CLRV4002

3 hours ago, Xtrazsteve said:

I do remember on that day TTC workers has been inspecting a spot on Queen eastbound just east of the intersection. Perhaps that's the spot.

I recall that on Twitter, the TTC posted they were inspecting a spot near the intersection. I think it was a couple days after the streetcars returned to the 501. 

44 minutes ago, nfitz said:

Not even around the large square building in the southwest - I thought there were some wyes around that loop. And some other spots north of there too, where they sometimes display old cars.

I've only been there during an open house ...

I’m not 100% sure on this, but I’m just using the Google satellite view of Hillcrest here. If one car was to follow the red arrows (go forward then reverse up the track) then another car goes up the track as indicated by the green arrow I suppose they could face each other head on. It looks like the other wye at the left of the image could also function the same way 

5 hours ago, PCC Guy said:

More movement at the HCRR.

 

I hope they don't stick 4003 back in that confounded shed again until after next weekend's Christmas shows

Can’t remember the last time I saw 2 CLRVs facing each other head-to-head. It made me think about it for a second. 

2 minutes ago, Cityflyer said:

Pawn Lawn serves the huge influx of condo dwellers there. There are plans to put another block of condos north of Lake Shore in that area. Having both 501 and 504 there will give the residents more frequent service and options to go downtown.

So then what’s the plan with Humber Loop? According to this plan it will just become a stop, not really used as a loop anymore. Seems like sort of a waste to have a loop which is essentially a stop and a link to the Prince Edward bus. Especially a loop that got work done on it not too long ago. 

19 minutes ago, Streety McCarface said:

Integration with a future GO station.

This makes more sense. I wasn’t aware of the overall plan. In which case maybe the eastbound 501B will also turn north on Park Lawn on its way to get to the GO Station and perhaps do away with or modify the 176 bus since many of the current riders won’t need to access Mimico Station anymore if a Park Lawn one gets built. By then I can assume the 66 Prince Edward would be more frequent and even more necessary to serve Marine Parade and northbound to the subway. 

2 hours ago, nfitz said:

If 502/503 didn't already run east of Broadview, it would fix it.  Though the 501 and 503 already run every 6.5 minutes at AM peak.

I don't really see how this works, unless you keep the east-side 501A at 6 minutes, and also run the westside 501B every 6 minutes, with 3 minutes downtown.

I’m assuming that the TTC thinks that with Flexities on the 503 instead of the current bus operation that capacity should increase. Although who knows at what intervals those streetcars will be scheduled at. 
 

2 hours ago, nfitz said:

So who thought up putting the east-side 504 as 504B and east-side 501 as 501A? How about some consistency?

B for Broadview?
 

One thing I don’t understand is this Park Lawn Loop thing. By constructing this new loop it makes Humber Loop effectively useless as nothing will turn there anymore, except for maybe the odd short turn. So instead of using Humber Loop to turn the 504B they’re going to construct a new one a block away to do the same thing? If they want to allow for 504B layovers while not blocking the path of the 501B, wouldn’t a minor redesign of Humber Loop be sufficient? 

Also what’s the purpose of running the 504B to Humber/Park Lawn anyways? Effectively all that does is provide people who get on/off between Roncesvalles and Humber Loop with not having to board a 501. Those continuing on west of Park Lawn/Humber will still have to switch to a 501 car at some point. Seems like sort of a waste of time. The 504B should continue to Long Branch similar to the 508 today or use Charlotte to turn back the 503 and continue to operate the 504B to Dufferin Gate only. Or keep both the 504B and 503 turning back at Dufferin and extend the 504B to Long Branch during peak periods as a replacement for the 508. Those are just some possibilities as the current scheme doesn’t provide much benefit for the extra running time the 504B would be faced with. 

21 minutes ago, nfitz said:

Odd though ... when I took 504 pre-split into downtown, a lot of riders got on at Sumach/Sackville/River Parliament.

When I take 501, I'd say as many get off at Broadview as on. And the next stops aren't particularly busy to Parliament. It would be interesting to see a map of where the demand is along Queeen, but I'd think you'd need a lot of capacity between Broadview towards Coxwell.

