10 Van Horne

 Hey friends! Today we will be taking a look at a short little route that, maybe, should be incorporated into another route. The 10 Van Horne operates with one branch:

• 10 Van Horne: Don Mills Stn to Victoria Park

As we explore the route, we see that while frequency is very good, connections made by the route are not.

The Route

Eastbound buses depart Don Mills Station via north on Don Mills, travelling around the Peanut. This area has many high-rise apartments and a shopping plaza (that is way too difficult to access by foot). There are more high-rises on Van Horne just after the buses turns east off of Don Mills. The bulk of the route is single-family homes, with a community centre at Lucifer. There are some more apartments at Clipper, and a small shopping plaza at Victoria Park. The route loops clockwise via Van Horne, Victoria Park, Pleasant View and Brian. 

Sights to See

• Fairview Mall
• Peanut Plaza

Subway Connections

• Don Mills

Frequency and Ridership

The 10 Van Horne operates during morning rush hour every 30', and afternoon rush hour every 15'. Please note that the morning rush has a service reduction due to the pandemic, as service is normally every 10'. Outside of rush, the entire route is covered by the 169A Huntingwood route, which operates every 30'. This route, however, does not run late evenings (beyond 10pm) on weekends.

Despite running only during rush and being very short in length, the 10 picks up 1,100 passengers daily. The 169 Huntingwood picks up 2,100 passengers, meaning the corridor has daily ridership of 3,200 passengers on weekdays. The 169 has ridership of 1,100 on Saturdays and 1,000 on Sundays, but the ridership document does not separate Huntingwood trips and Van Horne trips. 

Thoughts

This route is residual from the old 10 Van Horne, which ran from Sheppard-Yonge Station until 2002, when the Sheppard subway opened. The route has a number of issues, due in part to a lack of routing changes since then.

Currently, the 169A Huntingwood operates outside of rush using the entire 10 Van Horne routing, whereas during rush, it operate as 169B via Sheppard and Victoria Park. This is done so that the 169 can have a faster routing to and from Don Mills Station, and the 10 can have more frequent service. However, due to the pandemic, the 10 Van Horne operates less frequently during morning rush than the 169's 20' headway. The TTC says this is temporary, but that's more likely a suggestion than course of action.

One of the issues with having the 169B running during rush means that the 10 Van Horne is a downtown commuter-oriented route. Passengers who travel east are dropped off at Victoria Park and Van Horne. There are no connecting routes that take passengers further east, so passengers must transfer to the 24 Victoria Park, then transfer again at Finch, Huntingwood or Sheppard. This additional transfer makes taking the bus less desirable. Off peak, the 169A allows passengers to travel as far as McCowan Road and Scarborough Town Centre, which provides connections to GO bus links as far as Oshawa, as well as access to motorcoach services. I suggest the 10 Van Horne is removed, and replaced with two branches of the 169:

• 169A Huntingwood: Don Mills Stn to Scarborough Centre via Van Horne
• 169B Huntingwood: Don Mills Stn to Victoria Park & Van Horne

The 169B would only runs during afternoon peak, in order to increase service on Van Horne to 15' as opposed to 30'. During the morning, the 169A could just be bumped to 15' service itself, negating the need for the new 169B. This allows for Van Horne passengers to travel east during peak periods and make other connections. It also allows for more consistency of boarding location at Victoria Park. The drawback is that the often faster trip for 169 passengers along Sheppard is lost. However, I think this can be offset for two reasons:

• more frequent morning service (20' to 15'),
• and bypassing traffic at Sheppard/Highway 404 during the afternoon peak.

Van Horne Avenue also runs west of Don Mills, as far as Leslie. This stretch has no bus service. I feel as if the 10/169 was extended this way to run to Leslie Station instead of Don Mills, many people would be inconvenienced. 169 passengers would have a much longer trip to the subway and lose connection to both Fairview Mall and direct bus service to the 25 Don Mills route south of Don Mills Station. This stretch could be served by a rush-only route that runs in a crescent from Don Mills Station to Leslie Station.

from Roman Fortin

The Future

The 10 Van Horne gets decent ridership for a short route with a limited schedule. However, with less demand due to COVID-19, I believe that incorporating this route into the 169 Huntingwood full-time would be of benefit both in terms of conserving resources and providing better connections.