TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[salsa]

The TTC was minutes away from evacuating Bloor-Yonge Station due to crowding during last weeks delays. Part of me wishes they did have to evacuate the station. Nothing would better impart the importance of the DRL to these politicians, than a highly-visible crisis of their own creating.

Ideally, this would be the best possible timing!

The Premier recently appointed a new transportation minister, and we will be inviting Minister Kathryn McGarry to visit Toronto and observe the subway situation during rush hour so she can see the extent of the pressure our residents face.

http://www.metronews.ca/views/toron...-relief-is-on-the-way-can-we-speed-it-up.html

 

[Sandpit]

Close the gates and nobody exit the station. The paddles need to remain in the open position for people to exit.

Can you exit through a door that is locked and closed? Same principal with presto gates.

You need to lock them open and have personnel at the doors doing crowd control.

People can exit the station like they do normally. It's just that people can't enter (the display beside the gate will be red). Of course, there is probably a requirement for crowd control personnel for "safety reasons".

 

[drum118]

Introducing The TTC Way, co-created by customers and employees

February 5, 2018

The TTC is renewing its commitment to customers, employees and community partners with The TTC Way, a set of six objectives that will guide improved service.

In partnership with Bridgeable, a world leader in Service Design, the TTC brought together groups of customers and employees to create The TTC Way, a key element of its next five-year Corporate Plan. The TTC Way appears at the start of that plan, and includes detailed commitments for employees, TTC management, partners, customers, and communities.

"The future of the TTC depends on all of us working together in new ways," said TTC Chair Josh Colle. "The TTC Way is a sign of that commitment to working with our customers, partners and communities to take transit in Toronto to the next level. It's our commitment to customers and ourselves."

Over the next week, a campaign will appear on the TTC that shares the six values of The TTC Way:

- Respect one another
- Value each other's time
- Tell people what's happening
- Stay safe
- Mind your space
- Help others out

With Bridgeable, the TTC consulted hundreds of people from various groups that interact with the TTC to understand their needs and how to address them. Bridgeable and the TTC hosted design workshops with customers and employees from all levels of the organization, including frontline operators, to prototype solutions together. They collaborated with regional transit agencies, the TTC Board, and the City of Toronto, and they researched best practices from transit agencies around the world.

"By using a design approach to bring together riders with employees, we were able to collaborate on a vision for the future of transit in the city of Toronto," said Chris Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, Bridgeable. "The TTC Way and the new TTC Corporate Plan represent shared-values, setting an innovative precedent for how public institutions can collaborate with residents."

The TTC Way and new Corporate Plan were approved by the TTC Board on Jan. 25.

For more on The TTC Way, visit ttc.ca/theTTCway.

What is Service Design?
Service design is a discipline that allows organizations to understand where, when and how their services may be improved to deliver shared value for themselves and their end users. This can be done for an existing service, or it can be used to imagine and shape a future service or experience.

Service design takes a human-centred approach to design, recognizing that effective service solutions require a holistic understanding of people's current and unmet needs.

Service designers work with multiple, diverse stakeholders to co-create the design of service solutions, leveraging collaboration to translate needs, pain points, and opportunities into actionable ideas for services and experiences.

The service design process engages in cycles of prototyping and iteration, continuously building and testing to get to a solution that will deliver higher impact, while minimizing risk.

Service design allows organizations to design and embed the systems and solutions and organizational strategies necessary to repeatedly deliver a valuable service to their users while also keeping business realities in mind.


About Bridgeable
Bridgeable is an award-winning service design firm based in Toronto, Canada that employs a human-centred approach to understand and address complex challenges and the people affected. Working with clients across the world, we bridge the gap between what is known (data, analytics, insights, strategy) and what we do (services, interactions, customer experiences).

With extensive experience in sectors ranging from healthcare, financial services, consumer, and the public sector, our multi-disciplinary team of strategists, designers, and researchers help our clients solve complex problems by translating human understanding into innovation opportunities for their customers.

 

[steveintoronto]

By locked open I meant permanently held open. Locked in the open position.

This is the default position, and general international practice. To presume persons are going to exit in just one direction is simplistic at best. What if that exit is then found to be blocked? What if someone is left behind, and needs help.

The gates must default to open in crises.

 

[Sandpit]

This is the default position, and general international practice. To presume persons are going to exit in just one direction is simplistic at best. What if that exit is then found to be blocked? What if someone is left behind, and needs help.

The gates must default to open in crises.

In an evacuation yes, but the station can be closed (no new entries) before then so that it doesn't need to get to that point.

 

[Leo_Chan]

In an evacuation yes, but the station can be closed (no new entries) before then so that it doesn't need to get to that point.

