As I took a moment to get to this, let me remind people what Dan as asking about here: As a separate, but related issue, the TTC's inefficient operation of buses creates an artificial suggestion of the need of more (rather than differently located) garage space.
Advance warning to the masses, this will be a long read, LOL This post is actually divided into three, because I can't post it as-is, I assume due to overrunning the character limit.
The TTC should not ever need to operate more than 11 garages in the City. Queensway could be enlarged/replaced, but in general, the TTC wastes about 25% of the fleet through lousy operation/service planning and bad choices by Transportation services
So, lets start by me elaborating on just what I'm trying to say, then get into the details. What I'm saying is that the bus network is both scheduled and operated in a manner that necessitates more buses to achieve the current level of service than should be otherwise required. This is not exclusively on the TTC, as discussed in other threads, particular on the new LRTs and streetscars, City policies on TSP, street parking, and left turns all play a role.
That said, the TTC does itself no favours with many of the choice it makes.
Beyond the City issues, the TTC makes the following choices:
1) Schedule/Terminal time bloat. Many routes operate with grossly excessive times that far exceed 90% of typical runs. This is partly the result of Rick Leary's obsession with as few short-turns as possible, but its also Service Planning caving to operations instead of standing up for itself, or fixing the concrete issues that effect service.
2) Boarding Policy - All-door boarding dramatically reduces dwell time on busy routes, and at busy stops. It does slightly increase the risk of fare evasion, but that is addressable through the enforcement side of the equation.
3) Fare Policy - accepting cash on vehicles is just not reasonable in the age of open payment. I do not believe we need fare dispensing machines at every single stop, but certainly we can install more to reduce inconvenience. But its time for this practice to go.
4) Fare Validator locations within vehicles. These must be move further away from the doors, it needn't be far, across from the rear/centre doors, or just slightly further in, would allow additional people to enter if someone is fiddling for their card.
5) Number of bus stops. As long discussed, Toronto has too many of these, there is room for debate on appropriate stop spacing, but a modest reduction target would be 20% of all stops, and this would result in better run times.
6) On time performance measurement. The TTC still allows for late runs of up to 5 minutes with no one taking action or validating the reasons for delay. The TTC on-time standard has evolved over the years, I grew up with +3/-3 meaning 3 minutes early or late. Andy Byford, rightly wondered why any vehicle would be allowed to depart a terminal 3 minutes early, and shifted the window to +1/-5 meaning 1 minute early, 5 minutes late. Last I heard, the current standard is +0/-5
For schedule adherence I would argue +0/-3 is a reasonable measure, and should be aggressively, proactively and real-time checked to ensure operators are running hot, missing runs, or experiencing controllable delays/unreasonable schedules.
Headway adherence also needs to be measured on any route with a headway (time between vehicles) of 10 minutes or less.
7) Add to the above, the issue of vehicle design. As one of the largest buyers of buses in North America, if not the largest, I expect the TTC to demand models from manufactures that assist with efficient operations.
That means 100% low-floor, and 3 sets of doors. This design, with customer education, produces far better results in terms of dwell time (egress/ingress of passengers). The stairs are a huge source of delay and uneven passenger load within vehicles, so is having passengers primarily enter through the front of the vehicle. Operating the above design has passengers enter from the front and rear, and exit in the middle. This encourages passengers to move through the length of the vehicle as much as is practical, spreading people out, and making more efficient use of space, while reducing or eliminating conflicts of entering/existing passengers.
8) Finally, for the TTC alone, we need to talk spare ratio. The spare ratio for buses has ballooned from 15% a decade and a bit ago to well over 20% and approaching 25% at points. That is entirely unacceptable. having up to 1/4 of the fleet idle justifies huge bus parking lots for capacity not in use.
After all of the above, we come back to the issues for which the City is partially or wholly responsible, but which the TTC also does a very poor job of advocating for itself or its passengers. Transit priority, Parking, turn management and other congestion measures.
** con't in next post **
