An official TTC transfer for 94 WELLESLEY, circa 1956.

Compiled by Jeffrey Kay

From November 1, 1935 to March 30, 1954, service on Wellesley Street, Hoskin Avenue and Harbord Street, from Sherbourne Street to Spadina Avenue, is provided by the ROSEDALE bus. Coincident with the opening of the YONGE SUBWAY, ROSEDALE buses are rerouted to operate along this corridor west from the newly opened Wellesley station at Yonge Street to Spadina.

April 11, 1955

Due to road repairs on Yonge, ROSEDALE buses no longer run on Wellesley. Service begins on a new WELLESLEY bus route running from Wellesley station, via west on Wellesley, north, west and south on Queen’s Park Circle, then west on Hoskin and Harbord, looping via Spadina, Glen Morris and Huron. Buses return via Harbord, Hoskin, south on Queen’s Park Circle and east on Wellesley. This temporary route was later made permanent. Buses operate all day, Monday to Friday and during the daytime hours only on Saturday.

Evening service is removed between late May and early September, as there are no classes at the University of Toronto. This is repeated in the following summers.

September 1956

Service assigned route number 94. By this time, the route was operating from Davenport Garage.

July 1, 1961

Saturday service discontinued.

Summer 1965

This is the last summer when weekday evening service is removed.

February 26, 1966

Coincident with the opening of the BLOOR-DANFORTH SUBWAY, service is extended west over a portion of the discontinued HARBORD streetcar line, via west on Harbord and north on Ossington to the newly opened Ossington station. Service is extended east from Wellesley station via Wellesley, Parliament and Bloor to the newly opened Castle Frank station. A new weekend and holiday service is introduced, and late evening service is operated all year long, without a seasonal cancellation for the summer.

In addition, rush hour service is split into two branches: a western branch operating between Ossington station and Wellesley station, and an eastern branch operating from Castle Frank station to Spadina, looping through the old on-street loop, and overlapping the western branch service between Wellesley station and Spadina. The revised route now operates from Lansdowne Garage. It is believed that the buses operated from Davenport Garage right up to this date.

September 6, 1966

Rush hour through service is introduced on this date, effectively eliminating the 94B branch. Rush hour short turn service now operates between Ossington station and Wellesley station.

November 4, 1968

Rush hour short turn service is discontinued.

September 7, 1971

Additional rush hour service is provided over a new branch covering the eastern portion of the route, between Castle Frank station and Wellesley station. Buses on this branch operate out of Danforth Garage, while base service continues to operate out of Lansdowne Garage.

October 16, 1972

All runs of this route are exclusively operated out of Lansdowne Garage.

March 14, 1976

Coincident with the opening of Wilson Garage, operation of the route is transferred from Lansdowne Garage to Davenport Garage.

An 94 WELLESLEY transfer, circa 1985.

March 14, 1988

To provide service on Dovercourt Road for the first time since the abandonment of the HARBORD streetcar, service is extended west of Ossington station in a new branch operating south on Concord, west on Bloor, north on Dovercourt, east on Hallam, and south on Ossington to Ossington station. Service operates Monday to Friday during rush hours and midday.

November 26, 1989

Service on the Dovercourt extension is replaced by an extension of the 18 CALEDONIA bus. Base service now operates between Ossington station and Castle Frank station.

January 3, 1993

Coincident with the closure of Davenport Garage, operation is transferred to Danforth Garage.

November 22, 1998

Accessible service introduced utilizing lift equipped RTS buses on all trips, seven days a week.

February 13, 2000

Buses are rerouted so as not to use Northumberland Street after 11 pm when entering Ossington Station. Late evening buses now loop via west on Bloor Street north on Concord, and east through the station. No change to destination signs.

September 3, 2000

Buses that only operate during peak periods will no longer be accessible RTS vehicles. The accessible buses will continue to provide most peak period service and all off-peak service. A few years later, as delivery of Accessible buses continued, all runs became accessible once again.

March 31, 2002

Danforth Garage is closed and operation of this route is transferred, to the new Eglinton Garage on Comstock Road.

August 31, 2003

Accessible service on this route is improved by operating new Low-Floor Orion VII buses at all times of the week on all trips.

November 23, 2008

The operation of this route is transferred from Eglinton Garage to the new Mount Dennis Garage. Buses on this route are now equipped with bike racks.

May 8, 2011

As part of a series of system-wide service cuts resulting from a reduction in municipal transit subsidies, Sunday late evening service is removed on the portion of the route between Ossington Station and Wellesley station. During the Sunday late evening service continues to be provided on the eastern portion of the route between Wellesley station and Castle Frank station.

June 22, 2014

As part of a system-wide redesignation of route branch letters, westbound buses from Castle Frank station to Ossington station are redesignated 94A. 94C buses are redesignated 94B. All eastbound buses to Castle Frank station retain the 94 WELLESLEY rollsign exposure.

