There are other "standard" speed restrictions elsewhere on the system - 10km/h over all "specialwork" (switches, crossings, etc.), and there is one at all signalized intersections of I believe 25km/h. Those don't have signs, whereas the 7km/h one on the Queensway at least did at one time.
If its any consolation, many of the operators on the system are pretty disappointed with the new rules as well, with some of them going far enough to suggest that the TTC is trying to purposely hinder or even sabotage the operation of the system.
The problem is this - in years past, the Commission would draw up specific schedules for special days, such as Christmas and New Years. As much as trying to match the service on the street with what was needed, it was also a way to try and keep as many operators home with their families.
But several things have happened in the past 40 or so years. For one, ridership doesn't like a special schedule, especially one that doesn't necessarily resemble the schedules that they already have the information for. So in the 1980s, they changed all the schedules to be "standardized". Holiday schedules are the same as Sunday schedules. And while this worked for a long time, in the past 10 years or so the ridership of non-peak times has exploded while peak time ridership has increased at a far smaller level, meaning that the Sunday schedules on many routes now look almost the same as weekday schedules. And the problem is that the Sunday level or ridership is not necessarily the same as how many people ride on holidays, so there is this extra service that is operated seemingly needlessly.
And while I can hear a lot of you yelling "well, we have apps and websites that allow us to see when a bus is coming!", unfortunately they aren't a panacea either. It's hasn't really made things any easier for the planners - for instance, they still need to get the data out to the providers as much as 2 weeks in advance to the change, and when there are problems with it the feed can fail (which has happened several times when the TTC has instituted major schedule changes) - which then means that people can't rely on those apps that they need to rely on.
Bottom line: there really isn't an easy fix to this. As it is, the TTC already runs a level of service well above-and-beyond what the ridership calls for (late night service on the subway system, for instance, and the 10-minute network as another) on an annual basis, so doing so on couple of singular days isn't going to hurt the bottom line. And while supervision of the routes is already atrocious, I'm not sure that increasing it - and then forcing vehicles to stop and sit every kilometer or two to get back onto time - is going to do any good here.
Dan
