News   Jul 09, 2024
Portland Commons Nearing the Finish Line
 468     1 
News   Jul 09, 2024
Trio of Project Settlements to Transform Danforth and Main
 1.3K     2 
News   Jul 09, 2024
Dangers During the Occupancy Period in a Condominium Development
 530     0 

TTC: Other Items (catch all)

Detroit open their QLine on Friday and 98% in mix traffic and slower than the buses. Cars were stopping on the line.

Its also a line that not prime time for battery considering its 60% off wire in the first place.

There are parking areas beside the track with good clearance as I happen to park in a spot Thursday Night to catch a video of one of the cars doing a Special Event run before it was open to the public.

Until you remove on street parking and building a better ROW for streetcars than what has been built to date, Toronto streetcars service is only going to get worse.

A couple of videos I have on line of Detroit QLine and still a few more to up load yet.

 
I got a couple of videos of TTC buses toady one is of the sign on the 196B bus.

So far I've only seen buses refer to Downsview as Shepard West and haven;t seen any Toronto Rict Trains refer to it as Shepard West yet.

The other is of a new bus with the new livery on the Pape Express at Pape station.
 
drum118 said:
Until you remove on street parking and building a better ROW for streetcars than what has been built to date, Toronto streetcars service is only going to get worse.
Click to expand...
We should be building more Green P lots so those folks have somewhere to park. The alternative is to remove the parking, not replace it with Green P lots, and hope that some of those folks who shopped at the stores on that street will now take transit or perhaps bike.

One thing I've noticed is that on roads with rush hour bans on parking, the road seems more dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. Cars on Kingston Road and Queen St. during rush hour travel much faster, especially when the streetcars are replaced by buses. If you're going to remove parking to help the streetcar, you will also be increasing the speed of car traffic (assuming both get to use the road).
 
jje1000 said:
TTC’s chief customer officer stepping down

Deputy CEO Chris Upfold, who is credited with improving customer service at the agency, said he is leaving to travel with his family.


https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/17/ttcs-chief-customer-officer-stepping-down.html
Click to expand...
Too bad, he seemed to be very effective in trying to get the TTC out of its silo mentality and has a great sense of humour. We were lucky to hold onto him for 6 years, lets hope Byford stays a while longer!
 
He's leaving a little parting gift on his way out:

upload_2017-5-18_14-34-1.png
 

Attachments

  • upload_2017-5-18_14-34-1.png
    upload_2017-5-18_14-34-1.png
    130.1 KB · Views: 381
Last edited:
Admiral Beez said:
Then WTF did they buy Presto readers? If we're tapping our credit/debit cards, that could have been done with the same reader at Tim Hortons.
Click to expand...

It wasn't by choice. TTC put out a tender for effectively what you describe (standard equipment + custom backend) and the province stepped in and demanded TTC take Presto. TTC demanded Presto meet the requirements of the tender; which Presto is in the process of doing at no tiny cost since it's effectively a ground up rewrite/re-architecture.

For GTA municipalities, Presto fees and gas tax revenue come as a pair. Dump Presto and their revenue gets cut off.

Presto has been a huge money pit. I'm pretty sure Browne could open an investigation into the $800M spent on it and likely win a second election based on the results of that investigation. Of course, if he's not careful the Liberals could demand an investigation and the future conservative Minister of Transportation would lose their job; when you take the portfolio you get blame for the problems too if you don't change course quickly.
 
Last edited:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/18/ttc-urges-city-to-stop-tiff-closure-of-king-st.html

The King St TIFF closure needs to stop, but that is not going far enough.

The TTC needs to crack down on other road closures as well. The 10K last weekend is almost as bad as the marathon the weekend before. These road races shut down every bus and streetcar route that crosses them, and force a lot of weird detours, and make it very difficult to cross the street. There were a lot of TTC information people (the same people who give you directions during subway closures) hanging around the 10K route last weekend, and many confused people wanting to take various buses and streetcars.
 
andrewpmk said:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/18/ttc-urges-city-to-stop-tiff-closure-of-king-st.html

The King St TIFF closure needs to stop, but that is not going far enough.

The TTC needs to crack down on other road closures as well. The 10K last weekend is almost as bad as the marathon the weekend before. These road races shut down every bus and streetcar route that crosses them, and force a lot of weird detours, and make it very difficult to cross the street. There were a lot of TTC information people (the same people who give you directions during subway closures) hanging around the 10K route last weekend, and many confused people wanting to take various buses and streetcars.
Click to expand...
I think the TTC should just keep running streetcars through TIFF and negotiate with the Toronto Police to allow them access and when it's actually needed to be shut then do a diversion.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Then WTF did they buy Presto readers? If we're tapping our credit/debit cards, that could have been done with the same reader at Tim Hortons.

Or just install these, the readers cost a couple of hundred bucks, tops https://squareup.com/guides/nfc

Here's the transit version they're rolling out http://www.consultingcase101.com/square-to-commercialize-tap-go-technology-for-transit/
Click to expand...
CC's need immediate data connection to successfully complete the transaction. A presto reader can deduct fares without any data connection. Many of the 905 agencies only use WiFi.
CC's cannot use to distinguish from concession fare. Everyone would be paying the full adult cash fare.
Transfers, loyalty discounts would require cellular access to the server with CC's. For the MiWay, transfers would simply not exist as they don't receive cellular data. A CC cannot store a transfer or any GO and local transit co-fare.
A paper transfer/receipt would be printed and might be necessary for transfers with CC's. Otherwise, the CC holder would hope the previous reader uploaded the data to the server so they won't be charged a second fare. The chances of being double charged would be higher than a presto card.

CC readers at Timmies have many restrictions that a presto reader supports.
 
Steve X said:
CC's need immediate data connection to successfully complete the transaction.
Click to expand...

Not really. That is the mechanism for the lowest fraud but even an ABM typically remains mostly functional without a network connection. FYI, AMB network outage is not a good time to run from machine to machine withdrawing your last $20 over and over; the bank will eventually hit your account with many overdraft fees.

The reader can do some verification the card is valid and optimistically let the customer go through, and at a later time (seconds typically; minutes or even an hour if the network is spotty) process a hold (say $20).

onSuccess: up to $20 is on hold for the TTC. At the end of the day/week sum up all the customer trips and place the correct charge for all fares up to $20. Other tiny-payment type things (photocopiers at FedEx) do this kind of thing; combining multiple small purchases spread over time into a single CC charge.

onFailure: Damn, fraud or rejected card. Do an immediate blast to all readers that card XXX is not acceptable. The user will find the exit gates on the subway do not open for them (station agent information tablet will know why) and buses/streetcars will not accept their transfer request. Fare inspectors will know to go lenient and charge an immediate fare on different media (as the customer probably meant to pay) but will fine repeat offenders.

Simply put, a TTC fare is low enough with enough repeat customers they can be a little more optimistic about the persons ability to pay upfront. For those payment issues that do crop up, good chance they'll catch the customer at a different part of the trip anyway.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top