TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[TransitBart]

Aren't we on a good path if the mayor has now asked the TTC to adopt/consider such a change? I have been reading here for two years how everyone here thinks this is a solid move forward. Shouldn't we be grabbing a drink?

While the job is not done, it is now an issue and before it was a UT wailing point.

 

[Voltz]

Aren't we on a good path if the mayor has now asked the TTC to adopt/consider such a change? I have been reading here for two years how everyone here thinks this is a solid move forward. Shouldn't we be grabbing a drink?

While the job is not done, it is now an issue and before it was a UT wailing point.

Since the Mayor and the Chair want it, and have made a public show about it, I can guess that staff will try and put it in the best light possible in any reports or studies.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Since the Mayor and the Chair want it, and have made a public show about it, I can guess that staff will try and put it in the best light possible in any reports or studies.

I really like how the mayor keeps coming up with ways that will decrease the amount of money the TTC gets from fares well at the same time trying to sell it to the public that he knows what he's doing. This is just like the whole kids ride free thing he didn't have any clue how many kids ride the system daily he was only thinking about families that go out on weekends or in the summer or during school holidays.

 

[cplchanb]

Does anyone know when the side displays on the trs will be activated? Ive seen many installed but none working

 

[W. K. Lis]

Since the Mayor and the Chair want it, and have made a public show about it, I can guess that staff will try and put it in the best light possible in any reports or studies.

Odd that the Mayor (and others) wanted free fare for the under 12 years old, and now 2-hour transfers, but at the same time fail miserably to increase the TTC budget to cover it. The Mayor wants to flat-line the TTC operating budget. (Shaking my head.)

 

[christiesplits]

I felt like this was the most relevant thread. Great read by the NYT with possible takeaways for the TTC.

How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html


Also form the article, on-time performance across major systems:

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Comparing ourselves to NYC is counterproductive other than as a stark warning (espeically how their politicians played the game) - we should be looking at the Paris, Berlin, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong.

AoD

 

[applepill]

I felt like this was the most relevant thread. Great read by the NYT with possible takeaways for the TTC.

How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html


Also form the article, on-time performance across major systems:

Well Singapore is a lie now... there’s delays on the SMRT Lines (North South, East West) every day now. Glad to see that Hong Kong has managed to maintain it’s reliability.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Well Singapore is a lie now... there’s delays on the SMRT Lines (North South, East West) every day now. Glad to see that Hong Kong has managed to maintain it’s reliability.

I believe MTR is having some issues with aging infrastructure as well, but they are putting a lot of money into revitalizing it. Cut and defer maintenance - and the results becomes self-evident eventually (see TTC, esp. pre-1995; MTA and WMATA).

AoD

 

[W. K. Lis]

The TTC is being financially starved by City Council led by His Worship Mayor John Tory. Started by Mayor Rob Ford and continued by Mayor John Tory, with only a little help at the beginning of Tory's term.

We have overcrowded bus and streetcars, and council wants to flat-line the TTC budget with little or no service increases.

TTC budget proposal calls for fare freeze, no extra service in 2018

Transit advocates charge the spending plan merely “keeps our heads above water.”​

See link.

An example protest about the lousy service:

Maybe we need more protests like the above!! Enough is enough, we want better service.

 

[jje1000]

Interesting comment on branding, from an article on the King Street Streetcar:

Just look at the Scarborough Subway project. Cost: $3.35-billion and rising. Number of stations: 1. Expected number of daily passengers, in 2031: 64,000, or fewer than the King streetcar today. If built, it will vie for the record for the greatest mismanagement of public-transit funds in Canadian history. No matter: It refuses to be stopped. It has the name of an old borough of half a million people on it, combined with the word "subway." It has branding.

What the King Street project needs is to spend a lot more money – on brand consultants. Learn from the Union-Pearson Express, the half-billion-dollar boondoggle train to the airport. UP Express launched with its own logo, sponsorship deals, staff uniforms, a magazine and an entire executive team – all for the care and feeding of a transit line with one-seventh the King streetcar's passenger volume.

Without big brand ambition, politicians won't be able to love the little miracle on King Street. So, first item of business? Stop calling it TTC route No. 504. Heck, stop calling it a streetcar. Rename it the Cross-Town Rapid Transit Way. The Super Fast Surface Service. The Toronto Hyperloop. The King Street Subway. Whatever.

Make no little marketing plans.

Because if King Street really does see faster travel times and rising ridership, and if the strategy is extended to other routes where car traffic can paralyze streetcars – we're looking at you, Queen Street – then downtown Toronto will become an easier place to commute to, and an easier place to travel within. And that, not giving politicians something to tout, visionaries something to dream on or international pension funds something to invest in, is what public transit is for.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opi...miracle-grows-on-king-street/article37022890/

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

The TTC is being financially starved by City Council led by His Worship Mayor John Tory. Started by Mayor Rob Ford and continued by Mayor John Tory, with only a little help at the beginning of Tory's term.

We have overcrowded bus and streetcars, and council wants to flat-line the TTC budget with little or no service increases.

TTC budget proposal calls for fare freeze, no extra service in 2018

Transit advocates charge the spending plan merely “keeps our heads above water.”​

See link.

An example protest about the lousy service:

Maybe we need more protests like the above!! Enough is enough, we want better service.

I'll accept a fare increase when the TTC gets rid of their disastrous '12 and under ride for free' policy!

 

[TransitBart]

I'll accept a fare increase when the TTC gets rid of their disastrous '12 and under ride for free' policy!

@Juan_Lennon416 - amigo - this has nothing to do with the TTC professional management or board (politicians, hacks and local reps). This concept came from the politicians who lead the city, and in fact directly from the mayor’s office. There was no TTC involvement in creating this.

 

[jje1000]

Interesting comment on branding, from an article on the King Street Streetcar

I also think that the TTC should start highlighting some its main streetcar lines (i.e. King and Queen), as well as some of its express bus routes as being equivalent routes to the subway lines. And like the article above states- giving them their own name and colour rather than a number helps.

Even though they're not really 'rapid transit', doing so might help improve perceptions of connectivity in the transit system. I think there'll be a difference in seeing that you can connect onto an Express bus/streetcar at a certain subway station, rather than having to differentiate that route from the tangle of surface routes on the enlarged map.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Check out the links for Transit Malls in Wikipedia, at this link.