A new map for Toronto's new transit system

The opening of Lines 5 and 6 are the most recent developments in Toronto's decades-long transit transformation. The 2015 opening of the Union-Pearson Express added frequent rail access between downtown and the primary airport for the first time, serving neighbourhoods along the way. Toronto launched an express bus network in 2017, with many routes now operating with high frequencies 7-days-a-week. Ontario's "One Fare" integration program has facilitated over 60 million transfers in between Toronto-area transit agencies since launching in 2024, with the largest share happening between the TTC and GO within Toronto's borders. 

Nonetheless, there exists no rapid transit map to reflect new and integrated options for fast and frequent travel to get across Toronto, but rather system maps of rail-based transit only operated by either the TTC alone, or GO and the TTC.

I saw the opportunity to draw up a higher-order transit map that paints a more fulsome picture of fast and frequent transit options within the city with clear hierarchies of service that transit riders would find useful to know.

Existing higher-order transit maps found in Toronto transit stations and trains

The redesigned rapid transit map

The new principles for Toronto's higher-order transit map is "fast, frequent, 7-days-a-week". This principle aims to highlight transit corridors with low wait times, greater reliability, and higher speeds than the conventional local transit network, and is available 7-days-a-week. From these principles, the redesigned map does not discriminate whether transit vehicles run on rails or rubber tires nor which agency operates them, but focuses on the type of service that they offer. Ultimately, this produces a map for riders seeking out fast, frequent, and all-day transit to get across the city.

Another goal of this redesign is to arrange rapid transit into a hierarchy that truthfully communicates the level of service that riders experience. This allows riders to have a general grasp of expected travel times and wait times for different kinds of higher-order transit, and weigh their options accordingly.

This map focuses on Toronto (unlike the Metrolinx map), while still showing regional services that are useful for travel within the city (unlike the TTC map). This makes the redesign a suitable template for maps on Toronto's light rail vehicles and subways, and complementing TTC full system maps at stations. This template intends to replace the TTC rail map, and replace the Metrolinx regional map in some cases where a regional scale is unnecessary.

Streetcars

The most notable omission from this diagram are the streetcars. While they satisfy the "frequent" and "7-days-a-week" redesign principles, the streetcar system remains a local transit backbone for downtown, no faster than the local bus. While it offers greater comfort and capacity than the local bus, it still exists on the same layer of local transit. If the streetcars were included on the basis of frequency, it would be inconsistent to add the streetcar network without also cluttering the map with the 10-minute bus network.

If Toronto were to adopt a Frequent Transit Network map like Vancouver or Portland, this would be the best place to include the streetcar network.

Light Rail

Toronto's new light rail lines are depicted identically as other train lines on all TTC and Metrolinx system maps. However, this design decision does not reflect the rider experience between subway, regional rail, and street-running light rail service. Line 6 operates under half the average speed of the conventional subway (and far slower than regional rail). Both Line 5 and 6 are still far more frequent than GO rail services. The redesigned map differentiates the slower street-running sections of new light rail lines from the subway system, which is typically faster and more frequent. It also differentiates it from less-frequent regional rail service.

There is precedent for this distinction in transit wayfinding in Madrid, Paris, Istanbul, and many other cities where modern tramways fill the gap between local buses and metros. Comprehensive transit systems have higher-order transit in different layers of speed and local accessibility, and their respective diagrams and maps should reflect their different characteristics and purposes within the wider transit network.

The hybrid nature of Line 5 introduces a unique case where the central and western segments offer grade-separated subway-like service, but the eastern segment offers more slower street-running service with more frequent stops. In the redesign, this transition is handled by a thicker subway-distinction line devolving to a thinner line representing surface rail. A similar format can be found on Philadelphia's redesigned frequent transit map.

While Line 6 operates as slow or slower than the local bus, policies to improve speed and reliability in the coming months should hopefully justify its higher-order transit status rather than relegate it to the same fate as the Spadina and Waterfront streetcars that were initially branded as LRT.

