So, When are COVID-19 Service Cuts Going to End?

We've now sped past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's far from over, but while a lot of life has returned to some sort of normalcy, many transit systems have still yet to return to the pre-pandemic offerings of service. The question remains now, when? When will these services return? How permanent are some of the cuts from March 2020, or from November 2021? I have broken this article up by a select group of transit agencies, as different systems had different approaches to cutting, and restoring services.

I do miss the downtown express routes from time to time.

Toronto Transit Commission

Generally speaking, the TTC's cuts did not affect coverage. Every local route remained in place, albeit with some reductions in frequency. The route that received the biggest service cut that has yet to be restored is the 19 Bay (f.k.a. 6 Bay), which had a pre-COVID frequency in rush hour of every 5 minutes, which now sits at every 15 minutes. This route's ridership was two core groups: students at George Brown Waterfront Campus, and government workers at College and Bay. The first group is back, but has other (better) route options, whereas the second is not. This cut feels a bit more permanent, and I would be surprised if the 19 ever got more frequent than every 10 minutes.

Most of the TTC's cuts were peak trippers, and express routes. In the case of the trippers, for example, the 508 Lake Shore route duplicates others entirely, and only operated three trips in the morning and five in the afternoon. The 116B Morningside short turn to Kingston Road was lost as well, offset in October 2020 by improved service due to RapidTO. 

As for the express routes, all but the 900 Airport Express and 927 Highway 27 Express were cut at the start of COVID. All have been gradually reintroduced, except for the 903 Express. Some new routes were added, namely the 943 Kennedy Express and the 968 Warden Express, and others had additional hours of service added. These were lost in November 2021 due to Omicron, but some have been restored, with further restoration scheduled for Mother's Day.  

The other loss are the Downtown Express routes. These routes, numbered in the 140-series, were rush-hour only, and ran from residential areas to the downtown core. With their double fare, these were generally geared for business people (I did make use of the 144 though, from my house to downtown in 25 minutes). They were all political projects, under the guise of relieving subway overcrowding. This is kind of funny, as the 144 is the busiest, carrying only 620 people a day, half a subway train, and using 9 buses to do so! As such, they have long been on the TTC's chop list. Some improvements in 2018 saw new trips on the 141 to Lawrence, but they made only slight improvements to ridership. As such, these routes will continue to be cut in 2022, and I am pretty confident that they will be permanent cuts from here on out. They wasted buses, frankly, and so this may actually be a net benefit.

Broadly speaking, the TTC's cuts were small, and were mostly restored. However, this is not to excuse them: the pandemic has been used by the TTC to avoid making long-awaited improvements to service. Citing 'low ridership,' large network improvements, namely the changes to the 54 Lawrence East and the new 178 Brimorton, have been on hold indefinitely. This is quite unacceptable.

Brampton Transit

At the start of the pandemic, Brampton Transit dropped a lot of their local routes in favour of adding extra service to their mainline routes. This significantly increased walking distance to bus stops for many people. Since then, most routes have been restored, and the ones that have yet to are still listed online, and are on the map greyed-out. The ones that have yet to return are very low ridership (the 58 Financial Drive carried less than 50 people a day), or are duplicated by other routes (the 1 Queen replaces the entire ZUM 561 Queen West). The only exception is the 501A/501C ZUM Queen services to York University. Personally, I think these are permanent cuts, which sucks for students. Fare integration now please!

One day, the 21 will return!

Where Brampton has not made headway in restoring service is in headways! Some local routes have returned, but way less frequent than before. The 12 Grenoble operated every 30 minutes, every day, pre-COVID. When service was restored late 2020, it was Monday-Saturday only, every 60 minutes, with no evening service. Some further improves have been made, and some will be this weekend, including more evening service, and a restoration of Sunday service, but still at 60-minute frequencies. I'm curious to see if this will be restored come September, because this headway is not working for anyone, frankly.

Early today, Brampton Transit released ridership numbers that showed that monthly ridership for March 2022 is at 91% of what it was February 2020. This reflects Brampton Transit's critical role in moving essential workers, but also a model for bringing people back. I wonder how close they would be to pre-COVID ridership numbers if they restored all routes to their original frequencies, or better yet, further improved upon. 

