Hello Everyone!
Wow...I am absolutely floored and in shock at the incredibly strong response and support for this petition! I cannot possibly thank you all enough for your decision to sign on and support this effort to reinstate our two bus stops for the benefit and betterment of our entire community! Thank you again so much! We're so close to 400!
Some of you have reached out to me directly via email, and I am working my way through each response. I appreciate your time and I thank you very much for your direct messages and patience.
The initial email response I received from the TTC was from Arjun Sahota, Manager of Community & Stakeholder Relations (A), Corporate Affairs, CEO’s Office.
I will post the text of that original email here:
"Hi Chris,
Thank you for reaching out and for sharing your concerns regarding the recent changes to the 111 East Mall bus stops near 366 The East Mall. Councillor Holyday shared your note with me for review and feedback. I serve within the office of the CEO at the TTC, as Manager of Community and Stakeholder Relations. I understand how frustrating it can be to lose stops that have long served your community, and I appreciate the time you’ve taken to advocate for your neighbours.
The TTC’s goal is to improve accessibility and align with our Service Standards, which guide how we deliver safe, reliable, and efficient transit. As part of a broader review, TTC staff assessed the stops near 366 The East Mall and determined that they did not meet minimum accessibility criteria. Specifically:
• The southbound stop near 366 could not be upgraded due to tight property lines (only 2 metres from the curb) and the presence of a major utility vault.
• The northbound stop also presented challenges due to its location in a bay and property constraints of the City.
Under provincial legislation, TTC is required to ensure stops meet accessibility standards wherever possible. In this case, the infrastructure limitations made upgrades unfeasible without significant property acquisition.
To maintain service and improve stop spacing, we’ve relocated the stops to Cantle Path, near the Loblaws driveway. These stops are approximately 130m from the former locations near 366 East Mall. This change increases the spacing between stops from approximately 200 metres to 330 metres, which is more consistent with TTC’s standard of 400–600 metres between local stops.
I understand your suggestion to retain the original stops while adding the new ones, and I’ve shared that feedback with our Transit Planning team. While the decision was made to consolidate stops for safety and accessibility reasons, we remain open to community input and will continue to monitor ridership and usage patterns.
For residents who may be unable to access conventional TTC service due to mobility challenges, Wheel-Trans may be a suitable alternative.
Happy to accept feedback and pass suggestions along to TTC’s planning team.
Thank you,
A"
As initially mentioned under point #1 on the petition, I found this reasoning from Arjun questionable. After talking with a few of our neighbours, it was quickly apparent that this feeling was mutual.
On Thursday Nov 21st, I went to the management office and spoke with Jimmy the property manager. He informed me that when the TTC made their initial decision to deactivate our stops, they did this entirely on their own, with no communication with the management. Jimmy did reach out to the TTC to inquire about the stops being moved, to which he cited very similar reasons I and some other neighbours had also received.
I also had a quick email conversation with Oggie, one of our top board members, after receiving his contact info from the management office. He is supportive of the petition, and is just as annoyed with the TTC's decision as I am. He offered to bring up the matter personally this coming Wednesday, Nov 26 at our AGM meeting at 7:00PM. (Thank you, Oggie!)
On Friday, Nov 21st, as many of you have likely noticed by now, one of our wonderful neighbours and myself distributed petition flyers to every door within 362, 364, 366 and 2 Valhalla. So by now, most of our residents should be aware of the petition. When you're in conversation with friends and neighbours in the building, please feel free to mention the petition to them and ask if they've signed, and please encourage them to do so if they have not.
Also, it is possible to add offline signatures, so if you have a family member, friend or neighbour who does not use the internet/does not have an email address, but wants to add their support, please contact me and arrangements can be made to officially add their name. :)
Lastly for this first update, various neighbours suggested, with some having done so already, we reach out to members of the local media to try and bring more attention to our situation, which is an excellent idea!
Back in June of this year, CP24's Natalie Johnson did a story of another issue involving the TTC and route #111, with Councillor Holyday making an appearence in the story as well; (https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2025/06/24/we-were-never-consulted-ttc-backs-down-on-bus-reroute-in-face-of-outcry-from-etobicoke-neighbourhood/ Her email address is natalie.johnson@bellmedia.ca - I have also sent her a message earlier today, and I would encourage everyone to do the same!
