TORONTO -- Bus-only lanes could be coming to some of the TTC’s busiest routes.
The TTC released its new five-year service plan on Thursday and the 55-page document includes plans to explore implementing “exclusive bus lanes” and a number of other service enhancements, such as all-door boarding, on the Eglinton East, Dufferin, Jane, Steeles West, and Finch East routes.
The TTC says that the five routes combined carry nearly 250,000 customers each weekday, making them among the busiest surface routes in the city.
“Over the next five years we will explore opportunities on Eglinton Avenue East, Dufferin Street, Jane Street, Steeles Avenue West and Finch Avenue East. Although our focus will be on these major corridors to start, we will continue to identify opportunities on other busy corridors to improve travel time and reliability for customers,” the plan notes.
The TTC says that it is interested in exploring the possibility of exclusive bus lanes in the wake of the success of the King Street Transit Priority Corridor.
The estimated cost of introducing exclusive bus lanes on the routes is $41.8 million over the next five years.
In a message posted to Twitter on Thursday night, Mayor John Tory offered support for the concept.
He said that he has been briefed by TTC staff on the entire five-year plan and has told them that he wants "to see a plan to roll out a bus rapid transit project on a route as soon as possible."
Some of the other initiatives outlined in the five-year service plan include additional queue jump lanes for buses and streetcars and an increased use of transit signal priority.
The plan also identifies the need for an additional 60 streetcars between 2022 and 2024.
The TTC says the capital cost of implementing the entire plan is $779.5 million over five years.
