30 High Park

 Hey! Today's route is the 30 High Park, which is one of TTC's newest routes, and also one of the shortest. During most of the year, the route operates with one branch:

• 30A High Park: High Park Stn to Runnymede

On the weekends during summer, a second branch operates:

• 30B High Park: High Park to Runnymede via High Park Stn

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 30B branch did not operate in 2020. Since the route was introduced in late 2019, this branch has never operated.

The Route

The 30A branch leaves High Park Station's bus terminal by travelling north on High Park Avenue. The block until Glenlake is apartments, but the rest of High Park Avenue is single-family homes. Buses travel northwest on Dundas, running through a commercial area, supplementing the 40 Junction-Dundas West route. Buses end their trips in Runnymede Loop, located in the northwest corner of Runnymede and Dundas.

The 30B branch covers the same route as the 30A, but travels through High Park Station. Southbound buses leave via High Park Avenue, crossing over Bloor onto Colborne Lodge. Buses loop through High Park counter-clockwise, via West Road and Colborne Lodge, returning to the station.

Sights to See

• The Junction
• High Park

Subway Connections

• High Park

Frequency and Ridership

This route has a simple schedule. Buses operate every 20' during daytimes and early evenings, and every 15' during the late evenings. The schedule differs when the 30B operates, but since that has never happened, we do not know about it.

The TTC ridership statistics are from 2018, before service along Dundas West was changed. Ridership on this route and the 40's predessesors (30 Lambton and 40 Junction) was 7,000 on weekdays, 5,300 on Saturdays, and 3,500 on Sundays. I would say that the 30 currently carries less than 1,000 people a day, and if so, would be only one of six routes on the network to do so. 

Thoughts

This route serves a purpose, to provide service on High Park Avenue. I think it does the job decently, but I think if it was able to reach St Clair, only a few hundred metres north of its current terminus, it would be much better as it could connect to other services, as well as provide one-bus access to SmartCentres. 

The only high-density section of the route is just a block north of the subway, so no one heading to the station would use the route. In addition, while the High Park extension is nice, I'm curious if it's even worth operating. When I've taken it, it has few customers and reliability is plagued by the traffic that circles the park. 

Future

This route will probably continue to exist!