Changes to the 53 Steeles East bus route

Several significant changes have been made by the TTC to the 53 Steeles bus routes effective September 1st, 2013. Most of these changes affect stops in our ward, and riders should be aware of the following changes:

53 Steeles (Finch Station to Pharmacy) Eastbound - The short-turn route will be eliminated, and all local buses will now run as 53B (Finch Station to Markham Road) routes. This will result in increased local service for riders in our ward between Pharmacy and Kennedy Road.

53E Steeles Express and 53F Steeles Express - Because of the above changes, express buses runing both ways will no longer be stopping at non-major intersections from Pharmacy to McCowan. For our ward, this means the express service will no longer serve the following stops: Firebrace Road, Ferrier Street, the walkway west of Warden, Mountcastle Gate, Kelvin Grove, Redlea Avenue, and the Milliken GO Station.

Weekend service will be increased for all 53 routes, resulting in more frequent buses.

For more information, please see the full TTC service advisory below:

Improved bus service in Ward 39

Below is an excerpt taken from a letter from the TTC to our office concerning bus service improvements, dated August 15th, 2011:

Improved Service on Bus Routes
TTC staff carefully monitor ridership levels and operational performance on all TTC bus routes and, working strictly within the budget limitations allowed us by the City, we make adjustments to service in order to ensure that passenger comfort and crowding are maintained at reasonable levels, and that the attractiveness and reliability of the services are kept as good as possible.

Over the past few years, we have made a number of service improvements on routes in your ward, and these include:

42 Cummer:

Service was increased in January 2011 in the morning and afternoon peak periods, and in the late evening from Monday to Friday. Service was also increased in September 2010 on Sunday mornings. These service increases were in response to increasing ridership, and they reduced crowding on this route.

199 Finch Rocket:

We are currently conducting detailed stop-by-stop ridership counts on this route, and we will complete an evaluation of the service change this fall. The evaluation will include consideration of changes to stops, including the possibility of adding the stop at Adirondack Gate/Wayside Avenue to the 199 Finch Rocket route. The decision as to whether this stop will be added back to 199 Finch Rocket express service will be based on several factors, including an analysis of up-to-date stop usage on the 39 Finch East route; the number of people using this stop since the introduction of the 199 Finch Rocket route; an evaluation of the overall travel time changes to customers at this stop, considering both the change in waiting time of the revised local service and the running time difference between the express and local service; and the ability of the 199 Finch Rocket route to accommodate additional customers and additional stops, given our current resource limitations.

43 Kennedy:

Various service increases have been made to this route. Starting in September 2011, significant increases in service will be made during the peak periods and midday from Monday to Friday. These increases are intended both to reduce crowding and also to improve the reliability of the service, by adding more time to the schedules. These changes are in addition to schedule adjustments made in September 2010 to better service Mary Ward Collegiate; increased service Sunday mornings in January 2008; increased service on Monday-Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons in February 2008; and increased service on Sunday late evenings in November 2008.

TTC service change to 39 Finch East routes

A variety of service changes are coming to the 39 Finch East TTC bus routes, effective October 12th, 2010.

• General increase to 39 Finch East local non-express service.
• A brand new 199 Finch Rocket route, which stops at major express stops between Finch and Scarborough Town Centre.
• Some changes to the 139 Finch-Don Mills, which will now serve Senaca College westbound.

For more information, visit the TTC's website, or read on below.

TTC Online Trip Planner

The TTC has recently released the latest beta of their online Trip Planner. By inputting a starting point and a destination within the city, the service will attempt to find the most efficient TTC routing to get you there the Better Way.

Give it a try here.

Remember to always give yourself enough extra time for walking distances and to be mindful of traffic situations, as they are not included in the system's trip calculation.