The overnight “Blue Night” network will see many changes and additions this fall. These will be rolled out in two waves: first with the September/October schedules on Labour Day weekend, and the remainder with the October/November schedules at Thanksgiving.

This is part of a more extensive expansion of service beginning in September that relates to the Ten Minute Network, All Day Every Day service, and improved crowding standards on routes with frequent service. Those and other changes will be described in a separate article.

Here are maps of the network as it exists now, and with the two stages of additions:

Several of the routes will be renumbered so that the night services match the daytime routes except for the using “300” series. In the case of the King and Spadina night services, they will run, at least initially, with the daytime route numbers because there are no roll signs for “304 King” or “317 Spadina” in the CLRV/ALRV fleet. This problem will vanish as the routes convert to Flexity cars with programmable signs.

All services will operate on 30 minute headways.

This implementation is a work-in-progress, and Service Planning does not expect to turn to the question of timing points until the routes are in place. This is a vital piece of work for a network with wide headways where TTC performance stats show that headway (and, by implication, schedule) adherence is very weak. Riders of these routes should be able to depend on vehicles appearing at expected times and connections to work in a predictable way. This is as important a part of the new service as simply putting the buses and streetcars on the road. If service is not predictable in the middle of the night, riders cannot be expected to use it especially for trips that are time-sensitive such as early morning work shifts.

Route changes for September are:

325 Don Mills: Steeles to Eastern via the existing 303 Don Mills route to Danforth, then via the 72 Pape route to Eastern. Service on Broadview will now be provided by the 304 King night car.

329 Dufferin: Steeles to Exhibition via the 105 Dufferin North and 29 Dufferin routes.

334 Eglinton East: Eglinton Station to Finch & Neilson via the existing 305 Eglinton East route to Morningside & Ellesmere, then via the existing 321 York Mills route north via Neilson to Finch.

332 Eglinton West: Route renumbered from 307 Eglinton West.

315 Evans–Brown’s Line: New route from Royal York Station south and west via the 15 Evans route to Sherway, then east and south via Brown’s Line to Long Branch Loop.

339 Finch East: Route renumbered from 308 Finch East.

336 Finch West: Route renumbered from 307 Finch West.

337 Islington: Route renumbered from 311 Islington.

341 Keele: New route from Keele Station to York University via the 41 Keele route. Note that the maps above show both routings of the daytime 41 Keele including the express branch on Weston Road north of St. Clair. However, the service announcement memo shows all night buses going via the “local” route on Old Weston Road

343 Kennedy: New route from Kennedy Station to Steeles via the 43 Kennedy route.

304 King: All night service on the 504 King route.

354 Lawrence East: Eglinton Station to Starspray via the 54 Lawrence route. Service now operated to UTSC will be taken over by 395 York Mills.

363 Ossington: Route renumbered from 316 Ossington.

365 Parliament: All night service on the 65 Parliament route.

384 Sheppard West: New route from Sheppard Station to Weston Road on the 84 Sheppard West route.

317 Spadina: All night service on the 510 Spadina route. Plans call for both Union and Spadina Stations to remain open overnight and be crewed with Station Collectors.

396 Wilson: Route renumbered from 319 Wilson.

395 York Mills: Route renumbered from 321 York Mills. The route will operate east on York Mills and Ellesmere through the loop at UTSC and then east and north via Meadowvale to Meadowvale Loop at Sheppard. Service on Nielson to Malvern will now be provided by 334 Eglinton East.

Route Changes planned for October:

300 Bloor-Danforth: Extension to Kennedy Station.

302 Kingston Road – McCowan: Route renamed from 302 Danforth Road – McCowan. South end extended to Kingston Road & Victoria Park following the route of 12A Kingston Road (via Variety Village).

335 Jane: Rerouted to Jane Station at the south end replacing 312 St. Clair; extended to York University at the north end. Service on Dundas north of Bloor to be provided by 312 St. Clair – Junction; service south on Roncesvalles to be provided by 304 King.

352 Lawrence West: Route expansions east to Sunnybrook Hospital and west to Pearson Airport.

312 St. Clair – Junction: Rerouted to Dundas West Station at the south end replacing the Jane night bus on Dundas north of Bloor.

353 Steeles: Extension to Staines Road and south to Malvern Centre.