36 Finch West (east of Keele)

 Hey again everyone! Today we're looking at route 36 Finch West. However, for most of the week, service is split at Finch West Station (Keele), effectively making two routes. This post will focus on the service each of Keele. There is one branch:

• 36A Finch West: Finch Stn to Finch West Stn

Some periods have through service, which is signed as:

• 36B Finch West towards Humberwood (internally 36J)

This stretch of Finch West has express service in the form of the 939B Finch Express.

Let's get going!

The map is for the entire 36 route; the portion focussed on today is anything between Finch Station and Finch West Station.

The Route

Westbound buses exit Finch Station via the main roadway, heading west onto Finch. Buses operate directly along Finch, until they turn north onto Tangiers and west onto Four Winds to enter Finch West Station.

Finch and Yonge is high density, and it gets lower as you travel west. There are a number of townhomes until Senlac, but the road becomes single-family homes west of there, until Bathurst. Finch and Bathurst has a number of apartment buildings, which continue west, besides NYGH Branson at Virgilwood. West of Torresdale, the route dips into the Reservoir lands, meaning there is minimal development besides a few apartments at Wilmington. West of Dufferin, until Finch West Station, Finch is entirely industrial.

Sights to See

• Esther Shiner Civic Stadium
• North York General Hospital Branson
• G Ross Lord Reservoir

Subway Connections

• Finch
• Finch West

Frequency and Ridership

Buses run broken at Finch West on weekdays all day until 10pm, and on weekends during the daytime. Buses operate during morning peaks every 4'30, during the midday every 5', during afternoon peaks every 5'30, and during early evenings every 8'. During the late evening, when service is through to Humberwood, buses operate every 10'. Through weekend early morning service operates every 10'. Saturday morning service is every 7', with afternoons every 5'30. Early evening through service is every 8', with late evening being 9'15. Sunday morning service is every 8', and afternoon every 6', with through early evening service is every 7', and late evening is every 9'30.

Ridership is not clear, as the TTC only provides statistics for the whole route. 47,300 use the route on weekdays, 32,800 on Saturdays, and 23,700 on Sundays. This is insane by the way; the Sunday ridership is probably higher than most weekday ridership on 'busy' routes in American cities. I would suggest that around 25% of the ridership of the whole route is east of Keele, but I cannot confirm this. In addition, the 939B operates thus stretch too, and afternoon peak ridership on that route is very high.

Thoughts

This section of Finch is busy, and the 939B express service is usually packed. It reminds me of when the route was initially split, when the Line 1 extension to Vaughan opened. TTC scheduled this stretch at every 7', which failed to take into account ridership originating on this stretch, and it was quickly bumped to current headways. I used to regularly travel this stretch, but I universally used the 939B as I originate east of Yonge usually. I remember when it only stopped at Bathurst and Dufferin. I'm glad it now stops at Torresdale/Goldfinch, as it relieves some of the 36 route.

Future

Currently, the Line 6 is being built, which will replace almost all 36 service west of Keele (36D/F will be cleaved off into their own route). This will leave this as the only 36 service, with eventual plans to replace it with LRT, as well. Other than that, I don't see this route changing much. Maybe the TTC will add 939B stops at Alness, but that's about it.