
by

7 Bathurst Update: Data to April 2026

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.

Continue reading →
by

TTC Service Changes Effective May 3, 2026

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.

Continue reading →