A 116 MORNINGSIDE transfer, circa 1995.

Compiled by Pete Coulman

With additional notes from Jeffrey Kay and Jelo Gutierrez Cantos

See Also

• 34 EGLINTON EAST
• 198 UOFT SCARBOROUGH ROCKET (2014-2018)
• 305 EGLINTON EAST NIGHT (1987-2015)
• 334 EGLINTON EAST NIGHT
• 905 EGLINTON EAST EXPRESS

The Guildwood Village subdivision was erected by the former owners of the Guild Inn, Rosa and Spencer Clark, in 1957. To the north, West Hill was largely rural, although the stretch of Kingston Road was running through it had some commercial development, some even dating back to the late 19th century. Larger plots of land that were developed in the late 1950s through the 1970s tended to be laid out with curved roads, short connecting roads and dead end streets that made for quieter neighbourhoods but resulted in irregular lot sizes as well as the extension of Highway 401 in the 1960s. Transit service on Guildwood village began on September 8, 1964 when the 34 EGLINTON EAST was extended to operate via Guildwood Parkway, only to be extended to the West Hill neighbourhood via Morningside Avenue on September 7, 1965.

In the late 1960s to the 1970s, construction on the Seven Oaks and Malvern neighborhoods began. This has led the Commission to extend the 34B EGLINTON EAST service to Sheppard on October 20, 1974 followed by the extension to Finch on November 26, 1984. In the fall of 1989, the TTC has decided to split the 34B EGLINTON EAST service into the new 116 MORNINGSIDE, which also bolstering service with 86 SCARBOROUGH on Eglinton Avenue East east of Kennedy station. By the turn of the 21st century, Morningside Heights was one of the last large tracts of undeveloped land, built throughout the 2000s, with the 116 MORNINGSIDE extended to that neighborhood on January 4, 2009.

Since its inception, the 116 MORNINGSIDE operates at 17.88km between Kennedy Station on Line 2 Bloor-Danforth, the area of Morningside Avenue and Old Finch Avenue, the area of Conlins Road and Ellesmere Road, and the area of Eglinton Avenue East and Kingston Road, generally in an east-west direction, serving 20,000 passengers a day.

September 3, 1989

Service begins on a new route replacing the east end of the 34 EGLINTON EAST route. Buses on the main 116 branch will run 18 hours a day, 7 days a week from Kennedy Station via east on Eglinton. northeast on Kingston Rd, east Guildwood Parkway and north Morningside to loop through an off-street loop at the corner of Morningside and Finch.

Buses on the rush hour 116B/116E branch will run between Kennedy Station and Scarborough College via the normal route to Morningside and Ellesmere Road and then operate east on Ellesmere and southeast on Military Trail to loop in the Scarborough College bus loop, returning via Military Trail to Morningside before heading south on Morningside. Buses on the 116B local branch run westbound to Kennedy in the morning rush hour and eastbound in the afternoon rush hour while buses on the 116E express branch run eastbound to Scarborough College in the morning rush hour and westbound in the afternoon rush hour. The 116B/116E service does not operate from mid-June to Labour Day when most students are on leave for the summer.

The route operates from Birchmount Garage.

May 14, 1990

Service begins on a new rush hour branch providing service to the Conlins Road area. Buses on the 116A branch operate over the normal route from Kennedy station to Morningside and Ellesmere and then operate via east on Ellesmere and north on Conlins Road to loop via west and south on Auto Mall and east on Milner. Buses return via Conlins Road, Ellesmere Road and Military Trail before heading south on Morningside. Service operates at 20 minute intervals.

June 1991

As part of a “temporary diversion” that is later made permanent, buses on the 116A branch are rerouted off of Conlins Road north of Canmore Boulevard and instead loop via north on Conlins, east on Canmore and south on Morrish to Ellesmere.

June 24 to August 30. 1991

The 116E/116B EXPRESS service is discontinued for the summer, as has been done in previous years. This is the last summer of suspended express service. Following the merger of the 116E branch with the 116A branch to Conlins Road on September 3, 1991, the express service is operated all year long.

