Where is the 365 Bus?

 Hey everyone! It's been about two months since my last blog post, but I am back! This post is based on an exchange/investigation I have been having for the last month. Hope you enjoy!

Background Information

The 365 Parliament Blue Night is a TTC bus route that operates whenever the subway is closed, duplicating route 65 Parliament the entire way from Bloor down to the Esplanade. It is functionally the same as the 65, except that it doesn't stop within Castle Frank Station's bus terminal (as the subway is closed). The route was established in September 2015, during a big reorganization of night bus routes, in order to provide a new north-south connection between Yonge Street and the Don River.

The 365 map, circa 2015. Note the southern loop at the Esplanade has reversed in direction as of late 2021.

Owing to the route's short length, a single bus can provide a half-hourly service. However, the short length limits its usefulness, and is the lowest ridership night route on the TTC, carrying 20 passengers on a weekday night, 30 passengers on a Saturday night, with insufficient data on Sunday nights. This works out to approximately 1.4 passengers per trip on a weeknight, and 2.1 on a Saturday. Note that Saturdays having higher ridership than an average weekday is a pattern across most night routes.

It is the only night route that does worse than the TTC's standards, which asks for approximately 10 passengers an hour (this route carries 5.7 on average). As such, as a part of the 2020 Annual Service Plan, the TTC proposed removing this route, with the bus being reallocated to an extension of the 339 Finch East route to Dynamic Drive. The local councillor suggested the TTC wait around for people to move back into 650 Parliament, which residents had to vacate due to a fire. This, along with the pandemic, pushed back these plans indefinitely. 

This is a bit technical, but it is important to understanding some things later. The last southbound 65 leaves Castle Frank Station at 1:47am, arriving back northbound around 2:10am. This bus becomes the first southbound 365, operating all night. Around 5am, the bus returns to the garage, with the 65 picking up after. The timing of the last and first trips above are the same on all days of the week.

What Happened?

Back in mid-January, I was working on a project that required me to look at schedules for the night routes. It was a Saturday. When I clicked the 365 on Google Maps' transit function, no data appeared. No big deal, as some routes don't appear on Google for whatever reason (52F, 59, 109, 952). I checked the TTC schedule, and there was no data there. Sunday also lacked data, but weekday data was still there. This was very peculiar to me, and I was unsure of what had happened. However, on the service summary, the route is present all days of the week.

I contacted transit advocate Steve Munro, who is often aware of changes in service far in advance of the general public. He said that the weekend schedule file was non-existent in the parent NextBus software. This could mean the bus was accidentally deleted, but still running, it just won't be visible on apps. He contacted the TTC, but received no response.

I was tired of waiting, so I did as any rational person does... I left home at 1am on March 20th to go and investigate.

The stop I waited at, southbound on Parliament south of Howard.

I got to the stop at around 2:05am, so that I would be on time for the supposed first southbound trip. I watched the last northbound bus, #8449, arrive at Bloor, and head to Castle Frank Station. Then, I watched it turn left out of the terminal, on its way back to the garage. 

I gave the benefit of doubt, and just presumed another bus would come, as maybe #8449 had a mechanical issue. No bus came at 2:16, when it is scheduled to on weekdays. Nothing came even at 2:35. By that time, it was safe to say that no bus was coming, and I made my way home.

Conclusions and Thoughts

So, as it would have it, it appears the TTC has quietly cancelled weekend service on this route. Was it well-used? Absolutely not. Yet there were people who used it, and found out it disappeared randomly one week. It may have stopped operating way prior to January, but no one would have ever known. Again, I note it was busier on Saturdays than weekdays, but evidently that was unimportant.

What bothers me more is that the 339 has not been extended to Dynamic Drive yet, as promised by the TTC as an exchange for cancelling the 365. Instead of a zero-sum switch, there is net one less bus on Saturdays and Sundays than prior to whenever this change happened. 

TTC's next set of changes is Sunday, March 27 (next week). With this, we will have an updated service summary where we may get a clearer image of if service is actually cancelled or not. Either way, I will be contacting TTC myself in order to see what's going on.

Thanks for reading!