7 - Martin Grove September 2025 Update
This is not an official study, it is entirely independent.
Current routing of 7 - Martin Grove
On April 29, 2025, York Region Transit (YRT) modified its Route 7 - Martin Grove to resemble Option 3C of my Winter 2025 study of the route. With a new school year starting, I collected ridership data on all 77 weekday trips between September 3 and 11, 2025 to determine what effects the change had on ridership.
Based on my new data, weekday ridership on the route increased nearly 30% since January from approximately 1,550 to 2,000 daily passengers. As service increased by 38% in the same time period, the average ridership per trip declined slightly from approximately 28 to 26 causing a slight reduction in crowding. More detailed data:
-AM Peak (before 10:15 a.m.) ridership increased by 10-15%
-Midday (10:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) ridership increased around 45%.
This time of day had the largest service increase (from every 60 minutes to every 32 minutes)
-PM Peak (2:30 to 8 p.m.) ridership increased around 30%
-The evening sample size was rather small, but ridership increased significantly like at other times.
-Southbound ridership increased significantly more than northbound ridership. The difference in ridership between
the southbound and northbound directions is now quite small.
-The increases in ridership in individual sections was generally too inconsistent to draw a conclusion, but ridership on
the portion of the line between Highway 7 and Steeles remained around 25% of the total.
Using the same definition of "busy trip" as in the original project (>35 passengers south of or at Steeles Ave.), trips were busy at the following times:
-Northbound, around 6 a.m.
-The northbound and southbound trips starting at 7:12 and 7:04 a.m., respectively. These were the most crowded trips
I recorded. The higher crowding on these two trips is potentially due to students at Holy Cross Catholic Academy
and a longer than usual gap from the previous trip due to differences in scheduled running time leading to
40-minute gaps at the end of the route.
-Northbound, around 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
-Southbound, between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. Several southbound trips were just below my threshold between 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.
I also noted severe delays (upwards of 10 minutes) occurring during the early morning (before 7 a.m.) and evening (after 8 p.m.) periods. YRT is adjusting the schedule for the route effective November 2, with trips slowed and headways widened during these periods.
The days of the week this data was taken during (compared to in January) is noted below. Percentages do not add to 100% due to rounding.
-27% collected on Mondays (13% in January's data)
-6% collected on Tuesdays (36% in January's data)
-34% collected on Wednesdays (1% in January's data)
-10% collected on Thursdays (13% in January's data)
-22% collected on Fridays (36% in January's data)
Potential Changes
I was originally planning to suggest giving buses more time during the early morning and late evening periods, however this was implemented effective November 2, 2025, and the schedule was released as I was compiling September's data.
Presently, there are no issues with excessive crowding except at times when abnormally large gaps between bus trips were recorded, namely the 7:04 a.m. and 7:12 a.m. trips noted above. Such large gaps should be avoided to prevent similar problems from arising. This problem has not been resolved as of November 2025.
Several months after Line 6 Finch West opens, I will revisit the route to determine how Line 6 will affect ridership. Ridership may also be impacted by the planned extension of Route 13 - Islington to Humber College Terminal to be implemented in September 2026.
Last updated: 11/02/2025