Brampton Transit is similar to TTC in that they have used COVID as an excuse to not improve service. There was a planned major reorganization that would involve splitting the 9 Vodden at Bramalea Terminal into the 9 Vodden and 39 Central Park, and rerouting the 9 to replace the 25 Edenbrook Hill. This would significantly improve service for customers, and reduce delays along Vodden. However, nothing has been heard about it for a long while. The status of the change is completely unknown. 

York Region Transit and Durham Region Transit

I've grouped these two agencies together because they have many similarities: shit service overall, cutting routes in the same way, and usage of dial-a-bus. However, recently, their plans have diverged.

At the start of the pandemic, a significant number of routes were cut. These were often low ridership, but in the case of DRT, reduced the number of routes by 60%.  Focus was given major corridors. Minor corridors, such as the 56 Gorham-Eagle, have been cut to lovely 63-minute service during peaks only, with no weekend service. This is not functional, but YRT has clearly no plans to change.

As a replacement, Dial-a-Bus service was introduced in both. This let customers schedule a pickup via an app, which would take them part of their journey. This has had mixed effects: there is less demand in some areas than there would be with fixed routes, for example, but some places, like Seaton, Nobleton, and Schomberg, have gotten their first transit services through this.

The divergence here is how they plan to move forward. YRT's dial-a-bus is much more permanent, and more and more routes are proposed to be cut for the sake of dial-a-bus. I've long complained about YRT making dumb choices, and I feel this is no exception. However, DRT is different. Once dial-a-bus in a particular area has reached a specific ridership threshold, they have brought back the fixed route in the area. For example, the rerouting of the 405 via Thornton and Adelaide is a recent improvement brought upon directly by high dial-a-bus ridership. This route planning is dynamic, and allows for DRT to apply the appropriate service for the ridership. Eventually, most routes will be restored in some form. 

I also want to point out that YRT has made no improvements to service in the pandemic, whereas DRT has made a number of changes. Some examples that come to mind include the new 901 Pulse Simcoe, the new frequent 902 King, and more consistent service on the 407 Ritson.

Windsor Transit

I only wanted to highlight Windsor Transit because they just did not operate between March and June 2020. At all. No routes. Good luck getting groceries! They have since restored all service, and have added new point-to-point express routes, with the only missing service being the Tunnel Bus that operated to Detroit.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The MBTA cut a bunch routes due to the pandemic, but the bulk were given an alternative service. For example, while it would appear that the 27 between Ashmont and Mattapan was lost, further reading shows that the 24 that formerly ended at Mattapan was extended to Ashmont to replace it, with all buses running from Ashmont to Wakefield Avenue. This actually improved frequencies between Ashmont and Mattapan! That said, like TTC, improvements beyond this have been put on hold indefinitely (24 to Readville when).

However, bulk is not all, and two services were lost entirely. The 221 to Broad Reach was cut with no alternative. Some walks to bus stops have increased from <1 minute to nearly 30 minutes! The MBTA has justified this by saying that the 221 duplicated 220 along Bridge Street, which is true, but there is no reason the route couldn't just be adjusted (more unwillingness to improve). Below I've added a map of a new 221 that reduces duplication and adds new service on Commercial and Green, en-route to Weymouth Landing. 

The other big loss was the 465 from Salem Depot to Danvers. Customers looking for information about this route get this message when they reach the MBTA website:

The thing is, the 465 was the only route that served Danvers, perpetually underserved by MBTA. Customers are now directed to walk to Northshore Mall, in Peabody, which is a 45-minute walk from Danvers Square and is pretty inhospitable to pedestrians. The mayor of Salem has expressed concern over this, to no avail. By the way, the routes at the Northshore Mall suck. The 435 has no Sunday service, both the 435 and 436 are very limited on weekends with no trips after 6pm, and weekday service is at best hourly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the answer of when services will return is unclear, and even then, varies agency to agency. While some progress has been made to restoring service, it's a far cry from what was there in February 2020, and an even further cry from what is needed in April 2022. TTC, DRT and Brampton Transit keep my optimistic, but the lack of movement from YRT and the MBTA leave me worried for their futures and the residents reliant on them.