TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[DSCToronto]

Sorry to say this, but I wouldnt mind having hundreds of tourists walking out on the streets on Lake Shore, Queens Quay, etc in the middle of some rain storm in the summer because of this city's traffic mess, and the mess that is the TTC.

It seems like embarrassment is the only way that forces the city and TTC do get their collectives heads out of their @)$$(* to make significant changes to transit in this city. Asides from that, the politicians and transit officials are pretty much asleep at the wheel not doing a lick of anything to improve operations.

Actually having tourists come into the city presents great opportunities at publicly embarrassing the TTC into doing the following:

1) Ridding the TTC of their idiotic 10km/hr streetcar special trackwork rule​

2) Ridding the TTC of their 20km/hr signalized intersection rule​

3) Ridding the TTC of stop/proceed streetcar operating rules​

4) Ridding the TTC of the 10km/hr streetcar rule under bridges and low overhead clearance areas​

5) Removing outstanding speed restricted zones that are in place for no reason (ie: Queen's Quay streetcar portal @ Bay St)​

6) Upgrading the damn streetcar switching network​

7) Updating ATC on the Yonge-University line so trains stop faster, and travel through certain stretches of track faster​

8) Firmly implementing policies (ie: not short turning) which regularly space out buses, to not have them run in packs​

^It's sad that I just to do the job of a group of people who are actively getting paid to run the TTC, but yet these same people are sitting on their hands twiddling their hands and not doing a damn thing to change/improve the TTC. All the above points require very little/next to no amount of capital $ to make.

Not sure why having tourists embarrass the TTC is likely to be anymore effective than citizens (taxpayers) or local politicians embrrassing them ourselves. Of course, the real problem is that they seem impervious to shame!

 

[Northern Light]

A whole slew of you seemingly commented on this piece:

https://globalnews.ca/news/11661819/toronto-world-cup-streetcar-plan/ that DRUM posted.....

But apparently didn't bother to read it first....... sigh.

The primary focus was that they were looking at subway-style scheduling on Bathurst and Spadina in particular, (every 4M or less) and did they have everything in place to do that, to move the large crowds. They have the vehicles, they have the operators...........what the story discusses is that there are power grid issues on Bathurst.

From the above:

And (quoting Josh Colle)

So 4 flexities sitting in one power block would cause............???

Lets hear from @smallspy on that.

 

[DSCToronto]

A whole slew of you seemingly commented on this piece:

https://globalnews.ca/news/11661819/toronto-world-cup-streetcar-plan/ that DRUM posted.....

But apparently didn't bother to read it first....... sigh.

The primary focus was that they were looking at subway-style scheduling on Bathurst and Spadina in particular, (every 4M or less) and did they have everything in place to do that, to move the large crowds. They have the vehicles, they have the operators...........what the story discusses is that there are power grid issues on Bathurst.

From the above:

View attachment 714778

And (quoting Josh Colle)
View attachment 714779

So 4 flexities sitting in one power block would cause............???

Lets hear from @smallspy on that.

I seem to remember they had a power grid problem on Bathurst last year when they tried to send too many diversions along it last year.

 

[evandyk]

I seem to remember they had a power grid problem on Bathurst last year when they tried to send too many diversions along it last year.

I remember this because my wife, who does not pay attention to this stuff, listened to the news one day and was like "You mean the TTC doesn't know how much electricity it needs for the streetcars it's running?!?!?!?!"

 

[evandyk]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-bathurst-line-streetcar-electrical-issue-cne-1.7621025

While the cause of the issue is being investigated, Green said, "what we do know is that because of all the extra streetcar service that we had out for the CNE, it was stressing this particular junction box."

 

[Sauga89]

A whole slew of you seemingly commented on this piece:

https://globalnews.ca/news/11661819/toronto-world-cup-streetcar-plan/ that DRUM posted.....

But apparently didn't bother to read it first....... sigh.

The primary focus was that they were looking at subway-style scheduling on Bathurst and Spadina in particular, (every 4M or less) and did they have everything in place to do that, to move the large crowds. They have the vehicles, they have the operators...........what the story discusses is that there are power grid issues on Bathurst.

From the above:

View attachment 714778

And (quoting Josh Colle)
View attachment 714779

So 4 flexities sitting in one power block would cause............???

Lets hear from @smallspy on that.

