14 Glencairn

 Hello friends! Today's route is the 14 Glencairn, which operates with one branch:

• 14 Glencairn: Davisville Stn to Caledonia

This route bisects the middle of the city, and provides a convenient, albeit infrequent, link between the two sides of Line 1.

The Route

The route operates from Davisville Station. Westbound buses operate via northwest on Chaplin, passing many single-family homes and a few low-rise apartment blocks. Beyond Eglinton, the route is flanked to the north by a large park, and to the south by high-rise apartments addressed on Shallmar. The buses then travel west on Roselawn for a block, then north on Bathurst, before continuing west on Glencairn. Large single-family homes line both sides of Glencairn. Crossing over the Allen, the bus stops at Glencairn Station. The bus loops clockwise via Lansdowne, Tycos, Caledonia and Glencairn. The route serves a bit of industry on Tycos.

Sights to See

• Kay Gardner Beltline Trail
• Memorial Park

Subway Connections

• Davisville
• Glencairn

Frequency and Ridership

On weekdays, the 14 Glencairn operates every 20' during the morning peak and the evening, and every 25' during the midday and the afternoon peak. On Saturdays, the route operates every 20' during the early morning and evening, and every 24' during the day. On Sundays, the route operates every 20' all day.

Ridership is on the lower-end, with 3,600 weekday passengers. 1,900 people use the route on Saturdays, and 1,400 on Sundays.

Thoughts

I like this route! Straight-up, it's a convenient link, despite not being the most direct. It serves a number of places that would otherwise be a very far walk from a bus stop. 

The main thought I want to share is that this route doesn't operate the entire way along Glencairn, as the stretch from Bathurst to Yonge has no bus service. While some areas here have a long trek to a bus stop, I feel ridership would be lower here than on Chaplin. In addition, the lack of a signalized intersection at Avenue Road compounds things. I'm sure this service would exist if they had built the Glencairn East Station on Line 1, like the original plan suggested. 

from Dan Dell'Unto

Future

When Line 5 opens, this route will connect at Chaplin Station. In addition, while it is not currently in the plan, the 14 may be extended from its western terminus. The current terminus is about 1.5 kilometres from the new Caledonia Station, which will also have GO Train service on the Barrie Line. The extension would enable further connections and could be done with the same number of buses (albeit less frequently).