Ed T.

Yes. After the 76th six-car TR trainset (6131-6136) they will deliver six 4-car TR trainsets (6141-6146 to 6191-6196) to run on Line 4.

Uh, will the four-car sets really be numbered like that? In theory, they could be 6191-6195, 6196-6199, etc. If they're numbered consistently with the six-car sets so that cab cars are xxx1 and xxx6, then there will be missing numbers in the middle of the train.

Both CBC Toronto and The Star were there, but I haven't found any online coverage by them. Anyone come across any story by them?

The 501 is split back to the old 501/507 configuration for most times till have have more streetcars. Lake shore will finally much better service.

The 502/503 is bussed thanks to streetcar shortage.

And various streetcar changes.

Presto on the 502/503 is short lived. Plus streetcar won't be entering Exhibition loop anymore thanks to construction.

That assumes that the 507 cars are monitored to run according to schedule. I remember the time when there were some spare CLRVs, they were put on a 507 service alongside through 501 cars. It was not infrequent to see a 507 or two parked on Lake Shore, right by the Tim Horton at 28th, with the four-ways on. Or grouped together at Humber. Or sitting on the layby track at Long Branch.

Tangentially related, the past few days, there have been 501L buses mixed in with streetcars on Lake Shore. Is all of Queen getting tripper/peak buses like King, or only Lake Shore? I haven't had a chance to follow them.

The Twitter account required to use subway wifi is BS.

Are you using a smartphone or a PC? I use my laptop, and I get a web page saying "do you accept the conditions?", click "Accept", and I'm on.

Rebuilt by replacing the trolley pole with third rail collector? I don't think the platforms aren't tall enough to fit overhead wires.

It seems to me that the RT stations have a raised centre section as if overhead should go there.

I was enjoying the mild evening outside the transfer station (aka garbage facility) on Ingram Drive. Over the noise of trucks on the tipping floor, I hear a muffled rumble and think "that sounds like a 7900". Sure enough a non-hybrid OG VII goes by on the 59 Maple Leaf route.

OMG, I'm thinking of a previously prolific poster who "liked the ROAR" of these buses! What is happening??

High school starts in Grade 9. Grade 9 students are born in 2001, and are mostly aged 14, with some still 13, about to turn 14. There are no high school students supposed getting free rides. If it's blatantly obvious that the students are travelling to/from the high school, then it sounds more like a TTC issue, if they are giving free rides. It's not like schools push children forward any more.

Yes, teens in a bunch would never, never try to take advantage of the rules, or flout the system. If they do, the TTC op should challenge them and get proper ID from each of them?

So? Who'd ever care? Did it create a problem?

With kids, I'd ride 3 stops AND pay 2 child's tickets last year some days. And I've certainly used a token to go 5 stops.

I see lots of adults only going 2 stops on a pass. Pretty much any route at a subway station, you see people getting off after only one or two stops.

I'm confounded on why anyone actually though this ever was an issue - let alone after it's already been happening for almost a year, without the world ending.

Recall, it's only 12 or under. Your might see a few 12 year olds, and maybe even the occasional younger one out without parents. But this is hardly a group taking much capacity.

And surely exactly the type of future longer-term clients you want to indoctrinate early.

Well, if you challenge these kids, you can see how the vehicle could come to a complete halt for a few minutes while the op tries to straighten out who can ride for free. At which point, you have a problem keeping to schedule. So you let them on (howerver long that might take), and let them off a few stops later (however long that might take).

How many stops you go for a token is not really relevant to scheduling. At least it provides the TTC with revenue. Obviously many people will choose to walk instead. And the operator doesn't have to figure out if you're 12 or 13, just observe the fare being dropped.

The Metropass user has paid for the pass, and the subway train is going to stop at every station regardless. I don't see what kind of counterargument this would possibly be.

Total revenue from kids was only about $7 million. Barely worth the trouble.

I've heard operators complaining about kids taking short trips because they're free. I thnk some Kipling South operators were talking about kids taking a free ride from the loop down in Samuel Smith park (which is next to a high school) all the way up to Lake Shore. And if enough are doing it, it's going to needlesly slow down a route.

TTC also skipped 2766 (the preserved Witt) with the rebuilt New Looks, even though they were a completely different type of vehicle. It would make sense if they're keeping 4500 and 4549 to skip their numbers in the Flexity delivery.

Well, anyone know why the new streetcars start at 4400 instead of 4300? The only reason I can think of offhand is some kind of scheme to renumber rebuilt CLRVs or ALRVs, but I don't think 100 will be enough at this point.

And will Flexity #100 ever be delivered to actually make PCC 4500 an issue?

Yes, if you look at the nextbus schedule you can see all the runs that runs back to the garage.

First run at 7:21 following at 7:25, 7:31, 7:32, 7:38, 7:39, 7:44, 7:45, 7:50, 7:51, 7:56 and finally 8:03.

The runs are really close together since some runs ends EB at SCW and to the garage while others run WB from St. Clair Stn.

Funny. I stopped off at Queen, then hopped on a 511 down to King. We were followed by a 512 Roncesvalles, who went around the curve to King at about 7:20 PM. So some seem to run in earlier. Although, that was still later than I was looking for.

Have any more units retired? According to TransSee, only 9402, 9411, and 9413 are out right now.

I know these might not be all of the ones that are out.

9426 and 9430 have joined them.

I believe the first car to run in around that time is scheduled to leave St. Clair West STN at around 7:20 pm.

Ah, okay. I'll probably walk out to Keele, go down to the subway and use the Bathurst car then.