I have also responded to the initial email Arjun sent me. My response is quite long, so I will post it at the bottom of this first update. In my reply, I CC'd Councillor Holyday and his staff, every member of the TTC board including the Chair, Vice-Chair and its 3 Citizen members, the offices of Mayor Chow and Deputy Mayor Malik, and the general email inbox of Bell Media's Toronto Desk. I will also post all of these email addresses here.
CP24/CTV journalist Natalie Johnson: natalie.johnson@bellmedia.ca
Generic inbox for CTV: torontodesk@bellmedia.ca,
Manager, Community & Stakeholder Relations Arjun Sahota <Arjun.Sahota@ttc.ca>
Councillor Holyday <councillor_holyday@toronto.ca>
TTC Chair Jamaal Myers <Councillor_Myers@toronto.ca>
TTC Vice-Chair Joe Mihevc <appoint@toronto.ca>
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow (NOT a TTC Board Member) <mayor_chow@toronto.ca>
Toronto Deputy Mayor and TTC Board Member Ausma Malik <councillor_malik@toronto.ca>
TTC Board Member Josh Matlow <councillor_matlow@toronto.ca>
TTC Board Member Dianne Saxe <Councillor_Saxe@toronto.ca>
TTC Board Member Alejandra Bravo <Councillor_Bravo@toronto.ca,
TTC Board Member Paul Ainslie <councillor_ainslie@toronto.ca,
For the 3 citizen TTC board members (I could not find direct email addresses) Fenton Jagdeo, Liane Kim and Julie Osbourne <commissionservices@ttc.ca>
That is everything important up to this point! In the meantime, please continue to share the petition on social media, by text/app, by word-of-mouth, and again if you have anyone OFFLINE who would like to sign, please kindly get in contact with me. Please also contact Natalie Johnson, Stephen Holyday, Arjun Sahota, TTC Chair Jamaal Myers, and anyone else you deem is best and most likely and willing to help from this list. Don't forget to include the petition link in any email messages!
Thank you again very, very much everyone! This will take a concentrated community effort but the more of us that there are, the more likely we are to be heard and achieve the resolution we are seeking!
Sincerely,
Chris
P.S. If I forgot any details or if you need addtional clarification on anything mentioned, please also let me know.
-------------------- My Initial Response to Arjun Sahota ------------------
Dear Arjun,
(and to all CC'd parties, Dear Mayor Chow, Deputy Mayor Malik, TTC Chair Myers, TTC Vice-Chair Mihevc, City Councillors (and their staff) Ainslie, Bravo, Holyday, Matlow, Saxe, the three Citizen TTC Board members Mr. Jagdeo, Mrs. Kim, and Mrs. Osborne and Bell Media Toronto Desk, good day to you all, my name is Chris Coates. I'm a lifelong resident of both Etobicoke and of 366 The East Mall for 39 years).
I had been recovering from recent abdominal surgery so my response was delayed. Thank you for your original response, although I couldn't help but notice the majority of it was cut-and-pasted from the response you provided to my neighbour, Kadian (redacted), which they were kind enough to share with me.
Regarding the reasons you provided to me, as well as from talking to some of my other neighbours, I have recently been informed of additional reasons as to why these stops were moved. These additional reasons included "lack of a nearby stop sign", "poor lighting" and accessibility access being defined as "both a mobility device user as well as a parent with a stroller must be able to spin 360 degrees". All these reasons, when taken together with the original reasons of "tight property lines", "lack of accessibility", "stop spacing" , "overall safety" and the "underground utility vault" on the southbound side, we find that the majority of these points range from being very flimsy to outright untrue.
