TTC says it will boost service next month as Chow vows to build Scarborough busway

The TTC says that it is boosting service, particularly bus service, back to almost pre-pandemic levels in Toronto as the school year gets set to begin.

Starting in September, overall TTC service hours will return to 93 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, rising to 95 per cent in November. Bus service will return to 99 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

The move is being accomplished by using some of the $60 million in operating money which had been set aside for Line 5 (the Eglinton LRT) for this year. The line, which was supposed to be complete by the end of last year, is still under construction, with no clear timeline for its completion.

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“More TTC service means more room on board, shorter wait times, and better reliability for all transit users,” Mayor Olivia Chow said. “By reinvesting some of the $60 million originally budgeted to operate Line 5, there will be 280,000 weekly customer trips with scheduled service improvements by November, with service almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Most of this investment will be in the bus network, where we know demand is greatest.”

‘ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, WE ARE GOING TO BUILD THAT BRT’

TTC Chair Jamaal Myers said a good share of the improvements will bolster service in Scarborough, where transit riders have been hit hard by the closure of Line 3 (the Scarborough RT) several months early due to a derailment which finally put a nail in the coffin for the troubled line.

“By November, more Scarborough transit users will have a direct bus route to the subway, without needing to transfer to other buses,” Myers said.

Chow also commented on the Scarborough transit situation and said that a dedicated busway in the path of the decommissioned RT will be built.

“One way or another, we are going to build that BRT for Scarborough residents,” Chow said. “You're looking at up to 30,000 riders a day.”

While the TTC is creating dedicated bus lanes on existing roads in the meantime, a dedicated busway in the path of the RT would save about 20 minutes a day on a return trip for riders until the Scarborough subway extension is built in several years. Chow said that adds up to almost two hours a week for a regular commuter and said the city will find a way to pay for the estimated $60 million cost of the busway.

“So we need that money. We will be asking. And hopefully I will be able to meet with the premier in early September an we'll come up with some news.” she said. “But we're building it.”

Leary said an investigation into the Scarborough RT derailment is still underway and he expects it to be complete sometime mid-September.

INCREASING SAFETY, RIDERSHIP A KEY PART OF STRATEGY

While the changes will bring overall service back to 95 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, Chow said she is still optimistic that she will be able to keep her campaign promise of fully restoring TTC service to pre-pandemic levels.

“Not quite there yet, but give us time. We'll get there,” Chow said. “We need the support, as I said, from other levels of government. We will look around for any kind of efficiencies, any kind of funding that we can get. We will put it in to make sure the TTC can operate with the kind of funding they do serve, and not just from the fare box.

Asked whether the service improvements could be rolled back once the LRT does come into service and the operating money is needed for it, Chow said she “hates rolling anything back” and hopes that council will find a way to continue to fund the improvements.

Leary also said that growing TTC ridership numbers are encouraging and that making sure staff are there to help riders feel safe and secure on the system is a key part of that strategy.

“So we do know that people feel comfortable. We do surveys on a regular basis. But safety is a key for them,” he said. “It’s keeping people in stations. It’s having people be visible in stations and out on the system, having answers for questions for information.”

Myers added that safety is “key” and that the transit system is trying to take more of a “proactive” strategy in making people feel safe through stronger staff deployment on the system.