Staff Report #13
October 19, 2026
To All Commissioners
Re: Planning and Route Review Feedback
Recommendation
The Commission:
- DIRECT Administration to forward this report to the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee; and
- RECEIVE the report for information purposes.
Background
As set out in Staff Report #11, dated June 29, 2026, Council has provided direction to the Commission to review the opportunities and recommendations set out in the London Transit Route Planning and Management Review and report back to council on implementation including timing, operational considerations and resource implications.
The remainder of this report will provide details of the analysis completed for each of the recommendations as well as assessment for the implementation of same.
Recommendation 1 – Explore further route modifications and service frequency increases on rapid transit feeder routes to fully leverage rapid transit operations
As part of the regular service planning process, London Transit completes a five-year assessment looking at all existing routes as well as areas that are currently under served or unserved by conventional transit to determine where service changes are warranted over the period. In addition, these five-year plans are then assessed on an annual basis to either confirm the initial proposed changes or to make modifications based on current operational issues and/or changing priorities.
The current five-year plan covering the period of 2025 to 2029, identified the core routes and local Route 23 as feeder routes for the incoming Rapid Transit (RT) lines noting that these routes would need to have increased frequency to meet the targeted headway of no more than twice that of the Rapid Transit service. Routes feeding into the south leg of the RT corridors would operate at frequencies of no more than 20 minutes and those routes feeding into the east leg of the RT corridors would operate at frequencies of no more than 10 minutes based on the planned frequencies for the two RT corridors. In order for all identified core routes (5, 10, 16, 17, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 102, 106 and 127) and local Route 23 to have frequencies of no more than twice the headway, an investment of approximately 107,000 annualized service hours and 43 expansion buses would be required. With growth hours of this magnitude, additional on-road Inspectors, Dispatchers, Operations Supervisors, Planners/Schedulers, Mechanics and General Service staff would also be required.
Given the limitations of 18,000 hours of service growth per year that were approved in the 2024-2027 multi-year budget, the identified further frequency improvements were outside of the scope of the 2025-2029 plan. The plan did recommend considering increased frequencies on feeder routes as hours allow to best take advantage of the RT infrastructure and service to entice people from other parts of London into the RT network for trips along those routes.
Consistent with past practice, subsequent to the approval of the next multi-year budget, the Five Year Service Plan will be reassessed and realigned to match improvements with available budget allocations. Direction of the Plan will be informed by transit priorities identified in Council’s Strategic Plan as well as the outstanding service requests, noting this process includes extensive consultation with stakeholders. While there is no argument that enhancing feeder routes will support the new RT corridors, it is important to recognize that these improvements cannot be undertaken instead of other improvements which are required to address service concerns. Investment hours must be balanced to ensure that they are responsive to current riders, which in turn maintains existing ridership, with new hours that are intended to grow ridership. This reconciliation is the key consideration of the Five Year Service Plan which balances investment and grows the transit network responsibly.
The aforementioned factors will be presented to the Commission in advance of consideration of the next multi-year budget, ensuring the Commission will have the information necessary to make informed decisions with respect to the level of growth that is required each year on the conventional service to both address existing concerns as well as continue to responsibly grow the service.
Recommendation 2 – Review opportunities for interim service enhancements on the north and west transit corridors.
As part of the annual service planning process, all existing routes as well as areas that are underserved or unserved are assessed to determine where service changes are warranted for a given year. This includes an assessment of possible expansion to the Express Route network, noting the current Five-Year Service Plan (2025-2029) indicates an expansion of the Express Route network as a key priority.
Currently Route 93 provides express service along Wharncliffe/Western Road connecting to Masonville Mall. Route 91 provides express service along Oxford Street between Argyle Mall and Oxford at Capulet.
Annual assessments of these corridors will continue through the annual service plan assessment process to determine if additional frequency or expansion of the route is warranted and prioritize the implementation of same against all other requests for service in a given year.
As an example with regards to the level of investment required to improve frequencies on Route 91 to be comparable to the planned frequency on the East London Link (5 minute peak period and 10 minutes off peak period) operating during the current operating hours would require an addition of eight (8) buses and 25,760 annualized operating hours.