In which case I’m curious if this proposal means the 503 will be running all day, everyday instead of just a peak period tripper. Or at the very least running all day during the weekdays. Currently it runs all (week)day in the absence of the 502, so I can imagine the same idea will apply going forward. If the TTC does in fact get more streetcars, the 503 streetcars should fix the capacity issue east of Broadview. 

1 hour ago, Xtrazsteve said:

More interestingly is they plan to run the split 501 again after proclaiming their experiment a decade ago saw no improvements.

It’s not the same split however. The new 501 split would be similar to the one on King where the downtown/central portion of the route is served by A and B branches (between Broadview and Sunnyside). 

1 hour ago, CLRV4094 said:

4178 it appears is on 506. But signed out. 

Now it’s signed into the 506 

CLRVs only on the 511 this morning. None are on the 506.

4085 is running on the 511, but signed into the 11 Bayview bus. 

2 hours ago, FabianColeyLOVESBUSES said:

4021 is now at Leslie Barns.

It also appears that 4068 has returned to Russell after a long time at Leslie. 4105 also last tracks at Leslie still. 

1 hour ago, CLRV4002 said:

Yes it appears so. 4085, 4057, 4081, 4124 and 4170 are the Queen cars for today. 4178 hasn’t left Russell today. 

4184 has joined as well. Currently 6 cars on the 501 and 4053 still on the 506. 

21 hours ago, nfitz said:

Hopefully the $414.5 million listed in the 2020-2024 capital costs for "Streetcars" is more than just buying the 60 streetcars they mention. That would be about $6.9 million per streetcar ... almost double the $3.5 million option price ($210 million) they turned down last year.

I believe the option did allow for some inflation on the option price - but no where near that much.

I thought that maybe it was just a catch-all for everything streetcar related, but right below it there is a separate section for streetcar maintenance and facilities. Steve Munro released his post on the report and he remarks that the current Flexity order will cost about $5.8 million per car including training, warranties and spare parts. Even that seems inflated, but at least it is projected based on reality. Thinking about it that way, $6.9 million doesn’t sound unreasonable considering yes, the option price may be inflated on further orders. There’s also the storage issue which Steve says would cost an additional $85 million to retrofit Harvey Shops to store some vehicles. Bottom line, the costs really add up. 

29 minutes ago, Tramguy said:

According to Transsee, 4053 is currently on 506.

Yes it appears so. 4085, 4057, 4081, 4124 and 4170 are the Queen cars for today. 4178 hasn’t left Russell today. 

30 minutes ago, nfitz said:

As far as I know, Broadview modifications are buried in the budget, along with other small projects. Wasn't there a mention of this at the board or something already?

According to Steve Munro there was, at least at one point, a scheme to redesign many of the streetcar routes. He mentioned it a few months ago. I’ll try and dig it up if I can. 
 

Edit: https://stevemunro.ca/2019/07/29/streetcar-network-changes-coming-in-september-2019/

If you scroll to the bottom of that post and look at the last comment by “Sam”, you’ll see Steve explain details of a plan that was maybe going to be included in this 5-10 year plan. It doesn’t really address the 505/504 space issue at Broadview, but it’s a plan nonetheless. If someone could find any plans that exist specifically for the issues at Broadview that would be great as I haven’t been able to. 

2 hours ago, smallspy said:

To the contrary, this is already something that the TTC is looking at for some time.

The idea is that moving the Dundas cars away from Broadview would help isolate them from any issues that may happen at the station (considering how busy the King car is), and also give platform space for any line travelling down Broadview to the Eastern Portlands.

So I suppose part of the reason this is held for further review is because it depends on large external factors such as the Ontario Line and the future of the Port Lands (i.e. the Sidewalk Labs project). These issues now ultimately are mostly out of the TTC’s control, but at least they are preparing for the possibilities associated with the projects. 

The big issue to me is that unfortunately nothing I saw in the plan does much to improve the current level of streetcar traffic and lack of space at Broadview Station in the meantime (meaning in the next 5 to 10 years, as in the actual scope of the plan). Page 13 of the report also outlines risks and contingencies which, although vague, look rather concerning. For example, the contingencies for not acquiring funding for new buses and streetcars is to just “forego service improvements for growth” or if the ATC projects on Line 1 isn’t complete by 2022, the contingency is to just “delay Line 1 service increase”. I’m curious to hear what Steve Munro says about the plan when he reviews it. I think the grand scope of the plan is quite solid, but many of the short term issues faced today seem somewhat neglected and aren't addressed in any other short-term planning documents. 

