TTC plans to gradually restore 100% of pre-pandemic service hours starting Sunday

Commuters wait to take the subway in Toronto on Friday, June 22, 2018. (The Canadian Press / Tijana Martin)

The TTC is planning to ramp up service hours to what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic starting this weekend.

The Toronto transit agency says it is aiming to restore 100 per cent of pre-pandemic service hours over the coming months as ridership increases.

“One of the dividends to us staying the course and getting ourselves in a situation to reopen is that transit ridership is starting to go up and we have to respond to that by restoring service to pre-pandemic levels,” Mayor John Tory told CP24 Wednesday morning.

Starting on Sunday, 17 routes will see increased service or improved reliability.

The routes include:

• 8 Broadview
• 9 Bellamy
• 12 Kingston Rd
• 20 Cliffside
• 22 Coxwell
• 42 Cummer
• 45 Kipling
• 50 Burnhamthorpe
• 56 Leaside
• 57 Midland
• 61 Avenue Rd North
• 78 St Andrews
• 161 Rogers Rd
• 168 Symington
• 300 Bloor-Danforth overnight bus
• 501L/H Queen (replacement bus)
• 925 Don Mills Express

As ridership increases, Tory says individual route schedules and service levels will be determined by demand and overall system needs.

“We're watching every single route and so that as ridership starts to come back as we want to reopen the city, as we want to get the economy going again- which is one of my top priorities to have a strong economic recovery- then those routes have to be restored,” Tory said.

In November 2021, the TTC reduced service on several routes due to operator shortages caused by the agency’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.

Last month, the TTC terminated about two per cent of its employees who failed to comply with the vaccine policy.