[smallspy]

Afaik its a remnant of Rick Leary's reign. Its basically a big game of smoke and mirrors to pander to higher ups, and pretend that the agency is capable of fiscal responsibility. If you add 1m headways to one route and transfer it from another route, you can pretend that you're doing this to "match capacity with demand" by prioritizing busier/more important routes even if nothing actually changes on the ground. Its just political BS, nothing more.

It predates Leary by some measure, but he certainly did nothing to try and ameliorate it.

It seems to be permanently embedded in the culture of the organization at this point. No one is sure why they do it, only that they do.

Dan

 

[not_taylor]

YRT's 2026 Annual Service Plan is out.

Overall
- 76,000 new annual service hours budgeted for 2026
- Restructure of service around Cornell to better utilise the terminal
- Many service increases in Vaughan and Markham
- New express network plan
- New blue night network plan

Frequency/capacity improvements
- Viva blue, Viva orange, 8, 20, 24, 50, 54, 68B, 91, 102D, 129A, 165, 300

Route restructures
- 1 Highway 7 shortened to Cornell with improved frequency
- 2 Milliken shortened to Markham Rd at all times with improved frequency
- 9 Ninth Line extended to Steeles and Markham Road with new weekend service
- 13 Islington extended north to Kleinburg and south to Humber College via Kipling and Finch
- 14 14th Ave simplified routing with improved frequency and new Saturday service
- 21 Vellore extended south to VMC via Ansley Grove and north to Major Mackenzie West Terminal with new 2 way service
- 26 Maple rerouted along Creditstone with new weekday off-peak service

New routes
- 19 Copper Creek new route to provide local service in Box Grove 7 days a week approximately every half hour
- 29 Edgeley new route to provide local service along Vellore Woods, Cityview Blvd, and Teston Walmart Distribution Centre at rush hours

On request
- King zone new late evening service
- Gormley and North-Central zones merged to provide a single zone from Richmond Hill to Pefferlaw

 

[Northern Light]

YRT's 2026 Annual Service Plan is out.

Overall
- 76,000 new annual service hours budgeted for 2026
- Restructure of service around Cornell to better utilise the terminal
- Many service increases in Vaughan and Markham
- New express network plan
- New blue night network plan

Frequency/capacity improvements
- Viva blue, Viva orange, 8, 20, 24, 50, 54, 68B, 91, 102D, 129A, 165, 300

Route restructures
- 1 Highway 7 shortened to Cornell with improved frequency
- 2 Milliken shortened to Markham Rd at all times with improved frequency
- 9 Ninth Line extended to Steeles and Markham Road with new weekend service
- 13 Islington extended north to Kleinburg and south to Humber College via Kipling and Finch
- 14 14th Ave simplified with improved frequency and new Saturday service
- 21 Vellore extended south to VMC via Ansley Grove and north to Major Mackenzie West Terminal with new 2 way service
- 26 Maple rerouted along Creditstone with new weekday off-peak service

New routes
- 19 Copper Creek new route to provide local service in Box Grove 7 days a week approximately every half hour
- 29 Edgeley new route to provide local service along Vellore Woods, Cityview Blvd, and Teston Walmart Distribution Centre at rush hours

On request
- King zone new late evening service
- Gormley and North-Central zones merged to provide a single zone from Richmond Hill to Pefferlaw

TY for that.

A direct link to the document for everyone:

https://www.yrt.ca/en/about-us/resources/2026AnnualTransitPlanProposedChanges.pdf

From the above: ( I am not posting all slides, but most, picking ones I found more interesting )

This next one is interesting as a few of us were discussing the need for service to McMichael over the in thread for the gallery. @ShonTron

I mean its not great..but its essential from zero service to .. some service.

To be continued, next post.

 

[ShonTron]

Here's the link. https://www.yrt.ca/en/about-us/annual-transit-plan.aspx

It's nice to actually see some useful improvements to the conventional network this year, especially Kleinburg. The 9th Line route extension south to Markham/Steeles is long overdue.

 

[not_taylor]

TY for that.

A direct link to the document for everyone:

Sorry I thought I attached the PDF but for some reason it doesn't show up. Thanks for linking.

 

[Northern Light]

Con't from above:

Feedback Survey will be open on May 4th, 2025, then close June 1st, 2025.

****

My overall take: This is one of the best Service Plans they've produced in years.