Quick response times? That's unheard of!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Introducing The TTC Way, co-created by customers and employees

February 5, 2018

The TTC is renewing its commitment to customers, employees and community partners with The TTC Way, a set of six objectives that will guide improved service.

In partnership with Bridgeable, a world leader in Service Design, the TTC brought together groups of customers and employees to create The TTC Way, a key element of its next five-year Corporate Plan. The TTC Way appears at the start of that plan, and includes detailed commitments for employees, TTC management, partners, customers, and communities.

"The future of the TTC depends on all of us working together in new ways," said TTC Chair Josh Colle. "The TTC Way is a sign of that commitment to working with our customers, partners and communities to take transit in Toronto to the next level. It's our commitment to customers and ourselves."

Over the next week, a campaign will appear on the TTC that shares the six values of The TTC Way:

- Respect one another
- Value each other's time
- Tell people what's happening
- Stay safe
- Mind your space
- Help others out

With Bridgeable, the TTC consulted hundreds of people from various groups that interact with the TTC to understand their needs and how to address them. Bridgeable and the TTC hosted design workshops with customers and employees from all levels of the organization, including frontline operators, to prototype solutions together. They collaborated with regional transit agencies, the TTC Board, and the City of Toronto, and they researched best practices from transit agencies around the world.

"By using a design approach to bring together riders with employees, we were able to collaborate on a vision for the future of transit in the city of Toronto," said Chris Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, Bridgeable. "The TTC Way and the new TTC Corporate Plan represent shared-values, setting an innovative precedent for how public institutions can collaborate with residents."

The TTC Way and new Corporate Plan were approved by the TTC Board on Jan. 25.

For more on The TTC Way, visit ttc.ca/theTTCway.

What is Service Design?
Service design is a discipline that allows organizations to understand where, when and how their services may be improved to deliver shared value for themselves and their end users. This can be done for an existing service, or it can be used to imagine and shape a future service or experience.

Service design takes a human-centred approach to design, recognizing that effective service solutions require a holistic understanding of people's current and unmet needs.

Service designers work with multiple, diverse stakeholders to co-create the design of service solutions, leveraging collaboration to translate needs, pain points, and opportunities into actionable ideas for services and experiences.

The service design process engages in cycles of prototyping and iteration, continuously building and testing to get to a solution that will deliver higher impact, while minimizing risk.

Service design allows organizations to design and embed the systems and solutions and organizational strategies necessary to repeatedly deliver a valuable service to their users while also keeping business realities in mind.


About Bridgeable
Bridgeable is an award-winning service design firm based in Toronto, Canada that employs a human-centred approach to understand and address complex challenges and the people affected. Working with clients across the world, we bridge the gap between what is known (data, analytics, insights, strategy) and what we do (services, interactions, customer experiences).

With extensive experience in sectors ranging from healthcare, financial services, consumer, and the public sector, our multi-disciplinary team of strategists, designers, and researchers help our clients solve complex problems by translating human understanding into innovation opportunities for their customers.

This is definitely an example of a press release following mantra 2 - "Value each other's time".

AoD

 

[Sandpit]

Introducing The TTC Way, co-created by customers and employees

February 5, 2018

The TTC is renewing its commitment to customers, employees and community partners with The TTC Way, a set of six objectives that will guide improved service.

In partnership with Bridgeable, a world leader in Service Design, the TTC brought together groups of customers and employees to create The TTC Way, a key element of its next five-year Corporate Plan. The TTC Way appears at the start of that plan, and includes detailed commitments for employees, TTC management, partners, customers, and communities.

"The future of the TTC depends on all of us working together in new ways," said TTC Chair Josh Colle. "The TTC Way is a sign of that commitment to working with our customers, partners and communities to take transit in Toronto to the next level. It's our commitment to customers and ourselves."

Over the next week, a campaign will appear on the TTC that shares the six values of The TTC Way:

- Respect one another
- Value each other's time
- Tell people what's happening
- Stay safe
- Mind your space
- Help others out

With Bridgeable, the TTC consulted hundreds of people from various groups that interact with the TTC to understand their needs and how to address them. Bridgeable and the TTC hosted design workshops with customers and employees from all levels of the organization, including frontline operators, to prototype solutions together. They collaborated with regional transit agencies, the TTC Board, and the City of Toronto, and they researched best practices from transit agencies around the world.

"By using a design approach to bring together riders with employees, we were able to collaborate on a vision for the future of transit in the city of Toronto," said Chris Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer, Bridgeable. "The TTC Way and the new TTC Corporate Plan represent shared-values, setting an innovative precedent for how public institutions can collaborate with residents."