Timing for implementation of enhancements along these corridors will be dependent upon other competing demands for service improvements as well as available budget for same.
Recommendation 3 – Expand service performance and planning indicators and objectives
This recommendation unfortunately did not provide a level of clarity that allows for analysis. As such, the following overview of the current indicators and objectives that are included in London Transit’s Business and Service Planning processes. Key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are assessed across all areas of the organization include, but are not limited to:
- Rides per capita
- Ridership to revenue service hours
- Ridership thresholds by route type
- Ridership Triggers as to when increased service is warranted on a route
- On Time Performance
- Cost per revenue service hour
- Mean kilometers between service repairs
- Mean Kilometers between bus pull ins
- Instances of buses late out of the garage
- Non-preventable and preventable accidents per 100,000 km
- Phone calls answered per 10,000 riders
- Website visits per 1,000 riders
- Service Performance complaints per 100,000 riders
On an annual basis these key indicators are shared via the Canadian Urban Transit Association with all transit agencies across the country, which allows for benchmarking and sharing of best practices among transit providers. Additionally, each year Annual Service reports for both the conventional and specialized services are tabled with the Commission which combine performance against the various KPI’s mentioned above with feedback gathered from customer surveys and contacts collected over the same time period. These reports are utilized as the basis for the identification of key initiatives to be included in Annual Work Programs intended to address shortfalls in performance against the identified measures.
In an effort to better understand the basis for this recommendation, a peer review of Ontario transit systems was undertaken to determine whether there are additional KPI’s that should be considered going forward. This review did not identify any additional KPI’s for consideration; however, consistent with past practice, Administration will continue to benchmark and compare LTC services with those of peer transit systems, and will enhance KPI’s as applicable going forward based on best practices or key targets established as part of Council’s Strategic Plan.
Recommendation 4 – Develop Bus Stop Guidelines
London Transit has had formalized Bus Stop Guidelines since 2003. The update of the LTC Bus Stop Guideline document was included as part of the 2026 Work Program noting a review and update is undertaken on a regular basis in order to ensure that the document is consistent with established best practices in the transit industry.
As set out in Staff Report #10 dated October 19, 2026, the updated Guideline document has been finalized, incorporating industry best practices and feedback from the Accessible Public Transit Service Advisory Committee (APTSAC). The October 2026 updates are focused on improvements to make transit stops more accessible for all passengers including those with low vision and blindness with a focus on consistent bus stop design and layouts. A stop hierarchy has also been proposed which includes a category for Rapid Transit routes and station design.
Stop standards and technical guidelines will continue to be assessed and updated as needed to ensure London Transit’s standards are keeping in line with best practices across other peer agencies.
Recommendation 5 – Develop an implementation plan for a tiered style transit map
On an annual basis, as part of London Transit’s annual service plan implementation, the Ride Guide map is reviewed and updated to reflect changes in routes, stop locations at key terminals, passenger information etc.
Design updates are also considered through this annual review process, for example in 2025 the background was changed from green to white to make the map easier to read without removing any of the critical information that our passengers rely on, including street names, major destinations, separate colours to be able to easily differentiate between routes, etc.
In an effort to better understand the recommendation, a peer review was undertaken of transit agencies across Canada. The review found that tiered style transit maps are not a common practice with agencies operating bus only systems (including Bus Rapid Transit). Bus only transit systems tend to provide more detailed City maps including local streets, major destinations etc. with the transit lines over-laid, noting this is critical information for transit riders attempting to identify transit services closest to their origin or destination as well as to easily identify where transit lines intersect when transfer connections are required. While the specific Rapid Transit corridors may have lines that are weighted heavier than the rest of the network, overall local routes are not generally differentiated by classification and/or frequency of service.
As rapid transit lines are implemented, London Transit will give consideration to the design of the map and how to best identify and highlight the rapid transit corridors. To ensure the Ride Guide continues to provide the key features of the transit map that passengers rely on, public consultation will be held to gather feedback into the design review process.