September 3, 1991

The 116A “Conlins” and the 116B/E “Scarborough College” branches are combined. In the mornings, buses on the 116E express branch operate eastbound from Kennedy station over the normal route to Ellesmere and Morningside and then head east on Ellesmere, southwest on Military Trail and loop through Scarborough College’s bus loop, before heading northwest along Military Trail and east along Ellesmere again, looping via Conlins Road, Canmore Boulevard and Morrish to Ellesmere, whereupon they become 116A westbound buses and operate to Kennedy station via west on Ellesmere, northwest on Military Trail and south on Morningside. In the afternoon rush hour, this service is reversed. 116A buses operate from Kennedy station over the normal route to Morningside and Ellesmere and then operate via east on Ellesmere, looping via Conlins, Canmore and Morrish, before becoming 116E buses, operating via west on Ellesmere, southeast on Military Trail, looping through the Scarborough College bus loop, then proceeding northwest on Military Trail and south on Morningside, to operate express to Kennedy station.

Service on the 116B branch is discontinued.

Express buses serve stops at Morningside and Ellesmere and at Eglinton and Markham Road.

Circa 1993

Finch Avenue east from Morningside is renamed Old Finch around this time. We are not certain when destination signs were modified in response.

February 13, 2000

Following the name change for “Scarborough College”, the route signs for are adjusted.

March 31, 2002

Route transferred from Birchmount Garage to the newly-opened New Eglinton Garage on Comstock Rd.

June 19, 2005

Service is rendered accessible using the Orion VII low-floor buses.

April 29, 2008

As work begins to rebuild the Morningside underpass beneath the CPR tracks, the off-street loop at the northwest corner of Morningside and Old Finch is taken out of service. Buses on the main branch are forced to divert into a temporary loop, operating north on Morningside to Sewells and then looping via east on Sewells, north on Littles Road and west on Old Finch to Morningside, returning via south on Morningside to route.

November 23, 2008

As part of the TTC’s Ridership Growth Strategy, service on the 116A/116E branch to Conlins Road is extended to run whenever the subway is open, seven days a week. Buses run express from Kennedy Station to Scarborough College and local back from Conlins Road in the morning, and reverse this arrangement in the afternoon.

January 4, 2009

Following the opening of the rebuilt Morningside Avenue underpass beneath the CPR tracks, which had previously been too low and too narrow to allow TTC buses to safely operate, service on the main branch of 116 MORNINGSIDE is extended north of Finch into the Morningside Heights neighbourhood. Before noon each day, buses follow their old route and then proceed north along Morningside to Staines Road, looping via east on Staines, north on Mantis, west on Nightstar and then south on Morningside. Buses reverse this looping in the afternoon. “OLD FINCH” destination signs are likely changed back to “FINCH” at this point.

May 8, 2011

Due to system-wide service cuts resulting from a reduction in municipal transit subsidies, service on the 116A/116E branches is discontinued after 10 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.

October 11, 2011

Service begins on a morning rush hour short-turn branch providing additional westbound service on Eglinton Avenue from Kingston Road to Kennedy station. Buses on the 116B branch deadhead east from Kennedy station to Markham Road and loop via Markham, Kingston Road and Eglinton to pick up passengers on the way back to Kennedy station. As eastbound buses display “SORRY, NOT IN SERVICE” and westbound buses display “116 MORNINGSIDE - TO KENNEDY STN”, there is effectively no change in destination signs.

September 4, 2012

A new short-term parking lot and bus loop opened on the south campus of U-of-T Scarborough in the area formerly known as the “Inner Lots”. This loop replaces the looping arrangements in the old Arrival Court. The new loop is located near the Athletics Centre further east on Military Trail and features bus shelters (to be installed soon) and enhanced safety features. In addition with the old TTC connections, additional connections are provided at the loop with the DRT Pulse service, other Durham Region Transit routes and GO Transit.

January 6, 2014

Additional service is provided on the 116B rush hour branch between Kennedy station and Kingston Road, replacing the rush hour branch of 34 EGLINTON EAST and formally acknowledging the branch number to the public. Buses operate during the morning and afternoon rush hours from Kennedy station via east on Kennedy to loop via southwest on Kingston Road and north on Markham Road. All departure times from Kennedy throughout the week are blended with 86 SCARBOROUGH.

