John Tory’s TTC Service Cuts

Not everybody loves details, but some people do. Here, we are providing riders of the TTC with information about service cuts in 2016 and 2017. This information is necessary because:

1) John Tory is starving the TTC of funding while claiming that he supports transit, and

2) the TTC is enabling these political moves by misleading riders about cuts. If you are only interested in the basics, scroll down this list, which starts below the map, to see which routes are being cut and when. We've organized the cuts into categories so that you can see the reasons why your transit service is bad at specific times, and when it is scheduled to get worse.

John Tory has forced the TTC to overcrowd routes

The routes below are overcrowded, and are mandated to have service improvements. This is the idea behind the TTC's "crowding standards." These improvements that would have happened by November 20, 2016, if the TTC had sufficient funding.

Overcrowding

You can see the detailed list of overcrowded TTC routes here. On this page we offer some summaries so that you don’t need to do all the calculations. In total, there are 99 time periods with crowding above the TTC’s standards. These affect 43 routes:

All 9 regular streetcar routes
34 bus routes

In many cases, routes are overcrowded for only one time period, whereas in others the route is overcrowded much of the week. For example, the 29 Dufferin, 36 Finch West, and 506 Carlton are each overcrowded for 5 time periods.

Although 15 of the 99 routes & time periods happen during rush hours, more than half of the overcrowding happens during these times:

the middle of the day Monday-Friday
Saturday afternoon
Sunday, during the day

Increasing service during these off-peak times comes with a cost, but unlike rush hour service, there is no issue of a lack of vehicles. Due to John Tory's demands, the TTC is simply refusing to fund adequate service that is currently above crowding.

[caption id="attachment_7704" align="alignnone" width="400"] uwe We have the buses, but John Tory won't fund bus service[/caption]

Six routes with service reductions on November 20th also have crowding problems. These routes are numbers 7, 11, 29, 108, 133, 504 (see below). In some of these cases, the reductions are happening at one time, whereas the crowding happens at another time. If the TTC was only adjusting service on routes, it would reallocate the reduced service to other times that the route is crowded. This is not happening; instead the routes are reduced when they are below the standard, but not increased when they are above it. In the cases of the 7 Bathurst, 11 Bayview, 29 Dufferin, and 504 King, service is being reduced at times when it is already overcrowded.

List of routes that are overcrowded and underserved according to the TTC's own standards:

7 Bathurst 11 Bayview 22 Coxwell 23 Dawes 24 Victoria Park 29 Dufferin 32 Eglinton West 36 Finch West 41 Keele 42 Cummer 45 Kipling 52 Lawrence West 53 Steeles East 60 Steeles West 63 Ossington 75 Sherbourne 84 Sheppard West 85 Sheppard 89 Weston 95 York Mills 102 Markham Rd 108 Downsview 111 East Mall 116 Morningside 122 Graydon Hall 123 Shorncliffe 125 Drewry 131 Nugget 133 Neilson 191 Hwy 27 Rocket 192 Airport Rocket 195 Jane Rocket 198 UTSC Rocket 199 Finch Rocket 501 Queen 504 King 505 Dundas 506 Carlton 509 Harbourfront 510 Spadina 511 Bathurst 512 St. Clair 514 Cherry

TTC’s response:

The TTC has issued a statement in response to us calling them out for misleading riders. The statement says “In most cases, though, the average number of passengers per vehicle is only slightly in excess of our crowding standards…one or two people in some cases.” Once again, we are baffled by the TTC’s willingness to mislead riders. We can only presume that the TTC continues to mislead us in order to cover for Mayor Tory’s budget cuts.

After having reviewed the specifics, we see that in over half of the crowding periods, the crowding is 5% or more above the standard (65 of 99 periods). Even if the TTC had only increased service in routes & time periods that are 15% or more above the crowding standard, there would have been more service increases than reductions in the November service changes.

The TTC’s attempt to cover its own breach of policy is once again misleading. As riders, we have long felt betrayed by politicians who talk about supporting transit while cutting transit budgets. We now we also feel betrayed by our transit agency for their role in providing the politicians cover.

John Tory has forced the TTC to cut service

Since November 20, 2016, the TTC has reduced service in five different ways, including less frequent bus & streetcar service due to "adjustments", bus schedule reductions in construction zones, fewer times of bus & streetcar operations, and less frequent bus service due to a lack of vehicles.

Type 1: "Service Adjustments"

This is where most of the actual changes have happened. The TTC claims that these routes were not busy enough to merit the amount of service they had. For that reason, the service was reduced. If the reason behind this was not a John Tory starvation budget, “adjustments” would have meant that overcrowded routes (above) would have received more service. They didn’t get it. The TTC has called these “adjustments” and “tweaks”: this is not true. It is instead a smokescreen to cover John Tory’s underfunding of the TTC.

