Toronto Transit Commission bus system

Bus service in Toronto began in 1849, when the first public transport system in Toronto, the Williams Omnibus Bus Line, was launched. The service began with a fleet of six horse-drawn stagecoaches. After ten years, the use of streetcars were introduced in the city as the Toronto Street Railway (TSR) was established in 1861. After a year of competition between the two companies, the TSR had surpassed Williams Omnibus Line in ridership.[3]

From 1947 to 1993, the TTC's system included several trolley bus routes, such as this one on the 89 Weston Road route in 1987.

Until 1921, several private and publicly owned transport systems were established and ended up being merged into one another or abandoned. Electric streetcars were widely used in Toronto and surrounding settlements during the new century. After the establishment of the Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) (predecessor of the Toronto Transit Commission (also having the acronym of TTC) until 1954), streetcar routes were taken over from predecessors in 1921. It ran bus routes by using motor buses for the first time in the city.[4] The TTC also experimented the use of trolley buses from 1922 to 1925. Gray Coach, an intercity bus line by the TTC, began operation in 1927. As the coach service increased in ridership, the TTC built the Toronto Coach Terminal. By 1933, the TTC introduced the local bus and streetcar stop design, a white pole with a red band on the top and bottom. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, the city began replacing various street railway routes extending to surrounding municipalities with bus routes. Between 1947 and 1954, the TTC acquired new trolley buses and converted several streetcar routes to use them.

A few private bus operations existed alongside the Toronto Transportation Commission, including Hollinger Bus Lines in East York (1921–1954), Danforth Bus Lines in North Toronto and King City and its subsidiaries North York Bus Lines in North York and Toronto Bus lines which operated north and east of Toronto (1926–1954), West York Coach Lines in York (1946–1954), Hollinger Bus Lines, which operated in East York and Scarborough, as well as a route to Mount Albert and Roseland Bus Lines which served York and had a route from Weston to Woodbridge (1925–1954). All services were taken over by the TTC on 1 January 1954, when it became the sole public transit operator in the newly formed Metropolitan Toronto.

In 1966, plans were made to replace all streetcar routes with buses in the next 20 years. The plan was cancelled in 1972 and streetcar routes were rebuilt. Two years before the cancellation of the plan, GO Transit was established by the Government of Ontario with Gray Coach serving as its operator for most of its routes. The TTC operated its first dial-a-bus services under GO Transit in 1973. In 1975, the first paratransit service, Wheel-Trans, was established by a private operator. The TTC also began using minibuses for minor routes, which would be replaced by regular buses by 1981.

A Wheel-Trans bus at York University. The paratransit service has been operated by the TTC since 1988.

In 1987, the TTC implemented the Blue Night Network, an expansion of its overnight services using buses and streetcars. The following year, the TTC took over Wheel-Trans services. In 1989, the TTC began using buses fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG). The TTC sold Gray Coach Lines to the Scotland-based Stagecoach Group in 1990, while also introducing "community buses", providing minibus service in a few residential neighbourhoods.[5] In 1993, the TTC ceased the use of electric trolley buses. Accessibility expanded to regular buses in 1996 with the use of lift-equipped buses. This was further improvised two years later when low-floor buses were added to the fleet.

The TTC experimented with hybrid electric buses during the middle of the first decade of the 21st century.[6] The first hybrid buses entered service in 2006, the same time CNG-fuelled buses were retired.

Under the Transit City plan in 2007, the TTC announced it would introduce new bus rapid transit (BRT) routes in certain transit corridors. By 2008, the TTC increased service for 31 bus routes, and extended operating hours.[7] In 2009, the TTC opened its first BRT route that uses its own dedicated busway and bus lanes when route 196 York University Rocket was rerouted to the York University Busway. When the extension of Line 1 to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre opened in December 2017, the 939B Finch Express is the only route continuing to use it.

The TTC ordered 27 articulated buses from Nova Bus, which began revenue operation in the spring of 2014. At 18 metres (60 ft) long, as compared with a standard 40-foot bus, the Nova LFS Artics hold about 112 passengers, compared with 65 on the standard length bus.[8]

A TTC bus painted in livery based on the Flexity Outlook streetcars used by the TTC, 2018. The livery was introduced on TTC buses the previous year.

As of 23 December 2016, all of the buses in the TTC system have Presto card readers.[9] Buses delivered to the TTC since 2017 have a new livery based on the livery of the Flexity Outlook streetcars.

The TTC is currently constructing the McNicoll bus garage near the intersection of Kennedy Road and McNicoll Avenue in northern Scarborough to increase capacity.[10] The new building will house 250 buses within an approximately 2.6-hectare (6.4-acre) facility. The garage will feature rooftop solar panels, a green roof and a system to recycle bus wash water.[11][12] It is expected to be completed in 2020. As a result, the loop located on McNicoll Avenue has been decommissioned.

In 2018, the TTC planned to buy 30–60 battery electric buses, which would help it meet its target of an emissions-free fleet by 2040. To test the performance of electric vehicles, the TTC received three demonstration buses, one each from three electric bus manufacturers: New Flyer (part of NFI Group), BYD and Proterra.[13]

In April 2019, the TTC received the first of 60 electric buses after ordering 20 each from Winnipeg-based New Flyer, Chinese-based BYD and California-based Proterra. The 60 buses, plus infrastructure changes at three TTC garages, will cost approximately $140 million with the federal government paying $65 million of that cost. The buses are powered exclusively by lithium-ion batteries that take about three hours to recharge. The buses are expected to travel approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) on a single charge; however, when the bus heater activates in cold weather, the range is reduced by 30–50%. Per year, each electric bus will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 149.2 metric tons (146.8 long tons; 164.5 short tons) and eliminate diesel fuel costs of $56,000. The electric buses are 15–20% quieter in motion, and 85% quieter when idling.[14]

On 3 June 2019, the first of the new electric buses went into revenue service on the 35 Jane bus route. The bus, built by New Flyer, is based at the TTC's Arrow Road garage, the first garage to be equipped with recharging equipment for electric buses. A bus on the 35 Jane route travels about 78 kilometres (48 mi) in a day.[15]

On 26 October 2019, Proterra electric buses started to operate on the 6 Bay bus route. These buses are operated exclusively out of the Mount Dennis garage. By the end of 2019, the Eglinton garage was planned to be the third garage to be equipped with recharging equipment and would be used for BYD electric buses.[16]

In 2020, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic caused TTC ridership to decrease dramatically. On March 23, 2020, the TTC suspended all express bus services system-wide, with the exception of the 900 Airport Rocket and 927 Highway 27 Rocket. A number of seats began to be blocked off to encourage social distancing.