The TTC Way and new Corporate Plan were approved by the TTC Board on Jan. 25.

For more on The TTC Way, visit ttc.ca/theTTCway.

What is Service Design?
Service design is a discipline that allows organizations to understand where, when and how their services may be improved to deliver shared value for themselves and their end users. This can be done for an existing service, or it can be used to imagine and shape a future service or experience.

Service design takes a human-centred approach to design, recognizing that effective service solutions require a holistic understanding of people's current and unmet needs.

Service designers work with multiple, diverse stakeholders to co-create the design of service solutions, leveraging collaboration to translate needs, pain points, and opportunities into actionable ideas for services and experiences.

The service design process engages in cycles of prototyping and iteration, continuously building and testing to get to a solution that will deliver higher impact, while minimizing risk.

Service design allows organizations to design and embed the systems and solutions and organizational strategies necessary to repeatedly deliver a valuable service to their users while also keeping business realities in mind.


About Bridgeable
Bridgeable is an award-winning service design firm based in Toronto, Canada that employs a human-centred approach to understand and address complex challenges and the people affected. Working with clients across the world, we bridge the gap between what is known (data, analytics, insights, strategy) and what we do (services, interactions, customer experiences).

With extensive experience in sectors ranging from healthcare, financial services, consumer, and the public sector, our multi-disciplinary team of strategists, designers, and researchers help our clients solve complex problems by translating human understanding into innovation opportunities for their customers.

Needs more synergy.

 

[steveintoronto]

In an evacuation yes, but the station can be closed (no new entries) before then so that it doesn't need to get to that point.

TTC union sounds alarm on safety of Presto gates in emergencies
BY ADRIAN GHOBRIAL AND ROSHNI MURTHY

POSTED MAY 24, 2017 8:35 PM EST


LAST UPDATED MAY 24, 2017 AT 11:26 PM EST

A heated debate is underway concerning passenger safety on the TTC.

This comes as ATU Local 113, the union representing TTC employees, sounds the alarm over personal safety concerns since the Presto system was implemented at subway stations across the city.

Kevin Morton, the union’s secretary-treasurer, says the TTC’s Presto fare gates are not patched into fire panels at a number of stations, meaning when an alarm is pulled the doors will not automatically open to allow people out.

“If these gates don’t open properly I think you can just use your imagination to say you’re going to have a lot of people trying to get through and it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen,” he claims. “This is outright negligence on somebody’s part.”

But the transit commission disagrees. Spokesperson Brad Ross confirms the gates are not patched into the alarm system but claims, “[The union is] creating a fear that is not necessary for the public. The fare gates are safe.”

Toronto Fire and the TTC tell CityNews customers do have a way out in the event of an emergency. A manual hatch is available that allows the gates to open, allowing 10 passengers out of the gates at a time. For approximately every 10 people exiting the gates, the doors briefly close then re-open.

Though the TTC is working on retro-fitting the system to eventually patch Presto fare gates into the fire system, Morton suggests the whole process is flawed.

“I’d like to know how this system was developed and the technology wasn’t married with our existing technology for the safety of our passengers. It’s ludicrous,” he says.

“We would argue that the new fare gates that we see in our stations today make exiting in an emergency less cumbersome than a turnstile or at an auto entrance,” asserts Ross.

CityNews has also learned fire alarms are not in place at three Toronto subway stations, yet their nonexistence does not break provincial fire codes due to the stations’ age.

Midland, Ellesmere and Glencairn – all outdoor stations – were built before fire regulations were implemented and they are still in the process of being retrofitted to meet current regulations. This does not contravene with provincial building codes, according to Toronto Fire’s Deputy Chief.

The system, built in 1954, did not have fire alarm regulations when these stations were constructed.

But in the interim, claims Ross, “If there’s an emergency people…will be shown out of the station by TTC staff.”

The three stations will be getting fire alarm systems installed in the near future in accordance with the TTC’s Fire Safety program.

http://toronto.citynews.ca/2017/05/24/ttc-union-questions-safety-presto-gates-emergencies/

 

[Northern Light]

The system, built in 1954, did not have fire alarm regulations when these stations were constructed/[/URL]

ummmmm

None of those stations were built in the 1950s or 1960s; Glencairn is the oldest of the three and it would be mid 70s.......

The SRT stations would date from early 80s.

I want to say, I'm not flummoxed about changing codes, and these are outdoor stations..........

But I am flummoxed by answers attributed to either the Fire Dept or TTC which appear at first blush rather nonsensical.

I should say, that statement doesn't read as quote from either. But the reporter got that line from somewhere.......... I'm assuming.