[caption id="attachment_7713" align="alignnone" width="1024"] crowded_streetcar_during_caribana_2009 TTC “adjusts” service down on undercrowded routes, but they never “adjust” service up on the overcrowded ones![/caption]

35 Jane: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the midday from Monday to Friday. Service will operate every six to seven minutes.

43 Kennedy: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the midday and in the afternoon peak period from Monday to Friday. In the midday, service on the 43B (Kennedy Station-Scarborough Centre Station) branch will change from every 10 minutes to every 15 minutes. In the afternoon peak period, service on the 43A (Kennedy Station-Steeles) branch will change from every 9 minutes to every 10 minutes.

57 Midland: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the morning peak period from Monday to Friday. Service will change from every seven to eight minutes to every eight to nine minutes.

68 Warden: Service reduction Service will be reduced in the morning peak period, from Monday to Friday. Service will change from every four to five minutes to every five minutes.

73 Royal York: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the daytime on Saturday on the 73C (Royal York Station-Claireport via Albion Road) branch. Service will change from every 13 minutes to every 15 minutes.

79 Scarlett Rd: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the daytime on Saturday. Service will change from every 10 minutes to every 12 minutes.

108 Downsview: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the afternoon on Saturday. Service will change from every seven to eight minutes to every nine minutes.

121 Fort York-Esplanade: Service reduction Morning peak period service will operate every 11 minutes instead of every 10 minutes Saturday morning service will operate every 16 minutes instead of every 15 minutes

124 Sunnybrook: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the afternoon peak period from Monday to Friday. The service will change from every six minutes to every seven to eight minutes.

129 McCowan North: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the morning peak period from Monday to Friday. The combined service south of Steeles Avenue will change from every four to five minutes to every five minutes.

133 Neilson: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the morning peak period from Monday to Friday. Service will change from every nine minutes to every 10 minutes.

161 Rogers Rd: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the daytime on Saturday. Service will change from every 12 minutes to every 15 minutes.

168 Symington: Service reduction Service will be reduced during the morning peak period from Monday to Friday. The service will change from every four to five minutes to every five minutes.

504 King: Service reduction Monday-Friday service will be reduced slightly on Roncesvalles Avenue and on Broadview Avenue, between approximately 5:30 and 7:00 a.m., between approximately 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Service will continue to operate every 10 minutes or better.

Type 2: "Service Reliability Improvements"

These routes pass through the construction sites for the Eglinton-Crosstown. Because of the increased traffic, the trips have been taking longer than they should, so the TTC changed the schedule to allow each vehicle more time. That should be OK, right? It would be if more buses were added, so that the time between buses would be the same. Instead, the TTC lengthened the schedules without increasing the buses, resulting in less service per riders all along the route. It is true that one route (33 Forest Hill) was improved; but many more were cut back due to this issue.

7 Bathurst 11 Bayview 29 Dufferin 56 Leaside

Type 3: "Routing change"

90 Vaughan: Temporary routing change The 90B (St Clair West Station-Eglinton) branch will be temporarily removed, also because of construction. This means that riders who are traveling to/from St. Clair West station from Oakwood-Vaughan will lose service. The service on the 90A branch should be the same, but one bus has been cut. Was that bus rerouted to improve the lost service around Oakwood-Vaughan? Nope.

Type 4: Reduction of service hours

This change is simple: there used to be service. At certain times, there is now none.

121 Fort York-Esplanade Service will end sooner, every day, with last trips departing at both ends of the route at approximately 1:00 a.m.

514 Cherry Service will start later, every day, with first trips departing at both ends of the route at approximately 6:00 a.m. Service will end sooner, every day, with last trips departing at both ends of the route at approximately 1:00 a.m.

Type 5: Reduction of frequency due to insufficient vehicles

These changes come into effect January 8, 2017. Because of the delivery delays of the new streetcars from Bombardier, buses are being taken from some routes to try and manage the overcrowding on streetcars in the morning rush hour. Taking vehicles from bus routes will mean longer waits and more crowding for these riders. Meanwhile, none of the previously identified routes and time periods with crowding above the service standard are being addressed.

Here is the list of routes with longer wait times in the AM peak hours starting January 8th:

6 Bay 14 Glencairn 16 McCowan 32 Eglinton West 38 Highland Creek 46 Martin Grove 51 Leslie 85 Sheppard East 102 Markham Road 112 West Mall 123 Shorncliffe 190 Scarborough Rocket

To make it easier to follow how this is evolving over time we will continue to improve this post with additional analysis and information. We identify all the updates we are making as we go forward:

[Update #1 (Nov 21, 3pm)] We improved the formatting through this document, presented some summaries of the overcrowding, and provide a reply to the TTC’s misleading justification of these cuts.

[Update #2 (Dec 1, 7am)] We revised the order of our list to put the most flagrant issues at the top.

[Update #3 (Dec 4, 2pm)] Added images and updated formatting.

[Update #4 (Dec 20, 2pm)] We added information about the January service reductions.

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