27 minutes ago, John Oke said:

Anyone want to place bets on their choice for the last CLRV in service 

I say 4021 and 4155

31 minutes ago, John Oke said:

Looking at the TTC 5 year service plan Held until further review is a extension of the 505 to Pape, Greenwood, Coxwell or Woodbine stations which would be a mini relief 

 

So they said in the report that this would be a good idea to maximize surface connections at the Gerrard/Carlaw Ontario Line station. They do realize that there is already a 506 that goes there and sending the 505 to Pape/Gerrard instead of Broadview station doesn’t really do anyone any good. 

31 minutes ago, John Oke said:

Not recommended was a 512 extension east via St.Clair and O’Connor to Warden Station (thought who ever came up with that is nuts) 

 

Indeed it is nuts. The plan says to extend the 512 “across the Don Valley”. I’m not sure exactly what bridge they’d be using for that idea so good luck with that. If they took one look at Google Maps they’d see the large interruption of St. Clair across the valley. 
 

31 minutes ago, John Oke said:

New streetcars are projected to arrive between 2022 and 2024

 

I’ll believe it when I see it 

I know that 4068 and 4105 are already marked as retired, but does anyone know what they’re being used for? They were both tracking at Leslie Barns earlier this week. My best guess would be that they’re maybe being used for parts for 4001, which also last tracked at Leslie. Anyone know for sure? 

27 minutes ago, splendidwizardplayer said:

The stickers are on rear on the right side and in the middle of the left side

Therefore it’s very easy to miss it while riding the streetcars since they’re on the opposite side you board on and the sticker on the right side is near the very back and can’t be seen especially if boarding from the front. 

21 minutes ago, christine said:

That's an old announcement from fall 2018 when streetcars returned to the 506 after bustitution in the spring and summer of that year. The buses were accessible, the CLRVs are not, making the route temporarily accessible. That page hasn't been updated in nearly 6 months so it's outdated anyways.

Many of the pages for TTC routes seem to never get updated. The 505 page under “route description” also says that no accessible vehicles operate on the route despite the fact that they’ve had accessible buses for quite some time now. Between their Twitter accounts and website, the chances of customers getting accurate and up to date TTC info isn’t the greatest. 

1 hour ago, dowlingm said:

That's the sort of thing that should happen, rather than leave (somewhat) serviceable vehicles sitting around. Mind you when Line 2 went down impacting both Broadview and Dundas West this morning they might have been mighty handy if put on 505 trippers...

Yet in a month most of those (somewhat) serviceable vehicles will be “officially” retired and the TTC will be operating with even less spare streetcars sitting around. Then with the very constrained Flexity fleet anytime issues impacting vehicles happen, it seems like the TTC will go directly to using buses on some routes. The Flexities can be reliable as ever, but things like track problems, flood damage (both of which we’ve seen in recent years) or anything else can happen anytime and routes like the 511, 506 and 505 (after streetcars return) will be right back to buses if streetcars are needed elsewhere. 

Wow here I was thinking that this contest was just an informal fun thing they’re just doing on social media, not something with a long list of terms and conditions. I might as well just buy a ticket for the Princess Margaret Home Lottery at this point. 

3 hours ago, Streety McCarface said:

It's worse than just increasing crowding on these buses, this will have a severely negative impact on ridership, especially since buses don't really run according to a set schedule anymore. 

Anyone else notice that the 505 will remain a bus line until at least May next year?

Steve Munro just released the January service changes and mentioned that it looks like the 505 will return to streetcars for the April board, at which time the 511 will be bused. 

Since there are more CLRVs out today, I decided to run through the remaining cars and their recent tracking history. 4193 has run a few times this week. 4143 hasn’t run since November 21st. 4057 and 4124 haven’t run since last weekend on Queen. 

1 minute ago, christine said:

I've counted 25 CLRVs in service. Lets see how long that lasts.

Yes there are 25 it looks like. And there’s only 1 Flexity tracking in Russell currently as well, so I can imagine the yard looks as empty as ever.