TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[Jonny5]

I'm up very early today and I saw a weird flashing blue light coming through the crack in the blinds. I thought it was police lights, but it was a streetcar on Queen. I'm guessing the lines are iced over this morning and this was the first one to pass under in a few hours.

 

[nfitz]

I'm up very early today and I saw a weird flashing blue light coming through the crack in the blinds. I thought it was police lights, but it was a streetcar on Queen. I'm guessing the lines are iced over this morning and this was the first one to pass under in a few hours.

Yeah, it can be quite a light show.

But even with frequent service during ice storms, those blue flashes start happening. I was on a 501 during one evening storm, and we kept getting slow and slower on Queen East - we must have spent almost 10 minutes getting from Leslie to Greenwood - much faster to walk (I was giving up, and taking a 31 up to the subway, but it was torrenting outside, so I stayed dry in the almost-parked CLRV).

It was quite the lightshow for sure. And eventually a train of streetcars, with drivers keep getting out and knocking ice off the lines with the pole. I'm wonder if it's better or worse now with pantographs rather than poles).

BTW, there was quite a bolt of lightening around 1:30 AM or so, just offshore.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

We must urgently reinvent public transit for the postpandemic world​

With work-from-home here to stay, the entire model of moving people around needs to be rebuilt. Wholesale service reductions are not the solution

From link.

Andy Byford
Contributed to The Globe and Mail

Andy Byford is the former head of Transport for London, New York City Transit and the Toronto Transit Commission.

Throughout the vast majority of my 33 years in public transit, one of the biggest challenges facing my various employers has been how to match insufficient capacity to ever-growing demand.

In my work for transit authorities in Sydney, Toronto and New York, one of our biggest headaches was figuring out how to squeeze ever more people into networks that were limited by fleet size and line capacity during ever-widening peak periods. Off-peak and weekend travel were also booming, fuelled by increasing urbanization, improvements in product offering and a shift away from the private car in an increasingly environmentally conscious world.

This transit renaissance developed over many years, with cities such as London and New York carrying record numbers of riders, enabling them to rely heavily on fare revenue to cover day-to-day expenses. Transport for London (TfL), more specifically the London Underground, was virtually at the point of break-even back in the halcyon days of 2019, a remarkable achievement born of booming ridership, tight cost control and targeted system expansion.

In both Toronto and New York, my focus was on enhancements to system capability across the various modes. Our plans included upgrades to signalling systems to enable trains to run closer together (thereby increasing the number of trains that could be run each hour), procurement of larger vehicles, expansion of vehicle-storage facilities and progressive (and expensive) enlargement of customer facilities such as subway stations, all designed to accommodate what seemed to be a limitless pipeline of new customers. Business cases were compelling and political support was (largely) forthcoming; we’d never had it so good.

Go to the link for the complete article.

And then came COVID-19.

Almost overnight, ridership collapsed as agencies scrambled to implement government directives to restrict transit usage to key workers, and customers stayed home to avoid perceived or actual infection risk.

London’s tube ridership dipped to levels not seen since Victorian times, a situation mirrored on the capital’s previously clogged streets and bridges. The financial impact was calamitous, as the risks of an overreliance on fare revenue became horribly apparent. Where most transit agencies enjoy a fare-box recovery ratio of around 40 per cent to 50 per cent (meaning the proportion of fares paid by riders compared with other sources of funding, such as subsidies), London was exposed to the tune of 72 per cent. That can work in good times, but the pandemic brought realization that such a model cannot withstand a major prolonged economic hit.

The previous challenge of how to match insufficient capacity with excess demand was reversed. Where marketing efforts previously tried to encourage ridership outside the peak, campaigns now need to win riders back. In London, Toronto and New York, ridership is recovering as the pandemic and its associated restrictions recede, but there is still a major shortfall from the previous norm – and some evidence suggests patronage will never get back to its previous highs. The work-from-home genie is proving hard to force back into its bottle.

This all comes at huge cost. One of my main priorities as commissioner of TfL was to secure government support to keep the organization going while we worked on changing the funding model to one that reflected the new reality and reduced exposure to future economic shocks. We successfully secured £6-billion ($9.6-billion) in funding through arduous negotiation with central government, but it came with conditions that honed in on costs and commitment to structural reform. It was never easy to persuade government to support transit, but that job became exponentially harder.

 

[TTCdinosaur]

We must urgently reinvent public transit for the postpandemic world​

With work-from-home here to stay, the entire model of moving people around needs to be rebuilt. Wholesale service reductions are not the solution

From link.

Andy Byford
Contributed to The Globe and Mail

Andy Byford is the former head of Transport for London, New York City Transit and the Toronto Transit Commission.



Go to the link for the complete article.

But UT told me this assumption is preposterous.

 

[Northern Light]

But UT told me this assumption is preposterous.

UT told you no such thing.

As is your penchant, you make stuff up.

 

[TTCdinosaur]

Mmmhm. I get it. Wasn’t in transit engineer leet speak, but glad Andy’s writing about it at least.