Recommendation 6 – Implement Alternative Service Delivery Model
The implementation of an Alternative Service Delivery Model (ASD) was also included on the 2026 Work Program noting the concept was identified in the Five-Year Service Plan as a way to expand conventional transit service into unserved areas of the city that are not deemed to initially have the required ridership to support a conventional transit route.
At the Commission meeting held on August 31, 2026, the Commission approved the Assessment Growth Business Case for the implementation of two (2) ASD zones as set out below. The intention with ASD service is to build up ridership in areas that currently do not have transit service to a point that a regular fixed route service can be implemented. Initially ridership is expected to be between 1.6 and 3.1 boardings per revenue service hour in the northwest zone and between 1.0 and 1.9 boardings per revenue service hour in the southwest zone. Once an area is consistently surpassing six boardings per revenue service hour consideration will be given to either expanding an existing fixed route or adding a new route to serve the area.
Zone 1– Fox Hollow area bounded by Hyde Park, Wonderland, Fanshawe Park Road and Sunningdale. Stops would be located within the area with main destinations of the Hyde Park Power Centre at Fanshawe and Hyde Park and Masonville Mall.
Zone 2– three (3) non-adjacent areas within north Lambeth and South Byron which fall outside of the 400-meter travel distance to a fixed route service. As with Zone 1 bus stops would be located within each of the zones and connect to major destinations such as Hyde Park and Oxford and Westmount Mall allowing for connections to the fixed route network.
Each of the ASD zones would be served by a single vehicle operating during all service periods. It is expected that with the anticipated average boardings per revenue service hour of between 1.3 and 2.5 for Zone 1 and 1.0 and 1.9 for Zone 2, that the service would be provided using smaller vehicles.
As set out in Enclosure I, London Transit has been working with Dillon Consulting to identify stops within the zones as well as ‘destination’ stops outside of the zones for the areas identified in the Business Case. Passengers will be able to travel between stops within the ASD Zones as well as out to the destination stops. They will then also be able to travel from the destination stops back into the ASD zones. Travel between two (2) external destination stops will not be permitted as the ASD service is not intended to replace existing fixed route service but rather provide connections from areas that are currently outside of the 400-meter travel distance to a bus stop.
As set out in the memo, the following is recommended for the initial implementation of ASD in London;
- Stop to stop service with designated stops aligned with future fixed routing be established as this will build the expectation among the passenger base that is an extension of fixed-route service with similar characteristics;
- To support high-quality passenger experiences at transfer points, transit hubs should feature at least on stop with an upgraded standard of infrastructure where feasible;
- To foster long-term transit habits and align with the service hours of the rest of network, these zones should align with the same minimum service standards outlined in the London Transit Five Year Service plan for local service;
- Adoption of a hybrid fare policy that encourages digital in-all payment while also using the current fare payment systems and on-board payment systems used for specialized transit is encouraged;
- A three day advance booking window should be implemented to balance between same-day flexibility and advance planning for riders;
- Restrict duplicate booking requests form the same origin and destination; and
- Prioritize digital in-app booking and account-based access to on-demand transit service, to manage late cancellations and no-shows.
Dillon is continuing to work on the implementation of ASD noting that until such time as the Assessment Growth Business Case is approved, no further steps in the implementation process will be taken. Subsequent to approval of the Business Case, consultation in the affected areas will be undertaken on the aspects listed above and determinations with respect to the manner in which the service will be delivered will be made.
Recommendation 7 – Partner with regional providers and coordinate rapid and local transit networks
London Transit currently works closely with Middlesex Community Connect, Huron Shores Area Transit and Perth Connect to help with coordination of transit service within London. Administration, also continues to meet with existing as well as new and emerging inter-city bus services to coordinate usage of London Transit stops, ensure knowledge of local context (i.e. construction disruptions) and coordination of schedules for connections between services.
As service from regional providers continues to expand, London Transit will work to with providers to help ensure connections between services.
Further direction on any additional partnerships with regional providers, above what is already in place is needed to further assess options, impacts and opportunities.
Enclosure
I – ASD Memo from Dillon Consulting Limited
Recommended by:
David Butler, Director of Operations – Conventional
Shawn Wilson, Director of Operations – Specialized
Katie Burns, Director of Planning
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager