Ed T.

I don't even know if this is a TTC question.... There's a new bus-only on-ramp from Eglinton Ave. West that runs up to the southbound Highway 27 continuation to Highway 427 just before those become the collector lanes for the southbound 427. The ramp is tucked in south off Eglinton between the 427 and 27. It's basically located where the light standard is in this picture, coming off Eglinton and going down the page onto 27: http://goo.gl/maps/Yhdm6 I have no idea why this was built and what routes on Eglinton W want quick access to 27/427 southbound.

That's pretty much in the "complain about an employee" category I would think. Hmm, I see that the rigamarole of signing and faxing in your complaint is now optional.

At about 7:04 PM last night an RTS pulled into Kipling station. My bus was already leaving and had filthy windows, so: I don't know what the fleet number was I think the sign had the "Sorry out of service...." I'm not sure if there were passengers aboard It came in from Kipling Could Arrow have put one out on 46 Martin Grove as a changeoff? All I know is that I haven't seen an RTS at Kipling in years.

I don't think it's pointing fingers to say that this happens. The question is, why? That's why I asked it as a question. I don't know why the do that. Surely there are people in this forum who have an inside view. I expect a better answer would come here than from any random operator, who has no real reason to talk to me. What do you expect they'll tell me?

Kit Kat, can you tell me why two or three streetcars might leave Long Branch loop at about the same time? Are they instructed to do so via CIS? Or are they doing it because they can? Why are there operators who will leave 2 minutes and 58 seconds early, every time, right through a board period? I used to ride a specific run in the morning, just after 7 AM, when traffic delays downtown are not a problem and most cars are just going into service. Every new board period, I would have to familiarize myself with the operator for that run, and whether they left early, late, or on time. All of the above have little or nothing to do with the route being too long. To throw blame elsewhere, sometimes the scheduled running times are too long, so streetcars will plod across Lake Shore not exceeding 25km/h. Other times operators are flogging it like a racehorse. Then again, when I get off just before the loop, and the CIS unit shows -12 on a speedy streetcar, was this instructed, or the operator just having a bit of fun? In the absence of further evidence, I think that the TTC supervision is inadequate, and where it does show up it can be thoughtless and bad for riders. Some operators take the inadequate supervision and do as they please. It's not a lot of operators, but I remember the ones who are bad. I rode the Queen car during the split. In what way exactly was it a failure? I thought it worked fairly well, for something that I don't think the TTC really cared to do. And, you know, if "the 501 route is too long", and also "the route split (to shorten it) was a failure", then what's your suggestion? Abandon it and let people walk? That's the sort of thing that gets people frustrated, at operators and right up to Mitch Stambler who pulls out the "mixed traffic sucks" phrase every time he gets up before an audience. Of course that audience is always asking for improvements in the Queen car. Or is the takeway "it will always suck, stop complaining". As if we can never see any kind of progress, despite the best minds of TTC service planning and CPTDB and many other groups working on a solution to the problems?

I have to wonder why some bunching starts right at the terminal. Living close to Long Branch loop, I see streetcars leaving early--same operator, same run, every day--or two or three streetcars leaving the loop at pretty much the same time. Obviously then this is going to be a problem all the way to Neville loop. I am baffled why this happens. Are the operators playing games? Has the CIS room at Roncesvalles filled wtih some kind of hallucinatory agent? Beats me. Clearly, these streetcars are not adhering to any kind of schedule or headway. Yes, I understand the need for a break at the layover, but what I see as a passenger is nothing for twenty minutes, then a bunch of streetcars, right out of the loop. The first streetcar may have spent fifteen minutes laying over--I note the numbers of westbound streetcars, and if 4200 went west fifteen minutes ago, and then comes back eastbound at the head of a parade, it's pretty obvious. All very puzzling to this rider.

Thanks, I send you a PM.

Would anyone be interested in some web spelunking on ttc.ca website? I'm saving old TTC Service Summaries; James Bow will be archiving them on Transit Toronto. It's a bit of a game since the old summaries are not indexed on ttc.ca, and the form of the URL changes randomly. I've gotten close to 30, back to the start of 2010, and I have the URLs for almost all of them. I'm simply guessing the URL using the board period start date. Sometimes this works, often it doesn't. Anyone who would like to help, PM me and I can send you a spreadsheet showing the Service Summaries that I have found and their URLs. If you have a better idea than simply guess-and-try, I'd be glad to hear it.

I don't think it's under the driver's control. Anyway, it's odd that the 8000s out of Queensway are reasonable, but the Flyers are so loud. I was on 7305 Saturday evening--too loud, of course. It might be the acoustics, the speakers, the amplifier....I don't know how much the stop announcement system varies between buses. I never have this problem on streetcars, and I don't recall it with Orion V buses either. Some subway cars had very loud announcements a few years ago, but they may have been H5s and grossly out of adjustment (I actually switched cars at Sheppard to escape the worst example).

I find the D40LF to be more spacious and the rear doors actually open and close in less than a historical epoch. However, most or all D40LFs have stop announcements that are much too loud. Maybe they're distorted. I live in Queenswayland, and I prefer a 797X or 80XX simply because my eardrums won't be bleeding. On the D40LFs, I try to find a seat as far from the speakers as possible, but it's still too loud.

Saw 7228 out midday on 37 Islington. I though RTS were pretty much rush-hour only? Is this sighting special enough?

Since every fare requires a subsidy, increased demand = increased cost. Or is your claim that increased riding will reduce the farebox subsidy requirement? If so, the TTC went from a ridership in the 300 millions back in the late 90s to over 500 million now. Yet the need for subsidy persists. And I doubt that region-wide fare integration will add more than a few million rides to the TTC. MiWay is happy to have 50 million riders; YRT is around 22 million. Fare integration may be a big boost to ridership on the 905 transit agencies, but it won't do much more for TTC than overload already crowded routes.

It's hard to find weights of buses, so where do you get this? I remember a few years back at doors open Eglinton garage that had specs, including weights, of New Looks through Orion VIIs. I don't remember what they were, except that buses have gotten increasingly porky (A/C, lifts), plus low floors seemed heavier than high floors. Some searching, which may have matched oranges to apples for all I know, shows VII heavier than V. BC Transit says their 40' Orion have GVW of 17,860kg. Altoona EPA10 testing center says that the 40' Orion VII they had has GVW of 18,895kg (this by adding together GVW by individual wheel and converting from lbs to kg). Still doesn't say one way or another if axles can be swapped. I can see reasons why this might be possible....and reasons why it might not be possible. I did put a 12-bolt posi rear axle out of a '71 Acadian SS into my '69 Firebird and of course it fit perfectly....some swaps are possible!

Can Orion V rear axles be swapped to other buses, say Orion VIIs?

York Mills is mostly hybrids, sure. And there were many dead hybrids on York Mills. But I also drove across Wilson and Elmhurst to Islington and down Islington to Eglinton. There were lots and lots of RTS out on your 96 and 165 and even 37 routes, and all but one were motoring along. The only one that was out of service was on Islington and had a Ford Focus right behind it. Rear-ender I assume. I'm pretty sure there were dead hybrids on Wilson, too. And I think I saw at least one diesel Orion VII dead as well. But the fact remains, it was dybrid city. Unfortunately I had no camera or notepad to hand to record this; my hands were full just keeping the car on the road and travelling in about a straight line.

Need the Dybrid thread back. I was out drving around. Along York Mills/Wilson I don't know how many out of service hybrids I saw. York Mills hill was pretty amusing too. Only one RTS was out of service on Islington. Looked like a Ford Focus had gently rear-ended it at a stop.

But you need level paved space beyond the end of the ramp so that any wheelchair getting off has someplace to go at the end of the ramp.

Good gosh how wide are those things? There are lots of stations where the current number of turnstiles is inadequate for the usage in morning and evening, so they'll get replaced with a lot fewer, slower, and undoubtedly much more expensive gates?

Which eastbound platform? There's one for through cars coming from Long Branch, but anyone boarding a Humber car has to go to the far corner where the sharp and gradual curves rejoin the through eastbound track. They are, but Road level implies quite a width of pavement--a full lane--for the wheelchair to maneouvre off. There is no way the paved platform for E/B through cars is wide enough. For the loop exit "stops", I'm not sure there's anything there at all. The inside track gets used mostly; so the outside trick would have to be paved, and you're still dealing with embedded tracks. I would expect the aim is to have raised platforms and minimum gaps/steps wherever possible. There may not be much desire to leave a few as "substandard" I only started considering it when they removed my local stop at 39th St. I really hate getting out at Long Branch loop. You step right into snowy slush in winter or dirt in summer. I plod east along the tracks to the sidewalk on Lake Shore hoping that I don't get run over by a streetcar. The platform can only hold one LRV, but the loop PRW can hold a lot more than that. You're darn right they will get bunched up. Two ALRVs sitting in the loop is very common; three is unusual but not infinitely improbable. Four, I haven't seen, though there's likely room. At Long Branch, streetcars almost invariably lay over for a while before pulling up to the platform, loading, and departing. As long as this model is kept, you want to drop off passengers before the favourite layover spot, which is right at the curve close to the operators' washroom. At Humber, when Queen and Long Branch were two separate routes, Queen cars would (as I recall) let people out at the far east end of the platform by the shelter/store, lay over as necessary, and load at the west end. I don't think there were a lot of times when passengers had to cross the tracks to catch them while exiting the loop. I have no idea what happened late at night when the Queen car ran through to/from Long Branch, though.

With the new accessible streetcars come accessible platforms. The TTC has done that along Lake Shore Blvd. What they don't have, and I'm not sure how to do it, is: Accessible platform for boarding a streetcar turning back eastbound at Humber Accessible platform for alighting (officail TTC term!) at Long Branch loop In both cases, passengers are stuck walking along open track. There isn't even a place to put a platform at either loop unless you take away the second track. Anyone have any ideas? I'd look forward to the TTC solving this, but sometimes their solutions are....not what you really want to see.

Why the love for Pioneer Village station? I assume that all of those routes will also go to York U station, otherwise you have the strange result of forcing a one-station transfer on all the passengers who currently simply get off at York U. If you have to have them go to one of the stations, York U is the obvious one. How many riders really want to go to Pioneer Village?

That does have the advantage of both TTC routes to Long Branch loop going to the same subway station. But I agree that there's likely little need for service on Burnhamthorpe and Shaver. I wouldn't mind not being put through Sherway Gardens, but there's no way the TTC would do that. The 123A branch only goes to Sherway, after all, and it makes up half the peak period service.

Back in the days of 39E/F/G, I got on one 39 express (too) early in the morning. The driver announced, "I'm an express bus, and I'm seven minutes down. So have a seat, 'cause I'll be stepping on the gas and not on the brake". And he did. I think this guy may have been the same one who said he got in trouble by taking Bishop Ave. to bypass the sewer construction that made a huge mess of Finch East 2009-2010.

Is this something they may possibly have done during the long shutdown of service on Lake Shore? Is this kind of thing something that will fly under the radar unless one follows TTC procurements, or is it something very very obvious the casual observer can't possibly miss? Last time I went by the loop, there was a pile of containers and a couple of site offices scattered all over.. Maybe there was a substation in one of the containers.

The overhead along Lake Shore has been extensively updated, although I have only noticed a few random pantograph-friendly suspension bits around Long Branch loop. What is most striking is the upgrade to the power lines. I walked the short bit from Islington (nee Seventh) to Eleventh, and it seemed that every third transverse suspension spans also included a power feed from the main power cable strung along the sidewalk poles. Even more interesting, there were at least two places where the power feeds were paired, one on each adjoining span. They may be around stops but it wasn't 100% obvious, for example there was a pair west of Islington but not east of Islington, and obviously there are stops on each side. I don't know what the old standard was, but clearly there are way way more power feeds now. Anyone know more about the technical details? And, unless Lake Shore is about to see a huge increase in overall service, all these power feeds seem to support are headways of: 25 minutes one minute thirty seconds 20 minutes The overhead is set up for the two and three car parades that are all too common on Lake Shore....