News   Oct 11, 2024
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News   Oct 11, 2024
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TTC: Streetcar Network

According to the newest TTC service summary, only 198/204 of the original order of Flexitys remains on the active roster.


I assume that 3 of these would be 4468, which suffered an unscheduled thermal event at the close of 2022, and 4471 and 4478, which were submerged in the flooding at King and Atlantic in August 2018. The other 3 must be 4409, 4534, and 4568, the latter two of which are collision victims.
I wonder is the complexity of the new cars the reason their not being repaired, or the fact all the stuff lives on the floor instead of the roof like the old ones?
 
Hoarding coming down at St. Clair West station. Hope streetcars can serve it again soon.
IMG_1632.jpeg
 
At Queen Street East and Ontario Street this morning; it looks like a sinkhole is opening up.
This is only metres from where some more emergency repairs were made a few months ago.
Could be another emergency repair disruption for what is now called the 501.

IMG20240927080307.jpg
 
At Queen Street East and Ontario Street this morning; it looks like a sinkhole is opening up.
This is only metres from where some more emergency repairs were made a few months ago.
Could be another emergency repair disruption for what is now called the 501.

View attachment 599510
I would report this to 311.

From my experience they're pretty good at getting things like this taken care of. I've reported sinkholes forming in roadways before, and crews were sent out few weeks after my reporting.
 
I would report this to 311.

From my experience they're pretty good at getting things like this taken care of. I've reported sinkholes forming in roadways before, and crews were sent out few weeks after my reporting.
That doesn't look too serious yet. I doubt they'd even touch it until 2025, unless it worsens quickly.

And if it's only patching the concrete at the edge of the rail, and no track work, I've seen them doing that without stopping service before.
 
At Queen Street East and Ontario Street this morning; it looks like a sinkhole is opening up.
This is only metres from where some more emergency repairs were made a few months ago.
Could be another emergency repair disruption for what is now called the 501.

View attachment 599510
You call THAT a sink-hole??
 
You call THAT a sink-hole??
No, a future sinkhole.
Especially because it's very close to where they had to repair one a few months ago. The road foundation looks to be unstable here. May be related to the tower construction project and the excavation earlier this year across the street.
I have 311'd it now, we'll see what they do.
 
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At Queen Street East and Ontario Street this morning; it looks like a sinkhole is opening up.
This is only metres from where some more emergency repairs were made a few months ago.
Could be another emergency repair disruption for what is now called the 501.

View attachment 599510
Probably not a sinkhole yet. If it was there would be more heaving and cracking in the asphalt in a more semicircular pattern around it. Asphalt, despite its hard feel and appearance is not really a solid. It's a viscoelastic material, which is part of the reason why they use it to make roads. It is extremely viscous at normal ambient temperature and is elastic, meaning it will go back to it's set shape. But when you lay asphalt beside concrete like this, you get these kinds of holes because the two materials expand and contract at very different rates. Asphalt will expand and contract more than concrete so the edges like this tend to crumble away over time from wear and tear from vehicles or snowplows. The road base around the streetcar tracks is actually quite far down and the asphalt layer itself quite thick. Likely they'll patch it up before the snow flies so ice buildup doesn't pull away more of it.
 
Probably not a sinkhole yet. If it was there would be more heaving and cracking in the asphalt in a more semicircular pattern around it. Asphalt, despite its hard feel and appearance is not really a solid. It's a viscoelastic material, which is part of the reason why they use it to make roads. It is extremely viscous at normal ambient temperature and is elastic, meaning it will go back to it's set shape. But when you lay asphalt beside concrete like this, you get these kinds of holes because the two materials expand and contract at very different rates. Asphalt will expand and contract more than concrete so the edges like this tend to crumble away over time from wear and tear from vehicles or snowplows. The road base around the streetcar tracks is actually quite far down and the asphalt layer itself quite thick. Likely they'll patch it up before the snow flies so ice buildup doesn't pull away more of it.
Exactly, a sink hole is caused (usually) by a burst water main or leaking drain that erodes the earth or a collapse into an underground void and then the top (concrete/asphalt) falls into the hole.. @Jonny5 your photo shows a 'normal' problem between concrete & asphalt.

This on King just east of George was FAR worse last year and has been patched. Of course, if TTC/Transportation were actually paying attention they would proactively fix these before they get too big but they are NOT sink-holes.

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THIS is a sinkhole!

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As far as I am concern, why should TTC be on the hook to repair the concrete when it is the traffic doing the damage to it in the first place?? Most of the damage to the outside concrete is caused by trucks and that should fall under the road department.

Downside to TTC not doing the work goes back late 1890 when it was agreed that transit would be reasonable for the 18 inches between the rail and the road. Time to bring back the cobblestone for the tracks.
 
As far as I am concern, why should TTC be on the hook to repair the concrete when it is the traffic doing the damage to it in the first place?? Most of the damage to the outside concrete is caused by trucks and that should fall under the road department.

Downside to TTC not doing the work goes back late 1890 when it was agreed that transit would be reasonable for the 18 inches between the rail and the road. Time to bring back the cobblestone for the tracks.
I am not so sure that one can blame only traffic; as noted above, there is an unavoidable problem of two surfaces (concrete & asphalt) that expand and contract at different temperatures or different degrees and I suspect the vibration of the streetcars does not help either. However, SOMEONE needs to pay more attention to these areas of concrete adjacent to streetcar track as 'potholes' (sink holes to some :-> ) DO develop and an annual inspection/repair program would surely pay off - for everyone.
 
Our civic nightmare is over. They have patched the sinkhole that threatened to swallow the city.
They actually also took initiative to patch several other crumbling stretches adjacent to the track on this block on both sides of the road as you can partially see in the photo.

IMG20241002080243.jpg


So if you were delayed on the 501 travelling through here yesterday afternoon, you can blame me. 😈
 

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