New Subway Extension

On December 17, 2017 a new extension was added to TTC’s line 1.  The subway now goes all the way up to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.  This extension will be an economic boom for the suburbs and decrease traffic time.

I have been waiting a long for this and I am anxious to see how it affects my daily commute.  Several bus routes have been changed or eliminated, including the one I use, Jane 35D.  Since losing a direct route to work I will have to make other arrangements.  For the this mornings commute I will took the regular 59 Maple Leaf bus to Jane.  At Jane I will no longer take the 35D to work but I took the 195 Jane Express all the way to Pioneer Station where I will got the YRT 20 route to take me to work.

Everything was going fine until I got to Pioneer station.  This station is poorly planned and separates the TTC and YRT buses.  To get from one to the other you have to take multiple escalators and cross an underground pathway to get to the other part of the station.  This was very confusing and was not well executed for ease of travel.  It was probably built that way so each jurisdiction could pay for the upkeep or any improvements to their own station.  Frankly, I think it would have been better if they just designed one larger station instead of the two independent stations.

Once I got on the YRT’s 20 Jane bus, which was a large articulated bus, I noticed that even the route had changed.  Now the bus will make a stop over at the 407 station and on the return run it will turn prior to the Jane & Steeles intersection.  This new turn will affect my evening commute forcing me to go all the way to the subway station.  I think that for my evening commute I will bypass the 35 Jane bus and go directly to Lawrence West subway station.  this will allow me to stop for groceries on the way home as I did on the Jane bus.