 

[steveintoronto]

^ The "1954" is either a typo, or part of a blanket coverage that continued on with extensions on the line. I've Googled to ascertain reference, so far none is showing of *any* definitive reference, but that may be explained by this: (bold emphasis mine)

In April 2018, the TTC will also bring out a major plan for renewal of the Bloor-Danforth subway which will include:

• New signals and ATC implementation.
• A new fleet capable of ATC operation and with provision for one person train operation (or “OPTO” in TTC-ese).
• A new yard and maintenance facility west of Kipling Station on lands formerly occupied by the CPR Obico Yard (property acquisition is already in progress).
• Station renovations including accessibility and fire safety changes.
• Co-ordination with the Scarborough extension so that the entire line is ready for modern operations by opening date.

The intention is that by co-ordinating these as one set of projects, there will be both economies of scale and an avoidance of the many “oops” that bedeviled upgrades on the YUS that were planned and executed on a piecemeal basis. The various subprojects exist, for the most part, in the capital budget, but not all are funded, and they are currently timed in ways that would cause conflicts in the overall execution. Timing is an issue in capital projects because the ebb and flow of spending requirements does not always fit with available sources of funding, particularly the City of Toronto’s borrowing plans. This has been a source of project delay in the past with needed work deferred simply because there is not enough money available to pay for it.
[...]
The Need for Subway Relief

Back in December 2008, TTC staff gave a presentation on the recommended configuration of the Richmond Hill extension and the issues it raised. This presented a rather rosy picture of the ability to handle rising demand on Yonge without building the Relief Line, even though it recognized the huge benefit such a line would have in reducing demand on the heart of the subway system downtown.

In the slide below, note the claim that the new signal system could provide a 90 second headway. This has been the source of much misinformation about subway capacity. ATC can run trains quite close together, but this is intended only in backlog situations or where there is a crunch point with long dwell times. It is not achievable over the entire route, especially at terminals. A sustained 90 second headway (40 trains/hour) translates to a capacity of 44,000/hour, the sort of number that can be thrown about to claim we would never need a relief line.
[...]
Metrolinx examined various options to relieve demand on the Yonge line, and the “Relief Line Long” running east and north to Sheppard and Don Mills would produce a huge drop in demand on the Yonge line to well below the current level. Any projections should be taken with caution, but the magnitude of change is substantial and considerable headroom would be created for growth from Richmond Hill and elsewhere. Queen’s Park’s renewed interest in the Relief Line arises directly from this projection, but whether it survives political changes over coming years could be the make-or-break issue for subway capacity.
[...]

https://stevemunro.ca/2018/02/03/crowding-on-the-ttc/

 

[Richard White]

In an evacuation yes, but the station can be closed (no new entries) before then so that it doesn't need to get to that point.

When the station is as full as it was you need to empty it. It was far beyond the point of not admitting new customers into the station, it was a death trap. Given the fact there were so many existing delays on the line, that the station was overloaded to the point where you could not move it needed to be emptied of people.

If the station is 75% full you can say stop admitting people until the crowds clear (it's what London does at Oxford Circus, Victoria, etc) but when it is 90-100% full with people you need to evacuate the station to avoid people dying in an emergency.

If someone screamed fire, pulled out a weapon etc before the crowds could dissipate it would not matter if the station was closed to new customers and I am pretty sure the ensuing coroners inquest would agree.

 

[Johnny Au]

I don't know what is more feasible:

•Making Bloor-Yonge station Spanish Solution for both levels
•Constructing the Relief Line

 

[Leo_Chan]

I don't know what is more feasible:

•Making Bloor-Yonge station Spanish Solution for both levels
•Constructing the Relief Line

SmartTrack /s

 

[steveintoronto]

I don't know what is more feasible:

•Making Bloor-Yonge station Spanish Solution for both levels
•Constructing the Relief Line

Reconstructing Bloor yet again is ludicrous. I feel much the same for the entire subway. Tweak it, but leave the general infrastructure the way it is. The massive cost of redoing Y-B can be put to other projects that would yield far more for the investment.

An example? Extend the Spadina street car line across the Spadina Station (various ways to do this, some radical, like using the walkway to Spadina North before surfacing onto Spadina Rd), attain the two unused RoWs along the Mid-Town Corridor, if CP refuses, build them next to the corridor on the hydro RoW, over to Summerhill, using North Toronto Station if possible, and then a new pedestrian tunnel connection to Summerhill subway station.

Make a major difference? No, but it would make enough of one to alleviate the crush at Yonge/Bloor and be usable for extending later. The Spadina and Waterfront cars really need a better 'run-through' to serve what loading there is at the present Spadina loop anyway, and a reconfigurement would serve a number of purposes.

There's a number of projects like that, and they'd be far less disruptive to do.