August 31, 2014

Due to road construction on Wellesley street, the 94 WELLESLEY bus route is split at Wellesley station during rush hours and Saturday afternoons. Patrons travelling from either side of Yonge Street must transfer to another branch to continue their journey.

December 20, 2014

Construction on Wellesley ends, and regular 94 WELLESLEY service is restored.

February 15, 2015

The operation of this route is reassigned from Mount Dennis Garage to Birchmount Garage on Danforth Road.

September 6, 2015

Late evening Sunday and holiday service is restored on the portion of the route between Wellesley station and Ossington station. Off-peak service is also increased so that buses operate at intervals of 10 minutes or better between Castle Frank station and Wellesley station whenever the subway is open. Buses operate between Ossington and Wellesley station at intervals of 10-15 minutes most times of the week. This typically means that the short turn service operates through daytime hours, 7 days a week.

April 1, 2018

To better balance garage capacity following the extension of the subway into Vaughan, all service on this route is transferred from Birchmount Garage to Mount Dennis Garage.

Also on this date, station renovations auto Wellesley station temporarily close the bus loop at Wellesley station. All buses now serve Wellesley station from the bus stops at Yonge Street. Service on the 94B (Castle Frank Stn to Wellesley Stn) branch is altered to continue west of Yonge and to loop via north on Queen’s Park Crescent East, south on Queens Park Crescent West and east on Wellesley. All recovery time is scheduled at Castle Frank station. These temporary changes are expected to continue until the end of 2018.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

With the completion of renovations at Wellesley station, service to the station’s bus terminal is restored. The 94C short turn service between Castle Frank station and Queen’s Park is restored to operate between Castle Frank and Wellesley stations only.

March 28, 2021

Operations of this route is reassigned from Mount Dennis Garage to Birchmount Garage on Danforth Road. On this day, the opening of McNicoll Garage altered many route assignments in the system.

Sunday, September 5, 2021

A city construction project shuts down the eastbound lanes of Wellesley Street between Sherbourne Street and Ontario Street for up to six weeks. As a result, eastbound service is diverted via north on Sherbourne and east on Bloor to Castle Frank station.

94 Wellesley Image Archive

	An official map of the TTC's 94 WELLESLEY bus operations, effective December 1, 2013.
	The TTC's Orders & Notice for January 1, 1958, shows a map of 94 WELLESLEY operations.
	TTC Orders and Notice, effective September 7, 1971, describes the newly launched rush-hour short turn service between Wellesley station and Castle Frank station on the 94 WELLESLEY route. Image donated by Pete Coulman.
	A side rollsign circa the mid 1980s shows the tricolour exposures of the various branches of 94 WELLESLEY, before the extension to Dovercourt.
	The front page of the TTC's official timetable for 94 WELLESLEY, effective November 26, 1989, featuring a bulletin explaining the rerouting of service on Dovercourt Road. Image donated by Pete Coulman.
	The inside page of the TTC's official timetable for 94 WELLESLEY, effective November 26, 1989. Image donated by Pete Coulman.
	TTC New Flyer D-40-88 bus #6429 heads eastbound on Wellesley, approaching Yonge, in service on 94 WELLESLEY in this 1989 shot. Photo by T. Molecy, from the Pete Coulman collection.
	TTC GM New Look bus #8109 picks up passengers at Ossington station while its comrade, GM New Look #8525 lays over. Both are in service on 94 WELLESLEY in this mid 1980s shot. Photo by John Calnan.
	TTC Orion VII bus leaves Wellesley station on a run to Castle Frank August 3, 2011. This image was taken by the Wikipedia user Secondarywaltz and is used in accordance with his Creative Commons license.
	TTC Orion VII bus #1040 lays over at Ossington subway station's bus terminal, in service on 94 WELLESLEY. This photo, taken on January 30, 2014, is by James Bow.
	TTC Canadian Car & Foundry C-36 bus #1165 picks up passengers at Wellesley station, in service on the WELLESLEY route, circa 1955. The photographer is unknown and the image is courtesy the Toronto Public Library.
	Orion bus VII Next Generation is seen leaving Castle Frank station in service on 94 WELLESLEY route. Photo by Roman Fomin on April 19, 2012.
	In this photo dated from 2001, Fred Tang caught this shot of TTC NovaBUS RTS-06 WFD bus #7240 seen in service on route 94 WELLESLEY.
	TTC Orion bus VII #7707 runs west along Wellesley Street approaching Queens Park on a sunny day of May 26, 2015. Photo by Roman Fomin.
	TTC Orion VII bus #7711 is seen heading westbound on Harbord Street and Ossington Avenue in service on route 94A WELLESLEY to Ossington station. This photo was taken by Jelo Gutierrez Cantos on February 16, 2018.
	TTC Orion VII bus #7741 pulls into Wellesley station on its way to Ossington in 94 WELLESLEY service on the morning of June 22, 2017. Photo by James Bow.
	TTC Orion VII bus #7742 prepares to pull into Wellesley station as part of 94 WELLESLEY's short turn service between this station and Castle Frank, on the morning of June 22, 2017. Photo by James Bow.