ANYWAYS.

still no answer to the question posed originally which was how the TTC should change investment strategy now that wfh had changed ridership patterns permanently. Which was “ridiculous”

You can look up your originally haughty response, Lights.

 

[APTA-2048]

Mmmhm. I get it. Wasn’t in transit engineer leet speak, but glad Andy’s writing about it at least.

ANYWAYS.

still no answer to the question posed originally which was how the TTC should change investment strategy now that wfh had changed ridership patterns permanently. Which was “ridiculous”

You can look up your originally haughty response, Lights.

What solutions have you put forward other than taking a huge ass Uber SUV across town?

Your whole post history is just non stop complaining. And you started with boasting about how the personal automobile is superior. It doesn’t sound like you entered this discussion in good faith, and you shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction you got.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Sigh. On Friday I went to the motorcycle show at the Enercare Centre, with plans to meet my friends there at 11:45 am for the noon opening. At 11:05 I had my coat and boots on, ready to take the TTC from my place near Gerrard and Sumach. So I open up the Transit app to see when the 506 westbound is coming… and see that the ETA Enercare Ctr is 12:15 pm, including wait time, an hour and ten minutes to travel less than 7 km from my front door. According to Google Maps it would have taken me 1 hour, 17 mins to walk the same distance from my house - so the TTC would have saved me seven minutes.

So, screw it I said, and drove my car there, in 15 mins, including driving away from where I was going, northward on Bayview to the DVP south! Parking cost me $21 instead of $6.50 in TTC fare, so $14.50 more. Is it truly necessary to leave 90 mins time to travel short distances in the city by transit? I suppose when the Ontario Line is finished I could take it from Parliament and walk up from Ontario Place…. I’m 51 now, so that’ll be in my early 70s, lol.

 

[APTA-2048]

Sigh. On Friday I went to the motorcycle show at the Enercare Centre, with plans to meet my friends there at 11:45 am for the noon opening. At 11:05 I had my coat and boots on, ready to take the TTC from my place near Gerrard and Sumach. So I open up the Transit app to see when the 506 westbound is coming… and see that the ETA Enercare Ctr is 12:15 pm, including wait time, an hour and ten minutes to travel less than 7 km from my front door. According to Google Maps it would have taken me 1 hour, 17 mins to walk the same distance from my house - so the TTC would have saved me seven minutes.

So, screw it I said, and drove my car there, in 15 mins, including driving away from where I was going, northward on Bayview to the DVP south! Parking cost me $21 instead of $6.50 in TTC fare, so $14.50 more. Is it truly necessary to leave 90 mins time to travel short distances in the city by transit? I suppose when the Ontario Line is finished I could take it from Parliament and walk up from Ontario Place…. I’m 51 now, so that’ll be in my early 70s, lol.

The 506 has become so bad with poor route management and slow spots. I’m not surprised. I would have walked the ten or so minutes to King and took the 504 and 511. Triplinx gives a travel time of 50 or so minutes. It’s still a long travel time, but I am confident this can be lowered if management had any competency in handling the streetcar network.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

This all started with the misnamed Common Sense Resolution in 1999, when Mike Harris cut the provincial operating subsidy. Did this to reduce spending on the provincial level, but dumping it to the municipalities. Happened again under Rob Ford. John Tory's cutting TTC services is also a budget saving item by him.

The TTC remains underfunded. It needs proper funding. Public transit needs to be a higher priority for ALL cities.

For the newcomers to this blog...
#1 priority—emergency vehicles
#2 priority—pedestrians
#3 priority—public transit
#4 priority—cycling
#5 priority—delivery & contractor trucks
#6 priority—autos with more than one person
#7 priority—single-occupant autos
#8 priority—personal trucks or SUVs

 

[nfitz]

The 506 has become so bad with poor route management and slow spots. I’m not surprised.

I've complained vociferously about the 506 - but to be honest, I've found it's running near clockwork since the detour on Dundas ended in December. I've just taken it today, and it was near perfect and regular.

Sigh. On Friday I went to the motorcycle show at the Enercare Centre, with plans to meet my friends there at 11:45 am for the noon opening. At 11:05 I had my coat and boots on, ready to take the TTC from my place near Gerrard and Sumach. So I open up the Transit app to see when the 506 westbound is coming… and see that the ETA Enercare Ctr is 12:15 pm, including wait time, an hour and ten minutes to travel less than 7 km from my front door. According to Google Maps it would have taken me 1 hour, 17 mins to walk the same distance from my house - so the TTC would have saved me seven minutes.

Getting across to Exhibition has always been a pain. But I get there a lot faster from Gerrard and Woodbine. But I take the GO Train from Danforth.

I'm confused though why it showed you 77 minutes - which would be 12:22. There's an 11:45 GO Train from Union that arrives at 11:52 at Exhibition. and it doesn't take 40 minutes to get to Union - (and good backup with 506, 505, and the 121). Heck, your only a 25-minute walk to College station.

Sometimes you have to coax these apps a bit to get the GO Train.

