TTC: Major Operational Issues (Various)

[Amare]

I actually didn't mind either of the campaigns. Sometimes people need to be shamed to do the right thing. And shaming isn't even as effective as it once was.

Well on that note, I guess we should collectively shame the TTC into doing the right thing (ie: fixing their infrastructure properly, running proper service, announcing proper and reliable customer information).

Maybe then they'll finally collectively get their heads out of the gutter and run things like a proper organization should. You know, instead of the dumpster trash, siloed, chicken with their heads cut off mentality.

 

[T3G]

I actually didn't mind either of the campaigns. Sometimes people need to be shamed to do the right thing. And shaming isn't even as effective as it once was.

The current ad campaign does not seem to have a clear target audience in mind, it seems to be talking down to the whole ridership.

 

[Amare]

Update on the state of affairs with the slow order mess on the subway system. Some pretty marginal improvements since my last update, let's see how long they last for:

Aug 20, 2024:

 

[lead82]

The entire TTC board and leadership should resign for this debacle frankly. We have 2.5 subway lines and we can’t even keep the tracks maintained. The TTC has always had slow zones but never this broad and for this long. Did all the maintenance people retire and the new replacements are incompetent or we just didn’t backfill them and now rely on the few left to slowly fix it. Why was this rot allowed to happen and yet we have no one at city council or the media making any hay of it and pushing for answers or dates or anything. I’m shocked that there is zero accountability. To me we need a shock to Toronto council to go back to basics and get that back to GOOD working order before doing anything else.

It’s supposed to take 17mins to travel from Lawrence to King. It now easily takes 25-30mins without any other delays. That is a 50% degrade in travel time, which only gets worse if you are traveling longer along the line.

 

[Steve X]

The entire TTC board and leadership should resign for this debacle frankly. We have 2.5 subway lines and we can’t even keep the tracks maintained. The TTC has always had slow zones but never this broad and for this long. Did all the maintenance people retire and the new replacements are incompetent or we just didn’t backfill them and now rely on the few left to slowly fix it. Why was this rot allowed to happen and yet we have no one at city council or the media making any hay of it and pushing for answers or dates or anything. I’m shocked that there is zero accountability. To me we need a shock to Toronto council to go back to basics and get that back to GOOD working order before doing anything else.

It’s supposed to take 17mins to travel from Lawrence to King. It now easily takes 25-30mins without any other delays. That is a 50% degrade in travel time, which only gets worse if you are traveling longer along the line.

It seems that TTC was always doing crappy maintenance but was only called out after the SRT derailment. Now they are placing a slow order on everything that they wouldn't bat an eye on back then.

Canadian transit is such a joke. They do maintenance worst than 3rd world countries but need 1st world country salaries.

 

[TTCdinosaur]

It seems that TTC was always doing crappy maintenance but was only called out after the SRT derailment. Now they are placing a slow order on everything that they wouldn't bat an eye on back then.

Canadian transit is such a joke. They do maintenance worst than 3rd world countries but need 1st world country salaries.

We have to make our voices heard then if we want them to do better.

With WFH taking hold permanently now, TTC is losing scale and there is less of a narrative and qualitative business case to support rapid further investment. Play it up in your emails to your Councillor - how embarrassing it would be for Toronto - as the fourth largest city in North America - to potentially lose its existing rail system in a decade. How Line 5 and whatever other crayon lines they draw depend on dependable flow from the existing system. It seems obvious, but I really don't think most of the Councillors think this way. Canada is ultimately a country run by lawyers and accountants.

Also remember, ultimately most of City Council either drives or cycles at this point.

 

[ARG1]

With WFH taking hold permanently now, TTC is losing scale and there is less of a narrative and qualitative business case to support rapid further investment. Play it up in your emails to your Councillor - how embarrassing it would be for Toronto - as the fourth largest city in North America - to potentially lose its existing rail system in a decade. How Line 5 and whatever other crayon lines they draw depend on dependable flow from the existing system. It seems obvious, but I really don't think most of the Councillors think this way. Canada is ultimately a country run by lawyers and accountants.

Jesse what the heck are you talking about?

In all seriousness, its weird to talk about crayon lines when we are amidst the largest capital investment program in the province's history with stuff actually getting built, and also weird to just casually declare "WFH taking hold permanently" when that's not even close to being true. The current issues is purely a case of the city refusing the increase revenue for desperately needed programs, and there's hope that some of the property tax increases will lead to the TTC being fixed up. I highly doubt we're going to "lose our existing rail system in a decade".

