TTCRiders highlight slowest bus routes in the city, all slated for separate bus lanes

Transit advocacy group TTCRiders bestowed the honour of slowest bus routes in the city on Wednesday, and commuters who depend on the routes say it’s not a surprise.

The 29 Dufferin bus placed first among the group. It travels from Wilson Station south to the Dufferin Gate Loop at Dufferin Street, just north of the Gardiner Expressway.

“I’ve been living in this area for so long and I just find that it’s a very inconsistent bus route,” said one rider who takes the 29 route every day. “Sometimes we wait 10 minutes, 20 minutes.”

And once you’re on the bus, riders complain that the route itself is very slow.

In the afternoon, the bus travels at an average speed of 10.6 kilometres an hour.

Two other bus routes were highlighted during the mock awards at City Hall, all of which were promised improvements under the RapidTO initiative.

Elton Campbell with TTCRiders accepted the gold medal for the Dufferin 29 route. He earned the nickname 29 when he worked at Dufferin Mall for being chronically late to every shift.

“No matter where I take the bus from it’s always late, it’s always slow,” said Campbell. “At certain points there is no bus, then suddenly there’s a lot of buses and that’s due to them being stuck in traffic.”

The first priority bus lanes were implemented in 2020 on a portion of Eglinton East. According to the city’s own data, travel times went down, by as much as 5 minutes in the p.m. while reliability went up 10 per cent.

The 35 Jane bus operates on Jane Street, from Jane Station north to Pioneer Village station. It earned a silver medal for slowest transit route, with riding transit taking 66 per cent longer than driving. Bus lanes that were supposed to be painted by 2021 still haven’t been.

Studies on the next four priority routes, Dufferin, Steeles West, Finch East and Lawrence East, are also incomplete.

“What bus lanes set is that there is an equal consideration for people who don’t use cars,” said Rebeena Subadar with the Jane Street Action Against Poverty. “Having a bus lane shows ‘oh okay you see us and you see like the amount of time that we’re wasting on commuting’.”

“For now we just have to see what the mayor and council are doing,” said another rider on the 29 Dufferin bus.

Next week, councillors will debate a report at Executive Committee that proposes moving ahead with studying bus lanes on the dreaded Dufferin and other routes. But it doesn’t include a clear timeline for getting paint on the ground, leaving people stuck in traffic.