Etobicoke's Late-Night Bus Map Was Redrawn This Fall. Here's What Changed on Your Street.
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
Since September 6, three overnight TTC buses run the length of Etobicoke on Islington, Kipling and Royal York, each scheduled every 30 minutes. Along Lake Shore Boulevard West, the streetcar service that used to run from Long Branch to downtown is currently broken into shorter bus and streetcar segments. On Sunday, November 1, the 508 Lake Shore streetcar is suspended again, and the TTC has given no restoration date.
After midnight, getting home to most of Etobicoke now means a north-south bus every 30 minutes on one of three parallel corridors. Getting home along the lake west of Humber Loop means riding a replacement bus instead of a streetcar.
The two new routes are Blue Night buses, the TTC's overnight network. Both run overnight seven days a week and on Sunday early mornings, arriving every 30 minutes. Here's how the three north-south night routes line up now:
At the top of the map, the overnight 353 Steeles now continues west from Pioneer Village Station along Steeles Avenue West to Martin Grove Road, seven days a week. The 345 and 373 both end on Steeles, so the north end of the Etobicoke night routes now meets an east-west overnight route that reaches farther west than before.
CityNews and NOW Toronto both reported the two routes as new Etobicoke overnight services in their back-to-school coverage of the September changes.
Three parallel night routes, a few kilometres apart, is more than the original plan called for. The TTC's 2025 Annual Service Plan recommended adding the 345 and 373 and discontinuing the 337 Islington "to better manage service coverage between the adjacent corridors." During the 2024 public consultation, the TTC put forward a second option. It would have added only the 345 and moved the 337 off Islington Avenue and onto Royal York Road south of Dixon Road.
Neither option is what Etobicoke has today. The fall 2026 service summary still lists the 337 on its full Lake Shore to Steeles route, running alongside both new buses. The routes also arrived later than planned. The appendixes to the TTC's 2026 Annual Network Plan list the 345 Kipling, 353 Steeles and 373 Royal York among 2025 plan changes delayed for funding reasons.
The plan's reasoning explains why the TTC wants more coverage here. It says overnight ridership has kept growing since the pandemic, driven by new industrial and commercial employment areas and by essential workers who rely on transit. It names shift workers as a priority group and safety as a factor customers often rank first, especially women. The TTC's service standards set the overnight target at 95% of population and jobs within a 1,250-metre walk, roughly 15 minutes. The daytime standard is 90% within 400 metres, about five minutes. A night bus is designed to be a 15-minute walk from home, so another north-south route between Islington and the Humber makes a real difference to how far many households walk at 2 a.m.
The TTC's Round One Survey Summary for that consultation also recorded rider comments that Royal York and Weston had no proper north-south night route. Some respondents said people living south of Bloor had to walk east or west just to reach overnight service.
The route that launched is also longer than the one first proposed. The 2025 plan described the 345 as a Kipling Avenue route between Humber Polytechnic and Steeles Avenue West. The version running since September starts at Long Branch Loop and reaches Kipling by way of Lake Shore and Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive. That extension gives Long Branch an overnight bus that heads north instead of east.
At Kipling Bus Terminal, the TTC says the 345 connects with the 300 Bloor-Danforth night bus and with existing MiWay overnight service to Mississauga.
The same corridor got daytime improvements on the same date. The 944 Kipling South Express runs between Kipling Station and the Humber Polytechnic Lakeshore Campus, stopping at select stops on Kipling Avenue and Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive. The TTC restored it in all weekday periods on September 6, and the fall service summary schedules a bus every seven and a half minutes in the morning peak, midday and afternoon peak. North of Bloor, the 45A Kipling was increased to keep 10-minute service along the Kipling corridor after the 45B branch was replaced on weekdays. Its replacement is the new 145 Belfield, which serves Viscount Station on the Pearson airport link.
Taken together, Kipling has frequent daytime service and an overnight bus along almost its whole length, from Lake Ontario to Steeles.
The east-west trip along the lake has gone the other way. Track renewal at Long Branch Loop began as early as June 7, 2026. The fall service summary, covering September 6 to October 31, still shows the overnight streetcar shortened to Humber Loop, with a replacement bus covering the western end. The TTC's construction notice breaks the lakeshore service down like this:
The TTC has not posted an end date for the Long Branch Loop work, so this is the service in effect this fall, not a permanent layout. For anyone coming home to Mimico or Long Branch after midnight, the practical change is that the trip home is a 301L bus every 30 minutes instead of a streetcar the whole way.
The 508 Lake Shore is the one direct streetcar from Long Branch to downtown. It normally runs five eastbound trips on weekday mornings and five westbound trips on weekday afternoons. It was suspended for the summer during the Long Branch Loop work. On November 1 it is suspended again, this time for the City of Toronto and TTC's King Street West watermain and track project. The first section, Close Avenue to Dufferin Street, is scheduled from as early as November 1 to late 2027.
The TTC's notice lists the 508 suspension alongside the other changes starting November 1. The 504 King will run as a single branch between Broadview and Dundas West stations, diverting along Queen Street West between Shaw Street and Roncesvalles Avenue. 504C replacement buses will cover King between the Distillery District and Roncesvalles, and the 503 Kingston Rd will extend west to Dufferin Gate Loop. The notice gives no restoration date for the 508 and does not name a specific replacement for its riders, and the TTC warns that its plans may change as construction schedules are finalized.
November 1 is also one of the TTC's scheduled network-wide service change dates. The next is December 20. Before you rely on any late-night trip in November, check the route page on ttc.ca.
The September map rewards thinking north-south first. If you're coming west on the 300 Bloor-Danforth after the subway closes, the transfer point decides your ride home. At Royal York Station, the 373 carries on north toward Weston Road and Steeles as one through bus with the 315 Evans-Brown's Line. At Kipling, the 345 heads south to Long Branch Loop or north to Steeles, with MiWay overnight buses at the same terminal. The 337 still covers Islington between the two.
In north Etobicoke, Line 6 Finch West runs between Finch West Station and Humber College until 1 a.m. daily, with Sunday service starting at 7:30 a.m. The TTC improved its frequency and travel times seven days a week starting September 6. After that, the 353 Steeles overnight now reaches Martin Grove Road.
Along the lake, give yourself extra time. The 507 replacement bus covers Humber Loop to Long Branch every 10 minutes into the late evening, and after that the 301L comes every 30 minutes. If your stop is near Kipling, the 345 is a second overnight option that also leaves from Long Branch Loop on its way north.
Transit changes like these are part of how Do It With Sam tracks Etobicoke day to day. Knowing which corridors have overnight buses, and which streetcar routes are paused for construction, is the kind of street-level detail Sam brings to conversations about a home here. If you'd like updates on what's changing near your stop, along with new listings as they come up, sign up to Get the Latest Listings First.
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