24/7* Durham Region

Hey besties! This blog post is a short one, concerning my findings of taking Durham Region's new overnight routes. 

Recently, Durham Region Transit introduced two overnight routes. Route N1 operates throughout the night, between Centennial Circle and Harmony Terminal, and route N2 operates for a few hours between ONTech and Wentworth. Additionally, Dial-a-Bus service was instituted covering most of the urban part of Durham Region. On Monday, December 13th, I went out to take the two routes. I have a few comments concerning them and a few suggestions for how service could be improved.

Route N1 Centennial Circle <--> Harmony Terminal

This route duplicates the 900 Pulse Highway 2 route that operates during the day, as well as parts of route 901 Pulse Simcoe and 915 Taunton routes. Obviously, as urban Durham region is much longer than it is tall, this route covers a lot of distance. It also makes direct connections to two overnight TTC routes near UofT Scarborough. 

From riding the route, ridership seems decent enough. My westbound trip carried approximately 8 people throughout, which is not bad for a super suburban region at 12:30am! 

One thing notable from the map is that transfers to and from the Dial-Bus-Service occur on this route. As such, I can see ridership spiking at specific locations at specific times, depending on when a Dial-a-Bus drops off. I did not see this myself, however.

Route N2 ONTech/DC North <--> Wentworth

Unlike route N1, this route does not operate throughout the night. It ends around 2:10 for southbound departures, and 1:43 for northbound trips. This means about 3.5h gap before 901 service resumes for departures southbound, and 3h for northbound departures. That said, between Downtown Oshawa and Taunton, service on Simcoe is provided by the N1. 

My issue with the route is the duplication on Simcoe. If the routes were scheduled to produce 15-minute gaps, service would be good! While this kind of occurs northbound, it does not southbound. Someone coming from the N2 to N1 has a short wait for a bus, but a very long wait if switching from N1 to N2. I simply do not get why Simcoe service is duplicated, it's Durham's second busiest corridor, sure, but it's not busy enough to justify the two routes. I will speak more to this later.

In addition, it doesn't cover the entire 901 Pulse Simcoe routing. For whatever reason, it cuts back to Wentworth, instead of running the full way to Lakeview Park. I'm sure it has something to do with NIMBYs, but I also do not care.

The Future of Durham's Overnight Network

I think Durham's night routes will survive, and with new businesses opening, such as the Amazon on Salem, I think new routes will eventually be added. I have issues with Dial-a-Bus (which require a whole other blog post), and while I think it is a good start, eventually fixed routes will have to replace it at some point. As more routes get converted to Pulse service, night service will probably follow soon after.

I have drafted an idea for a proposed route network that both covers a lot of new area, and provides fixed, overnight service on some of Durham's busiest routes. I think having timed transfer points at a few locations allow for ease of movement across the region during the wee hours of the morning. Note the maps are very simple and do not reflect all aspects of routing (i.e. no one-way portions through Downtown Oshawa). All routes operate every 30 minutes, unless otherwise noticed.

A map of all my proposed routes.

N1 Centennial Circle <--> Newcastle

This route would cover the entirety of Highway 2, duplicating the daytime routes 900 Pulse Highway 2 and 902 King, with an extension from Bowmanville to Newcastle. This route is long: more than 53km one-way, but is important as it operates the main-east west axis of Durham. I think that service every 30 minutes to Newcastle is overkill, considering Durham Region Transit doesn't even operate there presently, so half of buses can turn back at Simpson Avenue in Bowmanville (the current 902 terminus).

N2 Lakeview Park <--> Harmony Terminal

This route focusses on Simcoe Street, operating the entirety of route 901 Pulse Simcoe, as well as parts of 420 Windfields Farm and 905A Thickson-Reach. It connects a lot of destinations, including Lakeridge Oshawa, and ONTech/DC, as well as the new plaza at Winchester and Simcoe. 

N3 Sunbird Trail <--> Harmony Terminal

This route covers the entirety of routes 110 Finch and 917 Bayly-Consumers, as well as parts of routes 902 King and 410 Olive-Harmony. It provides a good east-west link south of Highway 401, in addition to a north-south link east of Simcoe. 

N4 Whitby GO <--> Brooklin

This route replicates route 302 Baldwin-Brock, with a modified looping in Brooklin. It provides a strong north-south axis on a relatively busy route.

N5 Ajax GO <--> Harmony Terminal

This route replicates route 915 Taunton, which will eventually be converted to Pulse service.

N6 Pickering Parkway Terminal <--> Harmony Terminal

This route replicates route 916 Rossland, which will eventually be converted to Pulse service.

N7 Salem and Taunton <--> Ajax GO

This route is a modified version of route 224 Harwood-Salem. It serves a number of destinations, including the Amazon Fulfillment Centre, and Lakeridge Hospital Ajax Pickering. I personally don't like how twisty it is, but I guess it's more for coverage than speed.

Other Ideas

The only other idea I would have would be a night version of 905 Thickson-Reach. While I would love to see it reach Uxbridge, it would be odd to have overnight service to Uxbridge be 4x as frequent as daytime service.

Conclusion

Durham Region Transit's night network is still in its experimental phase, yet has shown a lot of early promise. Durham, a laggard in GTA transit, has finally started to take a lead: hopefully it will continue. 

A future most will discuss overnight transit in the GTA as a whole.