A Bus to Bessarion: Walking Along Burbank and Empress

 Hey besties! This blog post follows along a walk that I had taken in early November 2021. Just a quick note, my captions for pictures say 'left' and 'right' and they may not appear that way on mobile. Sorry in advance!

Bessarion Station, on Line 4, has long been critiqued as being a useless station. Named after a short residential street, in, at the time of opening, a very open area, most see it as a place they will never have to venture to. It even spawned a YouTube video that set out to find where exactly Bessarion Station is. For those who have yet to see it, I have attached it below.

However, as the area around the station has begun to fill in, ridership slowly begins to increase. Obviously, there are still many issues at play around the station, but things are changing. Bessarion is no longer the least-used subway station, and in was actually never the least used rapid transit station: Ellesmere on Line 3 always had lower ridership.

In Toronto, however, subway station usage is not exclusively determined by density around stations. Some low-density stations, like Warden and York Mills, get good ridership by having strong bus connections. This has helped some of the other Line 4 stations, like Don Mills, which has both density of jobs and housing, as well as strong bus connections. Leslie and Bayview, the other two stations on the line, are less used, but are fed in by bus routes from the north and south.

That's where Bessarion is different. The only bus connection is the 85J, which operates parallel to the subway, so there isn't a huge chance of transfers occurring between the two services. One might think that there are no areas to the north (in particular) that could benefit from the connection to the subway, but that's where many people get it wrong. While the Don River does limit the size of the neighbourhood to the north, it is still relatively large in size, following Burbank Drive, and later, Page Avenue.

This map shows the areas near Bessarion Station, which is the station west of the Canadian Tire on Sheppard.

In spite of this opportunity, there is currently no bus route serving this area, creating long walks, and deep car culture means that many completely ignore the subway. In 2002, when the Sheppard subway was being built, the TTC proposed a bus route from Bessarion Station to North York Centre Station, via Burbank, Bunty, Citation and Empress. North York Centre is similar condition to Bessarion: the only bus connection is a paralleling service, but it has many more destinations, including North York Civic Centre. This proposal was never enacted, which I believe was due to residents on the streets being mad about a bus running along their street. I always find this a dumb excuse, but this is a blog post for another time. 

In early November 2021, I took a walk along the proposed route, but extended it west, ending at Bathurst and Blue Flag Gate. The main goal was to see how practical a route could be, and whether or not it should be implemented. A map of my walk is below.

So come along with me on my walk!

The Walk

My walk started at Leslie Station. The reason I picked this start point was because Bessarion has no bus loop (obviously), and so any route would likely terminate here. I think this is a good thing though, as the bus route could operate along Esther Shiner, directly serving many of the condos south of the station. 

Left: Leslie Station's relatively underused bus terminal.

Right: Looking west on Esther Shiner Boulevard from Old Leslie Street.

I soon arrived at Bessarion Station. Conveniently, there is an entrance on either side of Sheppard. With that, I turned onto Burbank. This street, as you can see below, is set up perfectly for bus service. It's quite wide, and there is a grassy divide from the street to the sidewalk that could fit a concrete pad for bus stops. 

Left: Bessarion Station's entrance on the north side of Sheppard.

Right: Looking north on Burbank from just north of Sheppard.

Burbank is entirely single-family residential, which means that ridership would not be crazy high here, but there would still be demand. Those on Page would not be directly served by the bus, but they may be attracted by a shorter walk to this service via Forest Grove. While walking here, I noticed a decent number of individuals walking down Burbank towards Sheppard, including seniors, clearly, there is at least some latent demand here.

Left: looking north on Burbank near Sifton.

Right: looking north on Burbank at Forest Grove.

Turning onto Bunty, we encounter our first destination. Bayview Middle School becomes inundated with cars during school drop-off and pick-up hours, as those who cannot walk to school have no other option. A bus service to this school would likely relieve the streets of some of their congestion.

Bayview Middle School

Not long after, I turn onto Citation, and reach Bayview, which would provide a transfer to route 11. Citation becomes Empress once Bayview is crossed. Empress is narrower than Burbank was, but is still sufficiently wide enough for passage of the bus. There is not much to note for a bit but the transfer to route 98 at Willowdale.

Looking west on Empress, just west of Bayview.

A little bit later, Earl Haig Secondary School appears in view. This huge school is accessible by subway, for those students coming from the north or south, but the lack of bus service means those coming from the west or east are out of luck. This would be a huge destination for the route to serve.

The school yard of Earl Haig.

Soon after, we arrive at Yonge Street. This area is much higher density than the areas around, and features a number of stores and services. Some of note include: North York Civic Centre, North York Central Library, Mel Lastman Square, Gibson House, Loblaws, Petsmart, Dollarama, Starbucks, and more. Just like Earl Haig, those coming from the east and west have difficulty accessing these locations. The demand the bus service would have from along Citation and Empress to here would be high, simply because there is a lot to do and see. Distance to a grocery store would be reduced.

Transfers here can be made to the subway at North York Centre, as well as the GO buses that operate to and from Finch Terminal. While this was the proposed end of the route suggested by TTC in 2002, I think operating further west would make way more sense for two reasons. Firstly, there is no bus loop at North York Centre. Secondly, the areas west of Yonge along Park Home and Ellerslie have the same experience as Empress and Citation, and should not be ignored. Bus routes rarely travel through Yonge, but an exception can be made!

Left: Looking southwest from the corner of Empress and Yonge.

Right: A signpost showing a number of important locations around Empress and Yonge.

Park Home is the name Empress takes beyond Yonge. However, it doesn't reach Bathurst entirely, so I divert to Ellerslie via Tamworth. Ellerslie is more major of a street anyways. Near Senlac is Willowdale Middle School, our third underserviced school along this walk. While it has the 98 towards Sheppard-Yonge Station, east-west movements are not accounted for.

Left: Looking west along Ellerslie, just beyond Tamworth.

Right: Willowdale Middle School.

Not long after, I reach Bathurst. I'm not quite done yet, though, I just want to walk what I think the route's looping should be: Carscadden, Blue Flag Gate, and Bathurst. 

Left: Looking towards Bathurst from the south side of Ellerslie.

Right: Who knew there was an apartment building hidden down this driveway on Carscadden? I did not!

Anddd with that, I reach Blue Flag Gate. From an operations point of view, this would be the perfect location to end the route. 

Looking at Blue Flag Gate from Carscadden.

Random Thoughts

The one big random thought I had is now difficult it is to walk through these areas. The sidewalks regularly end, or switch side of street, with little warning. Simple trips require crossing streets multiple times, which is just aggravating!

Conclusion

This route should absolutely be created. The complaints of a few whiny residents should not blind the view that this route improves connectivity, increases connections, improves access to destinations (including schools and grocery stores), and increased ridership at two less-than-busy stations. This is an obvious choice for the TTC to make.