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TTC: Transit City Bus Plan

W. K. Lis

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From the TTC's News website:

Media briefing on TTC plans for improved bus service

Friday, August 21, 11 a.m.

The media will be briefed on a report that will be considered at the August 26 Commission meeting entitled “Transit City Bus Plan.â€

TTC Chair Adam Giambrone will also be available for comment at the briefing.

Apparently it involves express bus proposals and other related work. Anyone else has other information?
 
From the TTC's News website:
Apparently it involves express bus proposals and other related work. Anyone else has other information?

TTC appears to be holding onto the details. I wonder if the Star will get a scoop.

Steve Munro in early 2008:

Update: Today I learned that the TTC is working on a scheme for better bus service. According to Chair Adam Giambrone:

The TTC is developing a Transit City Bus plan that will likely include max 10 minute service to match subway hours at a grid of streets and new separated bus ROW’s.

And not much more here: http://stevemunro.ca/?p=1785

Without knowing the particulars, the possibility of re-branded express buses would not necessarily offer much for the regular TTC rider -- unless there are ROWs. And we know how some folks just love ROWs.

My understanding is that many examples of mixed traffic express bus options are not, on average, much faster than regular service. The advantages go to visibility (winning new riders, if capacity permits), simplicity (for occasional riders from other parts of town) and the political/planning justification to build pre-BRT into higher orders of transit.

In theory, this is the bus component of the BRT/LRT/subway mix of options for TTC, and would be used where projected ridership falls in the appropriate range. It adds to our great debate on what technology is best for specific corridors... Can't wait.

Should we expect TTC to buy deep red 'Transit City Bus' artics for, say, Finch East? Dufferin? Hmmm...
 
Without knowing the particulars, the possibility of re-branded express buses would not necessarily offer much for the regular TTC rider -- unless there are ROWs. And we know how some folks just love ROWs.

My understanding is that many examples of mixed traffic express bus options are not, on average, much faster than regular service. The advantages go to visibility (winning new riders, if capacity permits), simplicity (for occasional riders from other parts of town) and the political/planning justification to build pre-BRT into higher orders of transit.

Rocket service like the 190, if added to every major corridor, would have significant benefits even without ROWs. It is faster. Even a minor speed increase means capacity goes up using the same number of buses. You can't discount [re]branding, though. If you call something EXPRESS even if travel times are identical, some people will be lured to it over alternate service.

It's hard to compare the speed of the 190 vs the 85 because they only overlap for less than 5km, but the continuous growth of the 190's ridership is proof that it's doing something right. It's noticeably faster over that 5km and if extended to a route that's 15km long, you'll start saving people 5-10 or more minutes, which is a big deal. Nobody cares about 2km/hr speed increases or empty promises like "more reliable" service, but they care about and respond to travel times.

There's some places that could use BRT or even BRT-lite, but if we're going to spend small (or large) fortunes on transit infrastructure, we might as well move to rails. In a lot of places a bus lane just won't accomplish much more than what simple express service could do in mixed traffic, though there are pinch points/intersections where solutions to bus problems can be found in infrastructure. Having a tunnel from Don Mills station to eastbound Sheppard, for instance, would save many buses an entire minute of travel time.

POP or some kind of card that's scanned automatically would dramatically improve bus service, particularly when hordes of students board together, each fishing for their student cards and chatting instead of moving back. We could probably eliminate 5 buses from the pm rush Finch East run just by doing this.
 
I hope this report proposes an alternative to the TTC's traditional "limited stop" express bus routes. I'd rather see a "local" branch that serves the stops closest to the subway station, and an "express" branch that runs non-stop to the end of the "local" branch then runs local the rest of the way.

Doing this could offer faster service to many and free up buses, though some people would have an extra transfer added to their trip.

This could do a lot to help speed up long trips, even if it is feasible in rush hours only.
 
Ed Drass said:
Without knowing the particulars, the possibility of re-branded express buses would not necessarily offer much for the regular TTC rider -- unless there are ROWs. And we know how some folks just love ROWs.

ROWs, both diamond lanes and actual busways, definitely do yield improvements in bus performance, but there is a a lot of evidence that minor changes to bus operations can lead to large advantages. The GAO found, looking at the case of LA's Wilshire Avenue "BRT", that minor improvements such as signal improvements, headway as opposed to schedule management, improved station boarding and wider stop spacing resulted in a "29% improvement in average bus speed" and a 42% increase in ridership without adding any bus lanes and at a cost of 125k/km. The TTC's 39 Finch express bus pilot program saw a substantial gain in ridership over the trial period at no extra costs.
 