Also,

Josh Colle, the TTC’s chief strategy and customer experience officer, told Global News the transit agency has the drivers and vehicles to run significantly enhanced service,

Where are these vehicles and drivers coming from? Are they planning on paying drivers overtime? Pulling vehicles from other routes? Deferring maintenance to have every vehicle available?

(EDIT: Some of the games are in rush hour, so I doubt the answer is just running peak service at non-peak times.)

 

[Northern Light]

Also,

Where are these vehicles and drivers coming from? Are they planning on paying drivers overtime? Pulling vehicles from other routes? Deferring maintenance to have every vehicle available?

(EDIT: Some of the games are in rush hour, so it can't just be running peak service at non-peak times.)

I can't speak to how many operators are trained to drive streetcars who are surplus to routine service needs; but there is spare fleet, even in rush hours, The TTC is quite capable of fielding an extra two dozen for FIFA, in rush hours. (from a fleet perspective).

I believe they do have some wiggle room in terms of operators available, overall, because, in theory, they should have saved several operating positions with the opening of Lines 5 and 6. But how many of these are available to work streetcars I don't know. Current, near constant shuttle buses for Line 6 will also be eating into the surplus.

 

[PL1]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-bathurst-line-streetcar-electrical-issue-cne-1.7621025

I guess swapping the fuse with a couple of pennies won't work /s

 

[Amare]

Not sure why having tourists embarrass the TTC is likely to be anymore effective than citizens (taxpayers) or local politicians embrrassing them ourselves. Of course, the real problem is that they seem impervious to shame!

It seems to embarrass them enough, because they either barely look into resolving issues with the network unless there is a big influx of people who come into the city.

One illustration is the overhead power upgrades along Queens Quay in late 2024 during the Taylor Swift concert, which made the TTC get their heads out of the gutter to ensure they could at least restore 509 service ASAP to accommodate all the influx of people coming into the city. I can assure you that had it not been for that, they would've dragged the project longer.

TTC says 509 Harbourfront streetcar work won't impact Taylor Swift concerts

Buses are set to replace the 509 Harbourfront streetcar between Union Station and Exhibition Place starting Sept. 3.

toronto.citynews.ca

Another perfect illustration is what @Northern Light points out below. Apparently (to my knowledge) it's only now that the TTC evaluating capacity limits of the overhead along Bathurst. From the sounds of it, this is something they were not looking into before and the World Cup has them spinning their wheels.

A whole slew of you seemingly commented on this piece:

https://globalnews.ca/news/11661819/toronto-world-cup-streetcar-plan/ that DRUM posted.....

But apparently didn't bother to read it first....... sigh.

The primary focus was that they were looking at subway-style scheduling on Bathurst and Spadina in particular, (every 4M or less) and did they have everything in place to do that, to move the large crowds. They have the vehicles, they have the operators...........what the story discusses is that there are power grid issues on Bathurst.

From the above:

View attachment 714778

And (quoting Josh Colle)
View attachment 714779

So 4 flexities sitting in one power block would cause............???

Lets hear from @smallspy on that.

 

[SubHuman]

There's special event express buses during the CNE. I don't see why this couldn't be done for six soccer matches at the stadium.

 

[Jonny5]

I remember this because my wife, who does not pay attention to this stuff, listened to the news one day and was like "You mean the TTC doesn't know how much electricity it needs for the streetcars it's running?!?!?!?!"

I don't know too much about these things, but I'm going to guess the hypothetical scenario is that the streetcars would be running with air conditioning on at full power (this will be in June) and with too many streetcars drawing down power in one electrically divided section of the route it would trip some safety mechanism that would cut the power to the line.

 

[Mihairokov]

Bloor-Yonge Station: For the Hayden Street/1 Bloor East entrance/exit there are bollards at the top and bottom of the escalator. Do I dare ask why there are bollards here?

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Bloor-Yonge Station: For the Hayden Street/1 Bloor East entrance/exit there are bollards at the top and bottom of the escalator. Do I dare ask why there are bollards here?

Let me guess...

...if they can get past the bollards, then...

 

[IRT_BMT_IND]

Bloor-Yonge Station: For the Hayden Street/1 Bloor East entrance/exit there are bollards at the top and bottom of the escalator. Do I dare ask why there are bollards here?

I believe to stop bikes (especially the fat tire food delivery ebikes) from getting stuck on the narrow escalator.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

I believe to stop bikes (especially the fat tire food delivery ebikes) from getting stuck on the narrow escalator.

More likely to stop wheelchairs.