With the new school year beginning next week and more people returning to in-office work after Labor Day, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) announced it is increasing service as it prepares to welcome back more customers.

From Sept. 5, the TTC will be restoring 126 school trips for elementary and secondary schools and will be increasing frequency on nine routes that serve post-secondary institutions.

Additionally, the TTC is increasing regular service hours in September to 93% of pre-pandemic levels and further increasing service to 95% by November, with bus service at 99% of pre-pandemic levels.

“More TTC service means more room on board, shorter wait times, and better reliability for all transit users,” said Mayor Olivia Chow. “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.”

Changes Coming to TTC

Starting Sept. 3 and continuing into the fall, the TTC is:

• Making more room on board buses, by increasing service based on ridership demand, and adding capacity on specific trips to address overcrowding.

• Shortening wait times by improving the bus Ten Minute Network. 

• 41 time periods across the day with reduced wait times, 27 of those time periods will either return to pre-pandemic levels or be better than they were before.

• Improving reliability with more unscheduled, demand-responsive service.

“We know how important it is that we make this return to school and work as smooth as possible for our customers, by providing safe, reliable, and frequent transit service when, and where, it is needed most,” said TTC CEO Rick Leary. “With tremendous support from the TTC Board, we are working harder than ever to improve service levels across our bus, subway, and streetcar network.”