 

[turbanplanner]

We have to make our voices heard then if we want them to do better.

With WFH taking hold permanently now, TTC is losing scale and there is less of a narrative and qualitative business case to support rapid further investment. Play it up in your emails to your Councillor - how embarrassing it would be for Toronto - as the fourth largest city in North America - to potentially lose its existing rail system in a decade. How Line 5 and whatever other crayon lines they draw depend on dependable flow from the existing system. It seems obvious, but I really don't think most of the Councillors think this way. Canada is ultimately a country run by lawyers and accountants.

Also remember, ultimately most of City Council either drives or cycles at this point.

Really, I see a ton more cars on the road now vs 2022

 

[nfitz]

Really, I see a ton more cars on the road now vs 2022

I think you have to compare to 2019, as 2022 would see more Covid impacts.

That said - I wouldn't be surprised if it's higher, based on my anecdotal observations.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Turn back at Queen today.
Shut down between Sheppard-Yonge and Lawrence and then Eglinton.

 

[mr_content]

Turn back at Queen today.
Shut down between Sheppard-Yonge and Lawrence and then Eglinton.

This at least seems to have been a short-lived delay caused by an unauthorized power cut.

But with something like a quarter of the work car fleet out of service and such widespread slow orders resulting from poor track conditions, it's really only a matter of time before there's a repeat of the broken rail/switch that shut down half of Line 1 back in March -- and there's no guarantee it'd be found before trains carry passengers over it.

 

[Amare]

But with something like a quarter of the work car fleet out of service and such widespread slow orders resulting from poor track conditions, it's really only a matter of time before there's a repeat of the broken rail/switch that shut down half of Line 1 back in March -- and there's no guarantee it'd be found before trains carry passengers over it.

That's part of Rick Leary's legacy which I'm sure the idiot is oh so proud of.

On a brief side note, I think the TTC is going to have to invest in larger white boards to fit all of the slow orders they have. That's if they can afford it...

 

[TTCdinosaur]

That's part of Rick Leary's legacy which I'm sure the idiot is oh so proud of.

On a brief side note, I think the TTC is going to have to invest in larger white boards to fit all of the slow orders they have. That's if they can afford it...

View attachment 589947

I think Rick was quiet quitting before it was cool.

 

[lead82]

Traffic downtown is actually less than it was before the pandemic but it feels like it’s more because all the major roads are under construction and the flow has been constrained to a trickle. Adelaide is down to basically 1 lane through the financial district. University is a gong show around College and down to a single lane at Bloor. This forces traffic to zig, zag and merge. It’s a slow moving gridlock. It feels like there are more cars but it’s more that cars are just stuck and can’t move. The area around the GO bus terminal on Lakeshore is now almost a constant jam.

It will be time to put massive tolls and restrict traffic into the downtown core once the Ontario line is built and the current track issues are addressed and GO provided 2-way all day service. I’m the mean time the city needs to fix the subway ASAP - I’d like to see dates and accountability and regular updates on the issue to the public.

 

[turbanplanner]

Traffic downtown is actually less than it was before the pandemic but it feels like it’s more because all the major roads are under construction and the flow has been constrained to a trickle. Adelaide is down to basically 1 lane through the financial district. University is a gong show around College and down to a single lane at Bloor. This forces traffic to zig, zag and merge. It’s a slow moving gridlock. It feels like there are more cars but it’s more that cars are just stuck and can’t move. The area around the GO bus terminal on Lakeshore is now almost a constant jam.

It will be time to put massive tolls and restrict traffic into the downtown core once the Ontario line is built and the current track issues are addressed and GO provided 2-way all day service. I’m the mean time the city needs to fix the subway ASAP - I’d like to see dates and accountability and regular updates on the issue to the public.

I'm not sure how true this is? I remember getting from Adelaide to the Gardiner took me 55 mins at pm in 2019, in 2022 it was the same or worse. (hard to tell because they put in police to help with the flow) I haven't done the trip since then though!

Tolls are unrealistic (The liberals wouldn't even let us put them in!) The Ontario line is useless to anyone living west of Parliament tbh, and go doesn't even have 2 way or all day service on a lot of the lines!