March 30, 2014

A new stop is added to 116E MORNINGSIDE’s express service, northbound at Ellesmere and Military Trail

June 22, 2014

All eastbound buses on the 116 branch are redesignated as 116C due to TTC’s system-wide mandate in regards of route branches.

Note: Buses on the eastbound 116B branch now shows the following sign:

September 2, 2014

Express service on the 116E MORNINGSIDE is now heavily replaced with the new 198 UofT SCARBOROUGH ROCKET between Kennedy station and University of Toronto Scarborough operating Monday to Friday during rush hours, midday, and early evenings.

May 11, 2020

As the COVID-19 outbreak affected transit service heavily, with the loss of ridership, service on the 116B short turn branch is temporarily discontinued.

September 10, 2020

The first BYD K9M battery electric low-floor bus enters revenue service, completing the rollout of all three series of battery-electric buses ordered for the head-to-head comparison.

October 11, 2020

New priority bus lanes open on Eglinton Avenue East from Brimley Road to Kingston Road, on Kingston Road from Eglinton to Morningside Drive and on Morningside Drive from Kingston Road to Ellesmere. The 116 MORNINGSIDE route takes advantage of this infrastructure through most of its route, except along Guildwood Parkway and Morningside Drive south of Kingston Road and north of Ellesmere.

March 28, 2021

Service operations transferred from Eglinton (Comstock) Garage to Malvern Garage. On this day, McNicoll Garage begins revenue service, resulting in the system-wide changes of routing assignments.

May 9, 2021

As part of the Scarborough East Study, the 116A “Collins via Ellesmere” branch is replaced by the 905A EGLINTON EAST EXPRESS and the 116B “Kingston Road and Eglinton” peak period short turn branch is discontinued. All buses run through Finch with the 116C branch redesignated as 116.

116 Morningside Image Archive

	On the afternoon of February 25, 2014, at the intersection of Lawrence and Morningside, TTC Orion VII buses 7517 and 7547 meet, in service on 86 SCARBOROUGH ("Beechwood" branch) and 116 MORNINGSIDE respectively. Photo by James Bow.
	An official map of 116 MORNINGSIDE operations, effective January 5, 2014, showing the public acknowledgement of the 116B branch.
	An official map of the TTC's 116 MORNINGSIDE operations, effective December 1, 2013.
	The cover of the TTC's timetable for 116 MORNINGSIDE operations, effective May 14, 1990, announcing the new Conlins Road service. Item donated by Pete Coulman.
	An official TTC timetable of 116A MORNINGSIDE "Conlins Road" operations, effective May 14, 1990, as well as a map of the full route.
	An official timetable of 116 MORNINGSIDE operations, effective May 14, 1990. Item donated by Pete Coulman.
	TTC GM New Look bus #2012 on a layover at Kennedy Station preparing its next run on the 116 MORNINGSIDE in winter 1998. This pkhoto was taken by Jeff Bentley.
	TTC NovaBus hybrid #3411 pauses on Danforth Avenue east of Coxwell on a private charter on Saturday, December 1, 2018. The bus is bearing a 116E MORNINGSIDE EXPRESS rollsign. The photo was taken by Jordan Hollingsworth.
	Jelo Gutierrez Cantos photographed and supplied this shot of TTC BYD K9M prototype battery-electric bus #3750 seen at Morningside Avenue and Ellesmere Road on its first day of revenue service running on the 116C MORNINGSIDE route on September 10, 2020.
	TTC Orion V bus #6665, lays over at Kennedy subway station in service on route 116 MORNINGSIDE on January 12, 1993. Photo taken by Paul A. Bateson.
	In this photograph Orion VII bus 7675 in service on 116 MORNINGSIDE moves towards Kennedy Station followed by express bus (#7539) on the same route. Photo by Roman Fomin on May 10, 2012.
	At the University of Toronto-Scarborough bus terminal, TTC Orion VII bus #7693 pulls in, while in service on the 116E MORNINGSIDE express. Hybrid Orion VII bus #1118 sits out of service. James Bow snapped this photo on the morning of June 14, 2011.
	TTC Nova LFS bus #8721 lays over at Kennedy station, in service on the 116 MORNINGSIDE on August 6, 2017. Photo by Marcus Danchuk.