TTC in the news

[Ed T.]

12 hours ago, John Oke said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/woman-lit-on-fire-kipling-station-dead-1.6511371

CBC now reporting that she has died

Yes, reported on the radio this morning. A most tragic incident and outcome.

[Kelvin3157]

Another attack.

https://www.cp24.com/news/woman-taken-to-hospital-after-another-apparent-random-attack-at-kipling-station-1.5978189

[MK78]

4 year old girl found wandering the subway tracks at night at Warden Station taken to safety by a subway operator.

https://www.cp24.com/news/four-year-old-girl-safely-returned-home-after-found-wandering-train-tracks-at-warden-station-1.6022827

 

[Kelvin3157]

Heard on the radio, they managed to get her pick her up on the westbound tracks onto the train. Thank god it didn’t end badly.

[MK78]

3 hours ago, Kelvin3157 said:

Heard on the radio, they managed to get her pick her up on the westbound tracks onto the train. Thank god it didn’t end badly.

Yeah its quite amazing that she didn't get electrocuted. I hope we hear at some point how she managed to get on the tracks, but there was probably a hole in the fencing somewhere in the open cut between Vic Park & Warden, there are a number of low rise and high rise buildings there... 

[smallspy]

46 minutes ago, MK78 said:

Yeah its quite amazing that she didn't get electrocuted. I hope we hear at some point how she managed to get on the tracks, but there was probably a hole in the fencing somewhere in the open cut between Vic Park & Warden, there are a number of low rise and high rise buildings there... 

Unlike the real railroads, people down there know well enough to not use the subway tracks as a shortcut. In all of my years down there, I have never seen the fence cut in a purposeful manner.

Now, sliding underneath the fence on the other hand......that is a very serious possibility.

 

Dan

[MK78]

29 minutes ago, smallspy said:

Unlike the real railroads, people down there know well enough to not use the subway tracks as a shortcut. In all of my years down there, I have never seen the fence cut in a purposeful manner.

Now, sliding underneath the fence on the other hand......that is a very serious possibility.

Yeah possible, there are a few service gates along the way maybe they don't quite go down low enough for a small child to crawl under.

[Shaun]

Good thing for bright headlights. The PRE LED headlights didn't have as much range and penetration that we have today. 

[Xtrazsteve]

3 hours ago, smallspy said:

Unlike the real railroads, people down there know well enough to not use the subway tracks as a shortcut. In all of my years down there, I have never seen the fence cut in a purposeful manner.

Now, sliding underneath the fence on the other hand......that is a very serious possibility.

 

Dan

A train approaches every 2-3 minutes (both directions) and a 600V rail. Must be crazy to try to cross.

I guess there would be wildlife electrocution if there’s a gap big enough for a child to get through. Shouldn’t they try to close it off? Especially if they care about raccoons. 

[MK78]

1 hour ago, Xtrazsteve said:

A train approaches every 2-3 minutes (both directions) and a 600V rail. Must be crazy to try to cross.

I guess there would be wildlife electrocution if there’s a gap big enough for a child to get through. Shouldn’t they try to close it off? Especially if they care about raccoons. 

I have heard of a number of delays caused by a racoon on the warden/vic park open cut. Earlier this year they even had a dog that ran all the way from warden to main station where they finally caught him.

[Shaun]

11 hours ago, MK78 said:

I have heard of a number of delays caused by a racoon on the warden/vic park open cut. Earlier this year they even had a dog that ran all the way from warden to main station where they finally caught him.

Maybe they should fix the fencing. 

[Wayside Observer]

18 hours ago, Xtrazsteve said:

A train approaches every 2-3 minutes (both directions) and a 600V rail. Must be crazy to try to cross.

I guess there would be wildlife electrocution if there’s a gap big enough for a child to get through. Shouldn’t they try to close it off? Especially if they care about raccoons. 

I spent a lot of my life living near Yonge and Davisville and watching trains in the open cut between Berwick and Chaplin, and I saw plenty of wildlife crossing the tracks including the third rails without issue.  It was mostly raccoons, cats, squirrels and the occasional skunk.  I never saw anything get electrocuted.

Why?

It wasn't easy for the critters to set up a complete circuit in order for that to happen.  Wooden ties and stone ballast rock on a dry day are good insulators.  Critter fur is a good insulator.  Once you realize that, you can stand on a bridge and watch cats and other animals walk underneath the third rail, brushing up against it the whole time without any problem and understand why they're not bothered by it.  600V low voltage DC electrification isn't nearly high enough to punch through all that.  I never saw one manage to contact the adjacent running rail at the same time, which may or may not be the ground or signal rail.

On a wet day, there's probably enough leakage current from the third rail passing through the surrounding area that critters will feel it before they get near it and stay away.

[Wayside Observer]

My cat shed a couple of clumps of fur and I was about to throw them out when I had an idea.  Since we were talking about animals encountering the third rail and I have the equipment to test this, we can dig into it and see what the numbers say.

We have our two samples courtesy of my cat:

We have the big, mean insulation tester.  What am I doing in the setup menu?  I've got the 500V test range changed to a user defined value of 600V instead to better mimic what typical subway third rail is at.  This is hardly going to be a scientific test with random samples of dead cat fur but we can make it a bit more realistic with a change in instrument setup so why not.

Testing open and short we've validated the meter and cabling so we're ready to go ahead and pump 600 volts into cat fur to simulate what happens when one of the Chaplin Cres. neighbourhood cats brushes up against live third rail.

I wasn't quick enough with the phone to get a picture of the large tuft of cat hair which started at about 230 GOhms while it charged up before the meter topped out.

The small tuft topped out immediately.  Notice how the cat hair ended up at the same value as the leads open?  Add to that the fact that wood ties and/or stone rock ballast when dry are also pretty good insulators and that's why the TTC isn't blowing animals to smithereens in the open cuts.  I also sent the pictures to a couple of transit professionals and they told me they're not surprised at the results.  One guy said he's only seen electrocuted animals when they've managed to contact the third rail and the running rail when the ground side running rail is adjacent to the third rail, and that's usually happened after being struck by a train and they've fallen in there.  Other than that, he hasn't found much electrocuted wildlife during his career.

I am not saying the third rail isn't dangerous.  It is.  I'm not going to post a link to this, but there is a video of someone who got killed by it in New York City and the power distribution system shrugged it off and was still able to move a train up to the station as if the person wasn't there loading it down at all.  This is just to dig into why, despite the danger, small animals more often than not get away with what they do.

 

[Bus_Medic]

Animals don’t sweat salty water like we do, though.

I’d also be curious to see what your megger reading would be if the fur was wet. 

[drum118]

TTC to ‘stay up all night’ for Nuit Blanche this weekend

Sept. 29, 2022

For the first time since 2019, Nuit Blanche is set to return in person this weekend. To help customers travel around the city and view the exhibits with ease, the TTC will be operating all-night subway service this Sat., Oct. 1 through to the morning of Sun., Oct. 2.

Service on Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4 will run overnight until Sun., Oct. 2 at 8 a.m., when regularly scheduled Sunday service resumes. Night buses and streetcars will operate as usual. In addition, there are no scheduled subway closures this weekend.

“We’re pleased to help welcome Nuit Blanche back to our city for the first time since the pandemic began, by providing a safe and reliable transit option for riders,” said TTC CEO Rick Leary. “I encourage everyone to take the TTC to get out and see the exhibitions, including the art at subway locations.”

Two of the exhibitions will be located on TTC property - one at North York Centre Station and the other at Kipling Station. Designed by artist Teho Ropeyarn, and titled “Anab amalitadthi wutpu anaamu atinyima anab apudthamang anama,” the large-scale prints explore spiritual narratives between people, land and ancestors. The title translates to “We inherit this ancient blood, and our ancient land, water and sky.”

Customers can enter North York Centre and Scarborough Centre stations at no charge from 7 p.m. Sat., Oct. 1 until 7 a.m. Sun., Oct. 2. Customers should keep their transfer, or their tapped PRESTO card/PRESTO Ticket as Proof-of-Payment and be prepared to show it to TTC staff if requested.

Some routes will also be diverting to accommodate Nuit Blanche festivities, including the following:

• 19 Bay
• 72B Pape
• 121 Esplanade – River
• 172 Cherry
• 501 Queen
• 320 Yonge

Customers are encouraged to visit ttc.ca and subscribe to e-Alerts or follow @TTCNotices on Twitter for more information.
 

[blue.bird.fan]

3 hours ago, drum118 said:

TTC to ‘stay up all night’ for Nuit Blanche this weekend

Sept. 29, 2022

For the first time since 2019, Nuit Blanche is set to return in person this weekend. To help customers travel around the city and view the exhibits with ease, the TTC will be operating all-night subway service this Sat., Oct. 1 through to the morning of Sun., Oct. 2.

Service on Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4 will run overnight until Sun., Oct. 2 at 8 a.m., when regularly scheduled Sunday service resumes. Night buses and streetcars will operate as usual. In addition, there are no scheduled subway closures this weekend.

“We’re pleased to help welcome Nuit Blanche back to our city for the first time since the pandemic began, by providing a safe and reliable transit option for riders,” said TTC CEO Rick Leary. “I encourage everyone to take the TTC to get out and see the exhibitions, including the art at subway locations.”

