A new map for Toronto's new transit

The opening of Lines 5 and 6 are the most recent developments in a long line of changes in Toronto's decades-long transit transformation. The 2015 opening of the Union-Pearson Express added a frequent rail lin between downtown and the primary airport, 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" fare integration program has facilitated over 60 million transfers in between Toronto-area transit agencies in 2025, 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, 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 fulsome picture of fast and frequent transit options within the city with clear hierarchies of service.

Existing higher-order transit maps found in Toronto transit stations

The redesigned rapid transit map

The new principle for Toronto's higher-order transit is "fast and frequent, 7-days-a-week". This principle aims to highlight transit corridors that people can rely on with low wait times, offer speeds and/or reliability that is higher than the conventional local transit network, and is available 7-days-a-week, all-day and evenings. From this principle, the redesigned map does not discriminate whether transit vehicles run on rails or rubber tires, but focuses on the type of service that transit lines offer.

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 Toronto (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 map is intended 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" components of my redesign principle, the streetcar system remains a local transit backbone for downtown, no faster than the local bus. It offers some greater comfort and capacity than the bus, but exists on the same layer of local transit as the bus. While they could be 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 TTC and Metrolinx system diagrams. However, this design decision does not reflect the rider experience between subway, regional rail, and light rail service. Line 6 operates under half the average speed of the conventional subway (and far slower than regional rail), and both Line 5 and 6 are still far more frequent than GO rail services. The redesigned diagram 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 system 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 this.

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 end offers more local, slower service. This transition is handled by a thicker subway-distinction line devolving to a thinner line that representing surface rail on the map redesign. 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.

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 developed a new "Frequent Express Bus" standard that is more appropriate for this map 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 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

The Union-Pearson Express lacks TTC fare integration (for now), but it does offer 15-minute service until 1:00am daily and remains a popular and fast transit option within western Toronto. This redesigned map depicts UP express 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 principle. 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.

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 these should be obvious to the map viewer from observation. A good map should incorporate obvious iconography that requires no explanation.

The approach to step-free accessibility is also flipped, with callouts 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 it could be adjusted. The iconography for accessibility is not the universal standard among transit systems in Canada (and generally, public spaces). Important express routes are excluded by my own definition of a "Frequent Express Bus", although that points to insufficient TTC express service on popular routes like Dufferin.

Still, this redesigned map presents higher-order transit in a more consistent manner that reflects fast and frequent transit options and communicates the distinctions of different transit services from a rider perspective, without any bias to transit mode or operator.