Meaningful expansions of span of service from adding mid-day or weekends on some routes, to a core 24-hour network.
Some pretty key frequency jumps, moving services from less than hourly to greater, less than 1/2 hourly to greater and some services moving to sub 15M in some periods.

There remains lots of room for improvement, but overall this is a big step in the right direction.

If I were to nitpick, I'd really like to see a hard push toward clockface service on some routes, where feasible with few or no additional vehicles (rounding service up)
I'd also generally like to see a minimum of hourly on every route during each span of service, and I'd like to see core Sunday hours, wherever Saturdays are present.
I'd be happy with that for 2026.

Now they really need a similarly ambitious improvement plan for 2027 as a follow up, one that will deliver every 15M or better rush hour service on most core routes.

Extend the same for mid-day.

And then bulk out the 24-hour network, just a bit. (one more N-S route on each side of Yonge for now.)

 

[Sandpit]

Con't from above:

View attachment 644419
View attachment 644420

Feedback Survey will be open on May 4th, 2025, then close June 1st, 2025.

****

My overall take: This is one of the best Service Plans they've produced in years.

Meaningful expansions of span of service from adding mid-day or weekends on some routes, to a core 24-hour network.
Some pretty key frequency jumps, moving services from less than hourly to greater, less than 1/2 hourly to greater and some services moving to sub 15M in some periods.

There remains lots of room for improvement, but overall this is a big step in the right direction.

If I were to nitpick, I'd really like to see a hard push toward clockface service on some routes, where feasible with few or no additional vehicles (rounding service up)
I'd also generally like to see a minimum of hourly on every route during each span of service, and I'd like to see core Sunday hours, wherever Saturdays are present.
I'd be happy with that for 2026.

Now they really need a similarly ambitious improvement plan for 2027 as a follow up, one that will deliver every 15M or better rush hour service on most core routes.

Extend the same for mid-day.

And then bulk out the 24-hour network, just a bit. (one more N-S route on each side of Yonge for now.)

Finally overnight service is in the cards, and better than what I expected too (I would never have guessed that Leslie, Woodbine and Keele are in play)

 

[canarob]

Thanks for the updates, all! Frequencies in Markham are slowly getting better, and I'm glad YRT has finally remembered they built a bus terminal in Cornell.

 

[CanadianJedi1983]

Finally overnight service is in the cards, and better than what I expected too (I would never have guessed that Leslie, Woodbine and Keele are in play)

it would be better if the also included bayview and maybe bathurst in the over night routes

 

[Sandpit]

it would be better if the also included bayview and maybe bathurst in the over night routes

That and Major Mack could be round 2. I'm thinking Leslie, Woodbine and Keele are for overnight shift workers in industrial areas nearby (or maybe they're easy cuts if they're forced to scale back, who knows)

 

[Bojaxs]

New "Miles in Transit" video just dropped. I'm surprised at how many of his videos are shot in Canada/ GTA.

 

[Islington Express Bus]

^ Featuring yours truly as his guide!

 

[CanadianJedi1983]

^ Featuring yours truly as his guide!

i never had to wait as long as both of did for a bus in york region mind you i wasn't riding it on a sunday

 

[EYorker]

^ Featuring yours truly as his guide!

Well done!

And it highlights everything that is wrong with VIVA in its current state.

Absolutely amazing BRT infrastructure. With the exceptions of the single lane under the 404. The mixed traffic section leading to RHC. Zero signal priority ahead of traffic, combined with the far side stops. And that abysmal frequency.

It looks like the demand is there for better service, judging by the loads experienced in the video.

 

[Sandpit]

Well done!

And it highlights everything that is wrong with VIVA in its current state.

Absolutely amazing BRT infrastructure. With the exceptions of the single lane under the 404. The mixed traffic section leading to RHC. Zero signal priority ahead of traffic, combined with the far side stops. And that abysmal frequency.

It looks like the demand is there for better service, judging by the loads experienced in the video.

IMO that’s half of it. The other half is that YRT/York Regional Council insists on aiming for 40% fare recovery (which to be fair has been lowered from the wildly unrealistic 50% and 45%). IIRC they’re at about 36% or so, so if they would settle for 35% or 33%, it would be a more attractive service.

Perhaps this plan is the start of them abandoning 40% fare recovery or them realizing that they’ll never get there by cutting service and raising fares…