We have started a petition with the demand to have these stops reactivated, and within just a few days we have reached close to 400 signatures. Our message is loud and clear: Our community is angry about this poor decision: https://www.change.org/p/petition-the-ttc-to-reactivate-the-two-route-111-bus-stops-at-366-the-east-mall
While it is covered in the petition body text, I will go over the main points again here:
1. On the issue of stop spacing: Countless stops on the TTC are nowhere near 400-600m apart. Stop spacing is typically very inconsistent, but I don't mean this in a negative context; it is often in response to the needs of the local area, such as placing stops near a school, a large office building, a shopping centre, a condominium, etc.. Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Adult School is another excellent example of this. Our northbound stop at 366 is essentially in the same predicament as the adult high school northbound stop, and yet we lose our stop. This does not make sense.
Most people who visit the Loblaws at 380 The East Mall do so either by car or they walk over from nearby residences. At typical peak periods, it is not uncommon to see 12 or more people waiting outside of 366 The East Mall to catch #111. I've lived here 39 years as stated above, so I am well aware of the stop usage patterns. Usage patterns for the new southbound stop at Cantle Path have been below what 366 typically handled. From several anecdotal conversations I've had, one of my neighbours directly overlooks the new Cantle Path stops, and from what I've witnessed in person, there has been a surge of riders using the old 2 Valhalla Inn Rd. stop at the south end of our condominium instead.
For us at 366, 362 and 364, the TTC has moved our stop up quite literally halfway north to the next stop. By doing this, the TTC has placed Cantle Path and Burhamthorep very close together, yet left a large gap between 380 The East Mall and 2 Valhalla.
Oppositely, at the intersection of The West Mall and Bloor St. W, for the northbound side of route #112, there are two stops on the south and north corners; these stops are barely 100m apart! The fact that Loblaws gains a new stop at the expense of us living at 366, 362 and 364 losing ours, not only does this show that the TTC will make many exceptions to their internal "300-400m spacing" policy, but their own internal policy moving a stop closer to a previously existing one at Burnhamthorpe and The East Mall does not make sense. Again, local features of the area must be taken into account when placing stops. Relying on some uniform, one-size-fits-all policy is only doing a disservice to the customers who are actually trying to access your transit service.
As a personal aside Arjun, as a lifelong TTC user, If more executives actually used the service like us regular customers do, these design and implementation flaws would become very apparent very quickly.
2. Regarding accessibility, sidewalk size and tight property lines: Let's start with the northbound side first. While it is true that the sidewalk is of "normal" width, the stop is located next to East Mall Park. East Mall Park is public land, not private. There are at least two plausible, simple solutions here:
- Why not just widen the sidewalk on the northbound side around the bus stop? In early 2024, the city poured a new, very small concrete pad at this stop, which I assumed was going to be used for a new shelter of some kind. Even if this new concrete pad was intended as a standing space, this clearly indicates that the City/the TTC can modify the area around this stop if it chooses.
Alternatively, why not remove the bus bay and widen the sidewalk? The new Cantle Path stops are both lacking bus bays, so a bus bay is clearly not a requirement for a TTC bus stop. Combined with the nearby set of traffic lights and accessible crosswalk between 362 The East Mall and East Mall Park, this would meet every minimum accessibility requirement.
- For the southbound side: For as long as I have been boarding the bus at 366, even since the TTC first introduced their low-floor buses, I have been an eyewitness to many parents with strollers (it is a condo with families after all), and many individuals in wheelchairs and with mobility devices board at the southbound stop without issue. The width of the sidewalk/hard walking surfaces at this stop is actually wider than the stop at the south end beside 2 Valhalla Inn Rd, for comparison. At this stop, there is nothing but dirt and a sunken depression in the ground. Why is this depression not a safety concern for the TTC in regards to accessibility? Our condominium installed extra brickwork around the former 366 stop, which doubles as a walking/waiting area, which helps to keep the city sidewalk clearer for other passing pedestrians. These features combined do currently, without any modification, provide enough space for a wheelchair or stroller to board and disembark without issue, which we would gladly prove to the TTC with an in-person demonstration.
As with the northbound stop, if this is still deemed a problem, why not remove the southbound bus bay and widen the city sidewalk? The bus bays are not needed.
