TTC’s on-time metrics don’t match actual transit rider experience: report

A new report by the transit advocacy group TTCriders suggests that the TTC’s on-time metrics don’t actually match the transit rider experience. 

The report says that riders wait 50 per cent longer than scheduled on 10 routes across the city and transit users wait 30 per cent longer than scheduled on 41 routes. The issue is apparently due to “bunching” – when one bus falls behind and the bus behind it catches up.

The report found that riders on routes where “bunching” is common waited an average of four minutes longer than scheduled.

“Transit riders should be able to trust the TTC to show up when we expect it to,” said TTCriders executive director Shleagh Pizey-Allen.

“If you’re waiting for your bus and it’s late and then all of a sudden two or three buses come along, that’s what people call bus bunching. And the flip side is then there’s really long gaps between buses instead of evenly spaced service.”

A graphic supplied by TTCriders explains what “bunching” – when one bus falls behind and the bus behind it catches up. TTCriders/HO

The advocacy group says its statistics were obtained via a Freedom of Information request as well as bunching calculations gathered by TransSee from TTC real-time vehicle location data.

TTCriders are recommending the transit agency change their on-time performance metrics, which measure if a bus/streetcar is on schedule only at the departure point.

“One of the reasons is that the way the TTC CEO reports on service being on time is they only count a bus being on time when it leaves the terminal. So if I’m in the middle of the route and my bus is 20 minutes late, it could still get counted as on time in the TTC’s data,” said Pizey-Allen.

The 2025 TTC budget includes a pilot program aimed at reducing bunching and gapping on nine bus routes and two streetcar routes including 7 Bathurst, the 47 Lansdowne and 63 Ossington.

“We are piloting it and if it works we will do that right through the entire system. So you should be able to start seeing changes throughout the year,” said Mayor Olivia Chow.

Pizey-Allen is optimistic about the pilot program.

“The TTC can’t fix what it doesn’t measure and we think there needs to be new more honest metrics about what’s really going on with service so we can make sure this pilot works and we’re getting the most of the new investments which are happening in this budget.”

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