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Another TTC horror story... (w/ video)

W

wyliepoon

Guest
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC2D8y2tQwo

Here's a video I shot yesterday (Friday) on my way home from downtown. I waited about half an hour at Scarborough Centre station for my McCowan North bus, one of the busiest bus route in all of north Scarborough. During my wait I saw two buses go out of service (both are of the model of buses that would normally serve my route). The video shows people getting left behind at the bus platform when the bus finally came.

Nothing on the way up McCowan could explain the delay. It was only when I got off the bus at my stop that I found out part of the reason why- three more McCowan buses came right behind the first bus I was in.

This could be called an "isolated incident", but even on a regular day the situation isn't any much better.
 
This happens quite often actually. My brother expereinced this when he was waiting for the 116 bus (which he uses to connect to the subway directly, and bypass the Scarborough RT because it sucks). It happens on MT too on busy routes. I wait 30 minutes then suddenly several buses come at the time. Never get on the first bus because it will be the slowest.
 
"This could be called an "isolated incident", but even on a regular day the situation isn't any much better."

McCowan is always this busy. A crowd like that forms pretty much after each RT train arrives at STC. I've been left at the platform due to crowds at 1am. The TTC claims McCowan sees 11,500 riders per day but that must be grossly undercounted.
 
I once waited about 30 minutes for a 91 Woodbine bus at rush hour on a tuesday. When the bus came, I barely fit. I still can't remember why I didn't just give up and walk.
 
There are some TTC bus drivers (or so I've been told) that are constantly coming up to the bus in front of them but refusing to pass. I've been told there's a name for these types of drivers though that name escapes me at the moment. I've been told it causes quite the rift between some employees.
 
I've also been told that sometimes that is intentional, and the drivers take turns being the vehicle at the front. I'm on a route where buses are scheduled to come as good as every 2-3 minutes, but they will bunch up. Most of the time though, there will be a game of hopscotch, as buses do pass each other.

I never board the first bus if there are 2 or three coming at once (unless it is an express). Usually I can get a seat and get to the subway faster if I get the second or third.

My route is rapidly being converted to Orion VIIs (which used to be out only on the weekends). Damn I hate those buses at any time, weekend or rush hour. Once winter comes, they will also be dirty and impossble to see out of (for some reason low-floor buses get dirty much faster)
 
"I never board the first bus if there are 2 or three coming at once"

I quite often do. You can't count on the buses behind you to leap ahead. Sometimes being one bus ahead at first means you catch a few green lights and get going a lot faster and pull away since the buses behind will usually sit idle in traffic and not let anyone on or off until they're at the pole position at the bus stop when they could easily be [un]loading 50 metres back of the stop while caught in traffic and then leap ahead. Very occasionally, the lead bus driver will ask people who aren't going straight to the subway station to get off and board the following bus. Of course, the lead bus will always be completely overloaded, so you're not going to get on, anyway.
 
Love the video. The stress and tension - waiting for something to happen - was almost unbearable by the time the bus actually began to move.

Your video's, spmarshall's photographs from the 504, 506 etc. streetcars, and interchange's subway station photographs are among my favourite things on the forum this year.
 
Also note the brief view of the crowd getting on/off the 190.
 
Understand as well that each bus is tracked using the CIS console (the big box with buttons and numbers next to the farebox), and that information is made available to route Supervisors. If a bus is too early, it will not pass any other bus that it is not supposed to (i.e. the specific run number before it) unless instructed to do so, perhaps because of an accident or whatnot. The point is, the specific run has to stay in its "place" to maintain, in theory, the desired headway. And so a bus that is early will also let busses pass it that are running late for the same reason. I'm not saying this is ideal, but that is likely the reason behind some buses going slow, and others passing them by. Drivers *are* punished for being early as well as late.

Bottom line is, hope you get on a bus that's running late.
 
"Drivers *are* punished for being early as well as late."

This was given as one of the reasons for the wildcat strike.

Is there really any route out there that is less reliable than the 501? My most recent trip from Ossington to Spadina and back included a 30-minute wait outbound and a 25-minute wait on the way back. And this is standard... more often than not in my experience (the 505 is far superior). Yes, I know I could have walked both legs in less time, but I have a Metropass for a reason!
 
Well, I did have to wait 40 minutes for a 504 out of Broadview station on a weekend early evening once. After 25 minutes waiting I decided to hang in and see how long it'd actually take, as I was in no hurry.

At that time, on weekends, the TTC seems to send more streetcars down Broadview to Queen and then turn east as they do 504's and 505's. For the rest of the week you hardly ever get that.
 
I once waited about 45 minutes for a streetcar on Spadina...I was headed for the Metro Reference library as the TTC was hosting an open house/complaints forum. I could have easily walked from Spadina & Willcocks to the Ref. in about 20 minutes but I also wanted to see how long it would take and to give me something else to complain about. However, the trip by TTC took me over an hour and I was so late that I missed the meeting.
 
Perhaps the TTC has a sophisticated method for tracking would-be complainers and sabotaging their journeys.
 
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