Frequent Express Bus

Toronto has over 25 express routes, but only the 900 Airport Express is shown on the TTC's rail map. Not all express buses are equal, and they do not necessarily all meet the aforementioned principles for inclusion in this map redesign. The TTC classifies express buses into two tiers:

• Tier 1: Express buses that operate every 10 minutes or better during peak hours, and every 15 minutes or better off-peak

• Tier 2: Express buses that operate every 15 minutes or better exclusively during peak hours

Even within Tier 1, there are variations. The 929 Dufferin does not operate in the evenings on weekends, with the last trips around 7:00pm. The 900 and 927 operate everyday with 10-minute or better service until 1:00am. The newly launched 906 Airport-Humber College express route runs daily until 1am, but is not included in Tier 1 as it operates 15-minute service during all time periods.

Weekend evening service is particularly important for most work shifts and non-work travel, but many routes that are part of the Tier 1 definition do not operate in evenings. Given this and other shortcomings with adopting the Tier 1 classification, I quickly developed a new "Frequent Express Bus" standard so that riders have a consistent expectation of service span and frequency of the routes included in this redesign.

New "Frequent Express Bus" standard

• Every 15 minutes or better in all periods

• Operates all-day, everyday, until at least 10:00pm

These six express routes are underemphasized in present maps, but they are important for longer-distance suburban crosstown trips and fill in gaps in the rail system.

A number of Scarborough/North York express bus routes were enhanced after the 2023 shuttering of Line 3, including along the replacement bus corridor. Scarborough Centre continues to be a major transit hub for this corner of the city. However, neither TTC nor Metrolinx higher-order transit maps show these replacement bus lines and their connections to Scarborough Centre.

Union-Pearson Express and GO Transit

In the absence of frequent GO service, the Union-Pearson Express has become an imperfect substitute for rapid transit for residents and workers between Weston, Mount Dennis, and Downtown Toronto, in addition to the intended airport connectivity. The opening of Line 5 also unlocks new crosstown trips that connect to Weston and the airport via UPX. This redesigned map depicts UPX as a bright blue band augmenting the subway and light rail system while holding visual prominence over the less-frequent GO rail lines.

GO's regional rail system is fare-integrated with the TTC, with TTC fares being free on any connecting GO trip. GO Transit rail lines are shown in faded green on this map, as they do not meet the frequent and all-day requirements of the redesign. Nonetheless, most GO rail lines do offer a level of city-wide connectivity across the boroughs, limited spans of high frequencies, and they are slated for all-day frequent service in coming years. This supports a greater case for their inclusion in this map over the streetcar system, which is exclusively local.

Peak-only lines use a thinner line to understate their importance - although it could be argued that they have no place on such a map.

Decluttering and simplification

Another goal of this redesign is to declutter and simplify the TTC's rail map. Reducing the amount of unnecessary information on any map improves legibility and quick-glance wayfinding. For example, there is no legend entry for interchanges or walking connections, as the map design should make this clear. A good map should incorporate obvious iconography that requires no explanation.

The approach to step-free accessibility is also flipped, with designations for inaccessible stations rather than accessible ones. Full, step-free accessibility should be the "default" state of the system - and will be, when the TTC completes its Easier Access program (in 2027, hopefully). While it made sense in previous decades, a vast majority of transit stations are now accessible and hence any callouts should highlight the dwindling number of inaccessible stations.

Finally, most transit partner connections are excluded. Local bus connections with neighbouring transit agencies are located on the TTC's system map, where all bus connections are shown regardless. A transit rider accessing a local York Region Transit route (or other 905-agency route) could consult the full system map to find the connecting TTC station, in the same manner as a transit rider connecting to a local TTC bus or streetcar. The inclusion of VIA Rail is paired with detailing around Pearson Airport transit to make it easier for visitors who are less likely to use the full system map and more likely to be confused by an overly cluttered transit map.

Potential improvements and concluding thoughts

There still remains gaps not addressed with this redesign. Washrooms are excluded. The dimensions of this map is incompatible for placement in trains or stations, though the design principles could be adopted. The iconography for accessibility is not the universal standard among transit systems (or most public spaces) in Canada. Some important express routes are excluded by my definition of a "Frequent Express Bus", although that points to insufficient TTC express service on popular routes like Dufferin.

Still, this redesigned map presents Toronto's higher-order transit in a more consistent and unbiased manner that reflects fast and frequent transit options and communicates the distinctions of different transit services in a way that is useful to a transit rider.