28 Bayview South

 Hey hey! It's been a while! I've been kind of busy. As I write this, my brain is fried so I apologize for the inevitable errors. Tough shit! Anyways, today's route is the 28 Bayview South, which operates with one branch:

• 28 Bayview South: Davisville Stn to Brick Works

This route is an integral part of the TTC network, but as you will see, it is either supplementary to other services or has a niche function.

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. This stretch entirely supplements the 11 Bayview. The routes diverge, with the 28 turning right onto Bayview. Until Sutherland, a distance of only a few hundred metres, the 28 is the only route. This stretch is relatively low-density. At Sutherland, the 88 South Leaside joins, only to turn onto Moore soon after. The 28 continues onto the Bayview Extension, into the Don Valley. There is a stop at Nesbitt, to serve large single-family homes, with the bus continuing to the Brickworks grounds where the trip ends.

Sights to See

• June Rowlands Park
• Don Valley 
• Crothers Woods
• Todmorden Mills (kind of? I'll talk about it later in the 'Thoughts' section)
• Evergreen Brickworks

Subway Connections

• Davisville

Frequency and Ridership

The 28 has a simple schedule: every 20' during weekday daytimes, and every 30' at all other times.

The route carries 1,700 people on weekdays, 680 on Saturdays, and 640 on Sundays. This ridership is mainly two groups: those on Davisville who could take the 28 or the 11, or those heading to the Brickworks. The latter group's size changes greatly by season.

Thoughts

I think this route does its job well, linking the Brickworks to the subway. While it would be nice for it to connect to a Line 2 station as well, the location of the Brickworks within the Don Valley makes this difficult to do. Currently, on weekends, there is a free shuttle bus from Broadview Station to the Brickworks. (This is barely related but there has been proposals to replace the shuttle bus with a cable car? Totally unneeded but also love that).

One note is the fact that there is not bus stop at Pottery. The road here is high speed so I don't think that there is a safe stop unless investments were made to modify the paved surface. While ridership would be relatively low, this would be the only way to get to the Todmorden Mills besides trekking down into the valley from Broadview and Mortimer. 

Future

The TTC, as part of their 2021 Annual Service Plan, has proposed cutting this route after 10pm all days. While I obviously do not want to see any routes cut, this one is hard to justify. Firstly, late evening ridership fell from 20 passengers pre-pandemic to 0 (!) currently. In addition, only three stops would lose all bus service. First is Bayview/Merton, which is a short distance to the 11 and 88. The second is Bayview/Nesbitt, which does not seem to have very much ridership at all. The next nearest stop is Douglas/Chorley Park, on the 82 Rosedale route, which is a thirteen-minute walk away. Lastly is the Brickworks itself, which does not really operate that late anyways. I guess during events they can request the TTC run the route.