The TTC was also supposed to cut the extra fare for the 141, 142 and 144 starting in September, but there has been no publicity for this. I don't know if it's still going forward or not. My MDP still came with an express sticker for September. Does that mean I got ripped off for the extra $32?
 
I hope this report proposes an alternative to the TTC's traditional "limited stop" express bus routes. I'd rather see a "local" branch that serves the stops closest to the subway station, and an "express" branch that runs non-stop to the end of the "local" branch then runs local the rest of the way.

Doing this could offer faster service to many and free up buses, though some people would have an extra transfer added to their trip.

This could do a lot to help speed up long trips, even if it is feasible in rush hours only.

For frequent routes, you can have some portion stop as normal while the rest continue directly to the subway without stopping. If people are travelling to a point on the local section, they would wait for the normal service. It might be a bit complicated/bewildering to infrequent users or visitors.
 
I hope this report proposes an alternative to the TTC's traditional "limited stop" express bus routes. I'd rather see a "local" branch that serves the stops closest to the subway station, and an "express" branch that runs non-stop to the end of the "local" branch then runs local the rest of the way.

Doing this could offer faster service to many and free up buses, though some people would have an extra transfer added to their trip.

This could do a lot to help speed up long trips, even if it is feasible in rush hours only.

It depends on the route. This kind of express service would be good on Steeles East, for instance, which sees almost no turnover and where most people are riding directly to the subway, making it easy to split the riders onto two branches. Splitting the 42 into a local Cummer and an express McNicoll branch could work, too. A more traditional limited stop express route (like the 190 Rocket) would probably be better on a route like Finch East, though, and routes like Lawrence and Jane. I'm not intimately familiar with the ridership loads and turnover patterns over the course of every route in Toronto, and I doubt anyone else is, but it wouldn't take much studying to find out how to improve each route with different kinds of express service...the main thing that the TTC is excruciatingly slow to realize, though, is that express service in general is a simple and proven effective way to improve service on basically any route. I hope they aren't planning to just stick regular routes onto bus lanes and call it a day...traffic is not a problem on every route.

Although......on routes that see high volumes of riders riding way out from the subway towards the end of the line, like Steeles East, it's a clear sign not only that many of these riders should be moved on new/improved rapid transit lines (subways, GO trains, whatever), but that a market for longer trips remains untapped. Buses that run non-stop for long distances before reaching outer areas are just band-aid solutions, but they're easy and cheap and need to be implemented.
 
I think hands down Steeles west is a prime candidate for a BRT row, considering there is ample space for street expansion and row construction along the whole corridor, as well it would also allow the YRT buses that travel along the route to piggback and use the row aswell to improve service on YRT routes as well, steeles east for the most part doesn't really have much of a problem maybe a brt service like VIVA right now would suffice.
 
What is the mess with 84? Seems like it could use some bus queue jump lanes, but otherwise it's not a very heavily congested corridor.
 
I hope their proposed express bus service on routes like 60 will be a limited stop express, and not express on small stretches like 60 has just on Yonge.

Bathust 7 could use a limited stop express service. The local service takes forever to go from Bloor to Steeles. It can take over an hour just to go one way, in peak periods. Brutal.

Overall, I like the TCBN idea. It gives better service for the buck on well travelled bus routes.
 
Full Credit

Full Credit to the TTC on this, I think its a very comprehensive proposal which will deliver both real and perceived gain to riders. :)

As always there are a few things that make ya wonder.....

But overall, very good.

Positives:

Extensive network of every 10min or better bus services (6am-1am, 7 day)
New express services
Queue jump lanes
Expanded Transit Priority
NEW BRT (prev. announced, Danforth/Kingston, York U)
NEW BRT (new Ellesmere McCowan to Durham Region, Wilson (Wilson Stn to Keele and BRT into Mississauga)
More Transit Shelters (additional 75 above and beyond previous commmittments for a total of 250 new shelters or more by 2015)
Amenity Improvements (small but real improvements to customer experience)

Things that make ya go Hmmmmmm


Why so many new supervisors? With all the new technology, transit control should be able to keep tabs on most routes remotely. Very expensive solution to schedule/headway adherence issues.

Still not enough new shelters - going 4,500 to 4,750 sheltered stops , out of 10,000, that's not even 50%

Finally, the every 20-min service was supposed to come on-stream in 2008, then 2009, now its delayed to 2011/2012. That's a bit much. :mad:

Still, overall, very good package of proposed improvements. Now to see if they actually deliver! :rolleyes:
 

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