‘It’s getting ridiculous’: East end commuters call out TTC

Our Speakers Corner report takes us to Toronto’s east end Beaches community, where some TTC riders remain frustrated that their daily commutes are taking a lot longer than normal.

One of those riders is Kieran Woods, an attorney who works in the financial district.

“It’s roughly about seven to eight kilometres,” she said.

A few months ago, it was somewhat of a breeze.

“I would walk five minutes from my house to Kingston Road, hop on the 503 streetcar and I would be downtown anywhere from 35 to 40 minutes.”

Today, things have changed.

“It’s taking me an hour and 15 minutes to get to work,” she said.

That’s because the 503 streetcar she had been using was put out of service, which wasn’t a big deal at first.

“They did have a bus that was running in place of the streetcar for most of this year,” Woods said. “It was actually great at getting us downtown.”

But that too has stopped running.

“We had no information as to why. We called the TTC to ask what was going on and we were told there was construction on Broadview bridge but no reference as to why that would impact the bus from running,” Woods said.

Currently there are at least five construction projects happening simultaneously in the east end which has impacted bus and streetcar routes said Monica Mason, who’s with TTC Riders, a transit advocacy group that works as a collective voice for TTC users.

RELATED: TTC making significant service changes to east end routes

Many of those east end users are growing more and more frustrated with the interruptions.

“It’s a lot of frustration. People are being late for work; late for school and not accessing services they need to access because a lack of service in this area,” she said.

Many commuters like Woods are left with a choice of either a timely commute or a costly one.

“There have been days where I am running late and I’ve had to catch an Uber downtown a few days which is pretty expensive especially during morning commute with surge pricing,” she said

“It’s costing me anywhere from $20 to $40 one way.”

TTC spokesperson, Stuart Green, says the 503 was suspended due to low ridership since the pandemic.

“We are able to service this corridor in ways that also allow us to put more service in areas where ridership is significantly higher,” Green told us by email.

“Right now, the same stretch of Kingston Road between Queen and Bingham Loop is getting streetcar service via the 505.”

The TTC says recorded transfers starting on 505 from Kingston/Main to King/Yonge is currently approximately 50 minutes. Woods says, from her experience, it is much longer especially at peak times.

“They’ve kind of left us a little stranded in the east end,” Woods said. “We’re already working at a deficit not having a subway out this way and we rely heavily on the streetcar service.”

The planned Ontario Line will relieve some of that stress but with a target completion date of 2031, riders in the east end say they need some relief now –something the TTC plans to do.

“We are planning to re-introduce the 503 as a bus service next month and increase operating hours to all day/every day,” the TTC said.

Woods hopes it brings some relief to what’s now an extended work day.

“It’s just been pretty frustrating trying to manage your day.”

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