What are my chances of catching a 512 Roncesvalles car at St. Clair West, say at around 6:45 PM? I"m coming down the Spadina line and need to get to Bathurst and Queen. This seems like an interesting way to do it.

(Trip planners give me some pretty funny routings from my starting point at 50 Ingram Drive.)

4001 reprising its early days, heading into Long Branch loop this morning.

It is, but this is being done by TTC Special Constables/Supervisors for the purpose of identifying and dealing with violators(TTC drivers) for the purpose of disciplinary actions by management.This is a Byford initiative started after the recent series of events involving allegedly poor driving practices by TTC operators.

Considering it's always there in the same place (saw it in the evening 6:30 PM as well), and I expect that operators talk to each other, it's pretty symbolic isn't it? Like, you'd have to be totally lost in your own space to be caught speeding, since you should know that the constable is there.

When did 7900 move to Queensway? I was a bit surprised to see it out on 44 this morning.

How would it be more complex than current subway operations?

Because trains in one direction hold up trains in the other direction. So if a westbound train is five minutes late, this will make the eastbound train five minutes late because the westbound train won't clear the singletrack. On the other hand, if the eastbound train is early, letting it go through the singletrack ahead of its turn will make the westbound train very, very much later.

If you want to run a single-track section on tight timing, every train had better be on time to take its turn. Since this implies perfection, the likely result will be trains often taking 10+ minute pauses to wait their turn through the single-track. As I recally, this insistence on every train being on time to slot into the schedule is what killed the Yonge-University/Bloor-Danforth interline. It worked well in theory, but poorly in practice.

Most mornings, around 9:30 AM, there's a TTC transit enforcement Taurus sitting in a driveway off Eglinton, just east of Jane, facing out, as if it was running radar or something. Anyone know why it would be there? Checking the speed of buses coming down the hill? There's no Tim Horton in the area, so I am at a loss for explanations.

The minimum headway feasible when single-tracking is almost entirely a function of where your crossovers are located/how many crossovers there are, with the speed/ability of the signal system clearing paths being a secondary determinant. Toronto has a reasonably high number of crossovers, and virtually all of them allow for movements to all tracks, so the ability to operate on a section of single track - once the signal system allows it, of course - is quite good with a reasonable headway. There are a lot of details about the signal system that I don't know about yet, but with the current track layout there is no physical reason why a 15 minute headway couldn't be reliably operated on the YUS once the new signal system is completed - and that is taking into account single-track operation.

15 minute headway would require a maximum of 7 minutes for a train to pass through and clear the single-track section. It also requres that the opposite train be in place and ready to go through as soon as the first train clears the switches. I think that might be optimistic on the whole, and complicated to operate. I guess you could vary the schedule by which sections are single-track, but that approach has drawbacks for operational complexity and for passengers who will be waiting random lengths of time.

Work on intermediate crossovers would be have to be done during regular operations where possible. Otherwise a lot of dependencies arise as to what you can do or can't do.

The slow zone in place could be because the residents are complaining that the vibration is shaking up their home. I'm taking about that whole row of newly built townhouses between South Kingsway and Windermere (for those who is unfamiliar with the area). Seriously the TTC care too much about this carp.

If this is the case, they'll have to redo the foundation which means infinite completion time.

The TTC has a maximum speed when crossing intersections on ROW cause they are afraid of hitting cars and people complaining. Seriously some drivers deserve to get hit cause they pay too little attention to the road and see people going through green means they can make a left turn too.

Slow zone extends all the way over the bridge right to the entry of Humber loop, so it isn't just condos and it isn't just a bit of track. I remember when the Humber bridge had issues, and the slow zone was only for the bridge section.

Why don't one of you just tweet @TTCHelps and ask them? They've answered such questions before.

Someone would have to be on twitter, unlike me.

I guess no one knows what's behind the slow zone on The Queensway then....maybe the TTC is just hanging all its slow zone signs out there so they don't get lost.

(Or I suppose no one is willing to say.)

The TTC doesn't post any of these things on its website. But if you look out the windows of a streetcar, you'll see signs telling you that.

The TTC does post construction updates. Not sure if they post about slow zones on the subway.

Looking out the window, will I see any signs telling me why the slow zone is in effect? That's what I'm asking about. Anyone who has ridden the Queen car out to Humber loop knows there's a slow zone along there, all right.

Does anyone know when the speed restriction on The Queensway between Windermere and Humber loop will be resolved? It's been like that for months, and I didn't find any info on ttc.ca. Surely ballasted open track can be fixed in under a year?

Maybe this will be part of the "complete rethink" of the 501 Queen schedule for 2016?

SmartTrack's alignment along Eglinton West is fantasy lines on a map right now, unless they're planning to bury the whole thing. So +11 skepticism on that part of the route.

For the rest of SmartTrack, let's see how the frequency and fares shake out. Again, any notion of ST being subway-frequent on a TTC fare is probably fantasy (how you gonna do all that?).

It could actually slow down travel, with surface routes pulling into more loops for a nice pause, and forcing more transfers between routes. (That's what I hated about OC Transpo when I lived in Ottawa; every five minutes it seemed the bus would pull off the through road to visit some other transit node. E.g. Carlingwood, Lincoln Fields, Bayshore: three nodes in, what, five kilometres?)

was hoping that they would've taken the opportunity to repaint it to look more like the new cars...then again if the hope is to have them only as a stop gap measure until production ramps up probably wont be really worth it

I'm hoping that passengers no longer have a shower from the window frames when it rains!