A transit advocacy group has just ranked the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)’s slowest bus routes and if you’re a frequent rider of one of these routes, these results are not shocking at all.
During a mock awards ceremony at City Hall on Wednesday, TTCrider volunteers dressed as marathon runners represented the city’s slowest bus routes and accepted awards for them.
From Now Toronto:
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A transit advocacy group has just ranked the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)’s slowest bus routes and if you’re a frequent rider of one of these routes, these results are not shocking at all.
During a mock awards ceremony at City Hall on Wednesday, TTCrider volunteers dressed as marathon runners represented the city’s slowest bus routes and accepted awards for them.
The group ranked 29 Dufferin in first place, 35 Jane in second, 60 Steeles West in third and 39 Finch East in fourth. These same routes were also promoted “RapidTO”.
The ceremony comes ahead of a report set to be debated at the Executive Committee about Toronto’s plan to install more bus lanes.
The RapidTO Surface Transit Network Plan report proposes moving ahead with studies and consultation along three bus routes, Finch East, Lawrence East, and Dufferin. However, it does not include clear timelines for implementation of bus lanes or other transit priority measures.
It adds that 70 per cent of surface routes on the TTC are much slower than the underground routes. Specifically, buses and streetcars are the least reliable portions of the transit system according to TTC’s 2024 Budget Note.
“It’s time to put the ‘rapid’ in RapidTO,” Toronto Environmental Alliance Climate Campaigner How-Sen Chong said in a statement.
“There’s no excuse to delay the next four priority routes of RapidTO: Steeles West, Finch East, Lawrence East, and Dufferin. We need studies on these four routes to be complete in 2024. And it means that we need paint on the ground by the end of the year,” he continued.
City councillor Josh Matlow says thousands of residents across under-serviced neighbourhoods and York University students especially rely on the Steeles bus, which was ranked third slowest route by the transit group.
York University student and TTCriders volunteer Elton Campbell, who wore the #29 Dufferin jersey and won gold in the ceremony,
“Whenever I need to take the Dufferin bus from Parkdale to Wilson Station, it is painfully slow,” Campbell said in a statement.
“I was not surprised to learn how slow the Dufferin bus is, but I am surprised that city council is not planning to move faster to make quick improvements to Toronto buses,” he continued.
The RapidTO Surface Transit Network Plan report is set to be debated on Jan. 30.
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Read the full article here:
https://nowtoronto.com/news/it-is-painfully-slow-these-toronto-bus-routes-are-the-slowest-in-the-city-according-to-ttc-riders/
Read our letter in support of bus-only lanes and other transit priority measures on Queens Quay East, Parliament Street and Front Street West to ensure thousands of residents along growing waterfront communities and students attending George Brown College have reliable bus service.
(Toronto, Ontario) – Transit and environmental groups across Canada are celebrating a commitment by Liberal leadership candidate Frank Baylis to increase the Canada Public Transit Fund. Federal Liberal Party leadership candidates were surveyed about their transit commitments by Environmental Defence, TTCriders, Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders, Trajectoire Québec, Activate Transit Windsor Essex, and Équiterre.