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TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

yep, I had the same experience. The hold out but don't insist.

Question, not sure if it has been raised: why is the next rollout to be 511, instead of 501 for example, which obviously need more relief?
From the TTC website about the new streetcars, it's because they share more diversions and cross streets.
 
The rationale is that the 511 uses a small number of streetcars so the whole route can be converted early on. The TTC seem very averse to having old and new streetcars operating on the same route though obviously with only 1 or 2 streetcars ready for the 'launch' on Spadina on August 31 they seem to have overcome this. As noted on Steve Munro's blog, the real question is 'will cars released from Spadina, Bathurst etc. be used to increase service on routes like King and Queen?" These two are both very overcrowded.

How things change. I remember as a kid, seeing the old Peter Witt streetcars on the Fort (Bathurst) streetcar line (from the Wolseley Loop, north of Queen Street, to the Fleet/Exhibition loop), while the other streetcar lines used PCC streetcars. Now the 511 Bathurst will be next streetcar line to get the new Outlook streetcars after the 510 Spadina gets it.
 
I assume that the fair enforcement will ramp up...
1) Show up - be visible and talk to customers - don't give out any tickets
2) Warn - let people know that they broke the rules, tell them what the rules are, don't give them a ticket
3) Delay - talk to them for a while, explain the rules - make them and everyone around them know that it sucks to not have a ticket (potentially call the head office and check if the person has been warned before) - give them a ticket if they have, if they haven't just make it really inconvenient (get off at the next stop, or make them stay past their stop until the procedure is finished)
4) Standard operating procedure - if they look like they ride the TTC all the time - give them a ticket, if they are tourists or clearly not with it - use common sense

The GoTrain guys are really good at step 3...people get called in all the time...and you spend 20 minutes with two police officers hovering over you and them talking loudly on their radios...
 
I love the line/destination announcement when the doors open, but I feel it needs to be done in a male voice. Same with the TRs once they are retrofitted with external speakers.
Nothing sexist, but in a noisy place, you won't be able to clearly hear a female voice. A male voice would be much more audible.
 
I love the line/destination announcement when the doors open, but I feel it needs to be done in a male voice. Same with the TRs once they are retrofitted with external speakers.
Nothing sexist, but in a noisy place, you won't be able to clearly hear a female voice. A male voice would be much more audible.
I thought the reason these announcements tend to be female, is because female voices have much more audibility. Thinking about all the stations announcements in UK - it's always almost always female. No doubt there are papers on such things in academia.
 
While waiting for the Toronto debut of the Bombardier Flexity Outlook streetcar, here's a video on a different configuration of the Bombardier Flexity Outlook in Krefeld, Germany.

[video=youtube_share;qtvP0hGxBik]http://youtu.be/qtvP0hGxBik[/video]

While they are longer, double-ended and narrower compared with the Toronto version, they are the same model.

Note the unique transit traffic signals, without all the verbage on sign clutter that Toronto uses.
 
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well - I still see the drivers not giving transfers to people who use the fare box on the 501.... so enforcement on drivers to actually give the transfer is required as well.
 
I love the line/destination announcement when the doors open, but I feel it needs to be done in a male voice. Same with the TRs once they are retrofitted with external speakers.
Nothing sexist, but in a noisy place, you won't be able to clearly hear a female voice. A male voice would be much more audible.

Perhaps just expressing an unpopular opinion here but I can't stand those announcements. Yes I understand that they're done for accessibility's sake, but they're repetitive, long, annoying, and loud. When I rode MiWay from Port Credit to Square One a few months back, hearing "19 HURONTARIO NORTHBOUND TO BRITANNIA" or something like that shouted in a very abrasive voice every time the doors opened got grating really quickly.

However, I understand that they're a great feature for the sight-impaired, so I'll tolerate them :p I still think the subway is the wrong place for them however.
 
well - I still see the drivers not giving transfers to people who use the fare box on the 501.... so enforcement on drivers to actually give the transfer is required as well.

I'm imagining that automated announcements should be used now and initially to remind people to keep the transfer, or pass, on them as proof-of-payment. In a Darth Vader voice, of course.

"Keep the transfer, or pass."
 
Howarding has come down at Spadina station. It's hard to see in the photo, but in person looks like the platform has been raised a bit to be level with the floor in our LFLRVs.

duJ3rxD.jpg
 

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