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TTC: Streetcar Network
- Thread starter wolfewood
- Start date
zang
Senior Member
Frankly, a lot of places that use timed transfers also do 3 hours.
drum118
Superstar
Where???
zang
Senior Member
I was wrong about three hours. I was tired and out of it when I wrote that last night. When timed transfers were instituted, I do however remember arguments being made by transit advocates that the transfer time should be three hours given the size of the city and the length of time needed to get from one spot in Etobicoke to a point in Scarborough could end up requiring two fares.
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turbanplanner
Senior Member
Are they subject to the HTA?
nfitz
Superstar
In both cases - where the trump is the (red and green) paint? That would go a long way to making it very clear to pedestrians where they are standing, and at least which direction(s) to watch.
I can't say I've watched here closely recently, but with all the talk of how the streetcar crawl through intersections now, I've been watching closely, at least on 506 which I've been riding more lately. I can't see any difference in how they operate at most intersections, though it's a bit slower where there's switches and track work - which is only a fraction of intersections. And invariably that's near busy stops so the impact is often minimal, and mostly as they wait for the end of the car to get over before accelerating - and even that doesn't seem universal, I watch yesterday autos fail to overtake a 506 westbound from the Broadview/Gerrard stop, with the twist in the track and lots of trackwork. Even all the 90-degree curves (there are several with no switches on 506 from Yonge to Main) don't slow much more than I'd expect ... gosh, I'm not going to drive a car around those curves at 40 km - when I do turn at the same time as a streetcar, I'm not turning any faster (but I've got a tighter radius on the inside lane ... which yes, you can do at Upper Gerrard and Coxwell, there's plenty of space. But I wouldn't try it southbound on Broadview to Queen westbound ... there's not much space. One advantage of the new cars, is they don't swing at all over the dashed lines at the curves.
And even though I've seen here reports that streetcars aren't taking 90-degree curves in both directions simultaneously - I observed exactly that ... though there was no trackwork. I'll have to keep my eyes open at Parliament and Coxwell.
And you certainly see improvements since the time of the CLRVs. Not once have I observed anyone shouting "GET OFF THE STEPS" while the back door refuses to close. Or missing an extra two or even three lights at a busy stop (like Yonge) while everyone tries to get in and out of the streetcar, with all the steps and fare box. Loading is clearly faster; if there's a delay because the doors are slightly slower it's probably still an overall gain; and the doors seem to be faster than the rear bus doors that you see nationwide.
Yes, it would be nice to run faster through intersections and improve switches. And hopefully they can sort this out soon ... though we can see the failure on Finch of supposed modern switches, and can see every reason why TTC would be cautious to implement. Forget Spain - perhaps someone could go to Moscow and check out how their trams work in the winter! They have a 36 lines, over a 400+ kilometre network and 600 or so vehicles - all built in the the last 15 years. They run in traffic, with stops frequently only 150 metres apart, and no opportunities for cars to pass the trams.
They also operate on massively wide streets, with no two-stage crossings and pedestrian refuges. I'm amused Toronto has the slowest trams in the world, on a list that included no comparable cities. Like Moscow.