3. Regarding the underground vault and general safety: As for the underground utility vault, off the top of my head, I do not know what this object is used for. This object has been there for years, it has never posed a problem, and it is not in the way of people when the bus stops to pick up and drop off passengers. While I am not speaking for the condominium board of directors, nor any decision-making process on their part, It may certainly be plausible that some kind of fencing or physical barrier could be installed around it in order to block any chance of personal physical contact with this object. This is where the TTC was in error and should have consulted with our community first about their concerns.
In regards to public safety, with this point also underscoring seasonality, as this incident happened in mid-October weeks before the winter season; forcing us to walk halfway up to Burnhamthorpe rather than to waiting outside of 366, does not improve customer safety. Toronto's snow removal during winter 2024 was very poor. It is not uncommon for the sidewalk which runs along The East Mall outside of Loblaws to not be adequately cleared of snow, and it was especially bad last year. It is far safer to walk the shorter distance to 366 The East Mall and wait there, rather than over to Cantle Path. We need to partially rely on Loblaws to do some snow removal of their own, and they do not always do this right away. We can walk entirely underground between our 4 buildings and access the former southbound stop at 366, whereas we can't reach the Cantle Path stops via the underground.
We are also now forced to cross two additional driveways and a 3-way intersection to reach either the south or northbound stops at Cantle Path. This intersection is VERY heavily trafficed with cars entering and leaving Loblaws, not to mention various delivery and tractor trailers making deliveries to Loblaws. Given the existing traffic light outside of 362 The East Mall, it's close proximity to the former 366 northbound stop, and the placement of the former 366 southbound bus stops directly beside our condominium, the original placement of these two former stops were safer and more easily accessible than the placement of these two new stops at Cantle Path.
Lastly, it must be said that putting these two new stops into service (especially the southbound Cantle Path stop) right before the winter, without a new shelter or seating in place first, which we at 366 have always had in front of our building for decades, is truly mind-boggling. This is part of the reason many of us are now using 2 Valhalla Inn Rd instead of Cantle Path, as our former stop still has its unused shelter, as if to mock customers on days with bad weather. Why is there no shelter or seating at Cantle Path? It is foolish decisions like this that keep many potential customers away from using transit, and making the experience for many of my neighbours and myself slightly worse than it was previously. There are also many seniors that, while they don't require Wheel Trans to get around, they greatly benefit by having seating while they wait for a regular bus. I have many such older neighbours that fit into this category, and this downgrade negatively impacts them.
To quote David from the Petition page:
"I saw the notice about the deactivation on TTC bus pole and sent an email to the TTC saying that we had received not prior consultation about this. I received no reply from the TTC. As a senior, I do not look forward to having to walk the extra distance on icy sidewalks to the new bus stop. There are other seniors here who have mobility issues and use the 366 stop. If room for accessibility is an issue, fill in the bus bay to create more room. The 366 stop serves a large community. Bring it back!"
To quote Graeme from the Petition page:
"While I understand the desire to have a bus stop directly in front of Loblaws, taking the bus stop with a shelter built out of service at the beginning of winter, in favour of a bus stop with no shelter, is baffling! To say nothing of the hundreds of people living in the Queenscourt condos who were serviced by that bus stop. Nor the fact that the Loblaws plaza already HAS a bus stop at the southwest corner of East Mall and Burnhamthorpe. Absolutely harebrained!"
To quote Maryama from the Petition page:
"I've lived at 366 my whole life and this stop has been a staple for my family and I. I've used both those bus stops to go to school daily. It's ridiculous to have it suddenly removed without warning! The movement of the stops to cantle path is honestly ridiculous and an inconvenience. Why would the stop need to be placed in front of Loblaws? Why prioritize the establishment instead of the many residents living at 366/364/362?"
The majority of us here are unit owners. We are taxpayers. It is very clear from what has been laid out thus far that hundreds of our residents in the community and myself want this decision reversed, and for these two #111 366 TTC bus stops to be restored to full service. I would ask that this decision be re-reviewed, and contact be established with the management of YCC#340, its board of directors, as well as myself in order to facilitate this restoration process and any accommodations deemed essential. We will be bringing up the matter internally at our Annual General Meeting of owners next week.
We look forward to any and all responses from those wishing to address our grievance.
Sincerely,
Chris Coates