Two of the exhibitions will be located on TTC property - one at North York Centre Station and the other at Kipling Station. Designed by artist Teho Ropeyarn, and titled “Anab amalitadthi wutpu anaamu atinyima anab apudthamang anama,” the large-scale prints explore spiritual narratives between people, land and ancestors. The title translates to “We inherit this ancient blood, and our ancient land, water and sky.”

Customers can enter North York Centre and Scarborough Centre stations at no charge from 7 p.m. Sat., Oct. 1 until 7 a.m. Sun., Oct. 2. Customers should keep their transfer, or their tapped PRESTO card/PRESTO Ticket as Proof-of-Payment and be prepared to show it to TTC staff if requested.

Some routes will also be diverting to accommodate Nuit Blanche festivities, including the following:

• 19 Bay
• 72B Pape
• 121 Esplanade – River
• 172 Cherry
• 501 Queen
• 320 Yonge

Customers are encouraged to visit ttc.ca and subscribe to e-Alerts or follow @TTCNotices on Twitter for more information.
 

I found it a bit strange that the portions of routes 300, 320, and 385 that parallel Lines 2, 1 and 4 respectively are still operating. Is there a reason for this? I can understand for 320 and 385 as those have daytime counterparts (97B and 85J), but not the 300.

[GTAmissions1]

1 hour ago, blue.bird.fan said:

I found it a bit strange that the portions of routes 300, 320, and 385 that parallel Lines 2, 1 and 4 respectively are still operating. Is there a reason for this? I can understand for 320 and 385 as those have daytime counterparts (97B and 85J), but not the 300.

Operators are already scheduled to work those routes and trying to schedule them off isn't easy. Especially some people will most likely still wait at the on-street stop for the bus unaware that the subway service is running.

[Xtrazsteve]

4 hours ago, GTAmissions1 said:

Operators are already scheduled to work those routes and trying to schedule them off isn't easy. Especially some people will most likely still wait at the on-street stop for the bus unaware that the subway service is running.

They also don't want to change their routes cause that means they might end up with overtime that they don't want to do or miss their breaks. 

[Cityflyer]

Never heard of this until now.

New festival coming to Toronto's spookiest abandoned subway station (blogto.com)

[Bus_Medic]

1 hour ago, Cityflyer said:

Never heard of this until now.

New festival coming to Toronto's spookiest abandoned subway station (blogto.com)

Family friendly*
 

 

*unless you’re disabled.
Then no fun for you.

[T3G]

The yuppies of our fine city continue to be 100% in touch with the real issues plaguing the TTC: their logo.

https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/10/someone-redesigned-ttc-logo-people-have-thoughts/

The obsession with branding in this modern era is a real stain on our civilization. Like putting lipstick on a pig. All the issues the TTC has and this is what they choose to go after? Who cares about brand? Just make the service good and then who cares if the buses are painted in 1940s era blood and custard!

[blue.bird.fan]

4 minutes ago, T3G said:

The yuppies of our fine city continue to be 100% in touch with the real issues plaguing the TTC: their logo.

https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/10/someone-redesigned-ttc-logo-people-have-thoughts/

The obsession with branding in this modern era is a real stain on our civilization. Like putting lipstick on a pig. All the issues the TTC has and this is what they choose to go after? Who cares about brand? Just make the service good and then who cares if the buses are painted in 1940s era blood and custard!

I'm sure that significantly improving service back in 2008 made most riders care less about how older vehicles were still running, too!

[MK78]

58 minutes ago, T3G said:

The yuppies of our fine city continue to be 100% in touch with the real issues plaguing the TTC: their logo.

https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/10/someone-redesigned-ttc-logo-people-have-thoughts/

The obsession with branding in this modern era is a real stain on our civilization. Like putting lipstick on a pig. All the issues the TTC has and this is what they choose to go after? Who cares about brand? Just make the service good and then who cares if the buses are painted in 1940s era blood and custard!

LOL, redesigned? Two dots and three letters?

 

[Xtrazsteve]

This really doesn't belong here as there is no "news". Perhaps start a new thread called "TTC in the Gibberish Media" and post it there.

[smallspy]

13 hours ago, T3G said:

The yuppies of our fine city continue to be 100% in touch with the real issues plaguing the TTC: their logo.

https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/10/someone-redesigned-ttc-logo-people-have-thoughts/

The obsession with branding in this modern era is a real stain on our civilization. Like putting lipstick on a pig. All the issues the TTC has and this is what they choose to go after? Who cares about brand? Just make the service good and then who cares if the buses are painted in 1940s era blood and custard!

What part of "...third party, unsolicited...." do you not understand here?

 

Yes, the TTC has problems. But ascribing this to them is pretty foolish.

 

Dan