11 Bayview

 Hey friends! Today we look at the 11 Bayview route. This route operates with two branches:

• 11A Bayview: Davisville Stn to Steeles via Sunnybrook
• 11C Bayview: Davisville Stn to Sunnybrook

This route is the first mainline east of Yonge Street. While it has somewhat frequent service, it really suffers from heavy traffic for much of its length.

The Route

    Buses leave Davisville Station by turning left onto Yonge (unsignalized!). The bus then travels east along Davisville. This stretch features apartments west of Mt Pleasant and single-family homes east of it. The bus turns north onto Bayview, with the road here being lined by many small businesses. It's a cute little shopping district! This is where the heavy traffic begins. The bus crosses Eglinton, where there is Line 5 construction ongoing, and ascends a large hill. At Kilgour, we pass CNIB.

    All buses divert through Sunnybrook Hospital. Northbound buses stop at the Odette Cancer Research Centre, at M-Wing, at the Veterans Centre, and at Wellspring, with southbound buses stopping at the same stops besides Wellspring. Both directions loop the same way, serving Odette first. In addition, this is where the C branch turns back towards Davisville. The A continues north, following the exit ramps up to Lawrence in order to stop at York University's Glendon Campus. (Note the southbound trip has to cross Lawrence without signals or even a stop sign. Yikes). The bus descends the ramp back onto Bayview (inevitably hitting heavy traffic), and passes Bob Rumball. This stretch has many large mansions on sidestreets, with few driveways on Bayview. The stops up until York Mills are seldom used. North of York Mills, we return to single-family homes, with a stop at Bayview subway station. The rest of the route is made up of large single-family homes, besides a mix of apartments and condominiums between Finch and Ruddington. North of Cummer is Tyndale University, a private religious university. At Steeles, buses loop through the loop at the northwest corner of the intersection. Passengers who wish to travel north on Bayview into York Region must switch here to YRT's 91 Bayview.

Sights to See

• June Rowlands Park
• Talbot Park
• Sunnybrook Park
• Sunnydene Park
• Sunnybrook Hospital
• Vaughan Estates
• York University Glendon Campus
• Toronto French School
• Crescent School
• Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf
• Granite Club
• Canadian Film Centre
• Windfields Park
• Bayview Village Shopping Centre
• Tyndale University

Subway Connections

• Davisville
• Bayview

Frequency and Ridership

    The 11A branch always operates, with the C providing additional service south of Sunnybrook during weekdays (excluding middays), and weekend daytimes and early evenings. Schedules are timed to provided a blended headway south of Sunnybrook (in theory). 

    During morning rush hours, each branch operates around every 16' to 17', combining to an 8' headway. During the midday, all service operates as 11A, every 13'. During the afternoon peak, service is similar to the morning frequency, producing an 8' headway. Early evening has each branch operate every 28', combining to every 14', and late evening has each branch operate every 25', combining to 12'30. During Saturday daytime, buses operate on each branch every 30', combining to every 15', with early evening service at 24' separate and 12' combined. During the late evenings, the 11A operates every 24'. Early Sunday mornings are only on the 11C branch, every 18'. Sunday mornings have 40' service on both branches, combining to every 20'. The rest of the day matches Saturday service. (I know! That was confusing).

    On weekdays, 11 buses carry 10,100 passengers, dropping to 3,600 on Saturdays, and 2,900 on Sundays. The steep drop is due to weekdays attracting students and people commuting to Sunnybrook.

Thoughts

    I was 'lucky' enough to take this route when I had classes at York University Glendon Campus. My god is it unreliable! The traffic during the peak periods was absolutely insane. When I went, I took the 11A from York Mills down to Lawrence, and service at the time was 16' with a tripper. If the tracking app said the bus was 5 minutes away, at Sheppard, you will be waiting for 15 minutes, then you have to sit in traffic down Bayview. The bus is crammed at this point, and sometimes we had to bypass the southside stop at York Mills. Thankfully the bus operates effectively express until Bob Rumball, and the stops there, at Lawrence and within Sunnybrook are drop-offs. Mentioned above, but the 11 southbound must cross Lawrence without any signals or stops on Lawrence. I wonder how long it will be until some change is made...

   The unreliability and short distance to the Yonge subway has been well-known by the TTC for a while. Between 1974 and 1991, buses on the 11 only operates from Lawrence to Sheppard, with service south of Lawrence being part of the 28 Davisville route and service north of Sheppard being provided by the 26 Bayview North route. This made service more reliable and let passengers have faster trips to the subway. However, passengers who wanted to travel the length of Bayview were at a disadvantage. The revision of a consistent route from Davisville north is justified as transferring to an east-west route is not a huge disadvantage due to frequent service (for example, every 2' at York Mills). With the opening of Bayview Station at Sheppard allowed for faster subway access for many, and the same effect will be present when Leaside Station is built at Eglinton.

    While the route was made through in 1991, passengers must still transfer to the 28 Bayview South if travelling south of Davisville. I think this is justified, as Davisville requires frequent service. The only thing missed out on is a direct transfer to the 88 South Leaside bus at Moore.

I have two complaints with this route, and both have to with scheduling. Firstly, on weekdays, the first southbound trip from Steeles is at 6am, arriving at Davisville around 6:50am (there are southbound trips from Sunnybrook, by the way). This is ridiculous! 6am is way to late to start a route. The first westbound train at Bayview is at 5:37, so I suggest adding two trips leaving Steeles at 5:20 and 5:40, the first to meet the train and the second to close a 40' gap in service otherwise. Speaking of 40' gaps, on Sunday mornings, service north of Sunnybrook (11A) is every 40'. There are only six trips between 7am and 11am! This is way outside the TTC service standard. I know it's low ridership, but at the same time, it makes this route practically unusable. If service is reconfigured, I am sure that a 30' headway can be produced.

from torontotransportguy on Flickr

Future

Hopefully in the near future, the TTC corrects those two scheduling issues. With the opening of Leaside Station at Bayview and Eglinton, hopefully passengers will have both quicker trips, and more people will take this route.