Surprise, surprise. Yonge Street has a bus route that follows and extends past the Yonge portion of Line 1.
This is the description from the TTC website, at this
link:
The bad news is that the headway is w-i-d-e apart (15 m or worse). Some parts only operate during part of the day (keyword: day). The other bad news is that they use buses.
The
97 Yonge could be an alternative to the subway, especially for
local service. But only if it were more frequent.
When they opened the original Yonge subway, they did away with the streetcar service between Union Station and Glen Echo Road (halfway between Lawrence and York Mills Stations). That streetcar line should have been kept to supply local service and emergency service.
The TTC should at least increase the headway of the
97 Yonge bus, and get better marketing for that route. May not be a big improvement, but for some we can bypass the crowds in the Line 1 for the short distances.