So, screw it I said, and drove my car there, in 15 mins, including driving away from where I was going, northward on Bayview to the DVP south! Parking cost me $21 instead of $6.50 in TTC fare, so $14.50 more. Is it truly necessary to leave 90 mins time to travel short distances in the city by transit?

I just got back from a trip to John and Queen (and there's no way I'm driving and parking that one). It was 38 minutes from a stop near Woodbine and Gerrard on the 506 and the University subway to Osgoode station. Then I made several stops on the way to the St. Lawrence Market. And finally home from the market again in 38 minutes from the 121 stop at the market to the 506 stop near my house (about 13 minutes to Gerrard and River where I change to the 506).

The Ontario Line will certainly help with trips for me to Queen West, Chinatown, and Exhibition, with the new subway station at Gerrard and Carlaw!

The one disadvantage of driving downton, is I tend to stop here and there for various sundries - which becomes nigh impossible while driving.

I suppose when the Ontario Line is finished I could take it from Parliament and walk up from Ontario Place…. I’m 51 now, so that’ll be in my early 70s, lol.

2043? I was pleased today to see all the construction underway at Parliament and Front for the new Corktown subway station (it's the launch location for the TBMs to Exhibition). The new subway station at Exhibition is combined with the existing GO station at the bottom of Atlantic Avenue, just north of the Gardiner - so not far from Enercare.

Metrolinx has improved on their contracting for this type of stuff. I don't think they'll be massively behind their 2031 deadline (which isn't finalized yet, as they still have a couple of major contracts to award). You should be in your early 60s at best. With a lot of luck, you'll be 59! Though you seem to be at exactly the wrong spot - being about a 20-minute walk to Gerrard, Riverside, Corktown stations, and Moss Park stations.

Here's a render of the future GO/Ontario Line station at Exhibition. The two tracks for the Ontario Line are on the left. You can see the Enercare Centre in the background.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

I've complained vociferously about the 506 - but to be honest, I've found it's running near clockwork since the detour on Dundas ended in December. I've just taken it today, and it was near perfect and regular.


Getting across to Exhibition has always been a pain. But I get there a lot faster from Gerrard and Woodbine. But I take the GO Train from Danforth.

I'm confused though why it showed you 77 minutes - which would be 12:22. There's an 11:45 GO Train from Union that arrives at 11:52 at Exhibition. and it doesn't take 40 minutes to get to Union - (and good backup with 506, 505, and the 121). Heck, your only a 25-minute walk to College station.

Sometimes you have to coax these apps a bit to get the GO Train.


I just got back from a trip to John and Queen (and there's no way I'm driving and parking that one). It was 38 minutes from a stop near Woodbine and Gerrard on the 506 and the University subway to Osgoode station. Then I made several stops on the way to the St. Lawrence Market. And finally home from the market again in 38 minutes from the 121 stop at the market to the 506 stop near my house (about 13 minutes to Gerrard and River where I change to the 506).

The Ontario Line will certainly help with trips for me to Queen West, Chinatown, and Exhibition, with the new subway station at Gerrard and Carlaw!

The one disadvantage of driving downton, is I tend to stop here and there for various sundries - which becomes nigh impossible while driving.


2043? I was pleased today to see all the construction underway at Parliament and Front for the new Corktown subway station (it's the launch location for the TBMs to Exhibition). The new subway station at Exhibition is combined with the existing GO station at the bottom of Atlantic Avenue, just north of the Gardiner - so not far from Enercare.

Metrolinx has improved on their contracting for this type of stuff. I don't think they'll be massively behind their 2031 deadline (which isn't finalized yet, as they still have a couple of major contracts to award). You should be in your early 60s at best. With a lot of luck, you'll be 59! Though you seem to be at exactly the wrong spot - being about a 20-minute walk to Gerrard, Riverside, Corktown stations, and Moss Park stations.

Here's a render of the future GO/Ontario Line station at Exhibition. The two tracks for the Ontario Line are on the left. You can see the Enercare Centre in the background.

View attachment 457436

See this link for a...

A History of Transit Service to Exhibition Place​

Note that the Kingston Road streetcar went into Scarborough, to the Birchmount loop.

On June 28, 1954, TTC air-electric PCC #4002 enters Birchmount loop. This shot is taken from the loop, looking northwest. From link.

 

[tiffer24]

Suspect sought after man pushed onto subway tracks at Yonge-Bloor station.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/man-pushed-subway-yonge-bloor-1.6754071

 

[turbanplanner]

Awful. Most of these violent attacks are against women. Rather terrifying that multiple suspects were involved in this unprovoked attack.

It gets worse, they were found in a condo stairwell and slashed a cop with a machete

 

[allengeorge]

It gets worse, they were found in a condo stairwell and slashed a cop with a machete

To be very clear - and this matters - they swung a machete at a cop, i.e. to my knowledge the cop was not slashed.

Clearly a very stupid move.

Unfortunately for the teen and the force, the teen later ended up with injuries post detainment, and the SIU is investigating.