16 McCowan

 Today's route is the 16 McCowan, which is another mainline north-south Scarborough route. It operates with one branch:

• 16 McCowan: Warden Stn to Scarborough Centre

In addition, the last southbound trip of the night operates an extended branch:

• 16 McCowan: to Danforth

This route I use regularly. It has a mix of uses and functions, like other mainline Scarborough routes.

The Route

Northbound buses leave Warden Station via Warden and St Clair. They operate alongside the 9 and 102, passing both single-family homes and some apartment buildings. The buses then head northeast on Danforth Road, which is mainly single-family homes, besides a cluster of condominiums and apartments near Midland and Gordonridge. The intersection is at Midland is also home to a busy shopping plaza. There is more commercial at Eglinton, with a mix of high, medium, and low density housing north of here. Beyond the Pringdale Ravine, it returns to single-family homes. At Perivale, Danforth curves to become McCowan. At Lawrence is a small plaza, with the northwest corner dominated by the Scarborough Hospital's General Campus. The route is entirely single-family homes beyond Lawrence until Ellesmere, where the route enters the Scarborough Centre area with condominium towers.

Sights to See

• Warden Woods
• Pringdale Ravine 
• Scarborough Hospital General Campus
• Thomson Memorial Park
• the Meadoway
• Scarborough Town Centre
• Scarborough Civic Centre

Subway Connections

• Warden
• Scarborough Centre
• McCowan (southbound only)

Frequency and Ridership

During weekday peaks, buses operate every 10', with service at every 13' during the midday, every 15' during the early evening, and every 17' during the late evening. On Saturdays, service ranged from every 10' to every 15'. Sunday service during the daytime is between every 15' and every 17', but early evening service is every 24', and late evening is every 30'.

On a weekday, the 16 carries 11,200 people. On Saturdays, this number is 7,500, whereas on Sundays, it is 5,600.

Thoughts

The 16 McCowan is quite helpful, and serves a lot of places with different uses. I have a few comments about the route, however. 

Firstly, what is up with the headway? It used to be single digits during the morning peak (every 8' or 9'). It's not the busiest route ever, but 30' headway on Sunday late evenings is, like, insane. Being basically the halfway from Kennedy and Markham, two Ten-Minute network corridors, I think the 16 should run every 15' or better, at all times. This would require changes mainly on the weekends, as well as weekday late evenings. 

A number of people on the transit forums that I frequent mention about extending or rerouting this route. While the TTC sticks to a grid network, this route does not , as it turns off Danforth Road onto St Clair instead of continuing down Danforth Road down to Danforth Avenue (currently covered by the 113 route). However, like other southwest Scarborough routes, it makes the quickest connection to the subway. If the 16 was extended down Danforth Road, there would be significant disadvantage to the route's current 11,200 daily customers, who would have a significantly longer trip to the subway (now at Main Street). 

from Transit_Central on Flickr

The Future

Allegedly, the Line 2 subway extension will commence late 2021. The corridor will follow McCowan for the majority of the route, which means that the route will be subject to delays. More running time and extra buses will be provided to compensate. When the line opens, a new station will be located at McCowan and Lawrence, which will likely mean less frequent 16 service during some periods. We don't know the name of the station; if you have any suggestions, comment them below. I'm leaning towards Bendale.