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CLRV4037

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Yesterday around 7pm, numerous 510s short turn at Queens Quay and Spadina. Only one car made it through to Union for the entire 30 minute period.

I was checking out QQ and yes, a lot of car turned into the streetcar tracks and then noticed there no roadway south of the tracks.

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Nfitz: Thanks for the info. Some of us have ambulatory challenges and walking is not an option. Still no excuse for not short turning some of the cars going to Union Station at Queens Quay. No wonder TTC means Take The Car to many folk. Lack of oversight here!

It's no secret that TTC route control is grossly incompetent and understaffed.

Yes, walking an issue for some; but I bet most of those waiting were able-bodied. Also, walk from Skydome to King/John is shorter than to Spadina/Bremner depending which door you come out of. No stop is particularly close unfortunately.

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Nfitz: Thanks for the info. Some of us have ambulatory challenges and walking is not an option. Still no excuse for not short turning some of the cars going to Union Station at Queens Quay. No wonder TTC means Take The Car to many folk. Lack of oversight here!

There are only 3 people in CIS at that time and they were all dealing with emergencies that take greater precedence over a jays game crowd.

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Does anyone know why so few Flexities have been making into service for the past couple of weeks?

According to my notes, 4400 and 4403 were last in service on Sunday, June 7.

4406 was in service pretty much everyday until Saturday, May 30. Then it went offline for 13 days straight, before showing up again in sevice last Saturday and Sunday.Since then, it has been MIA again.

Today is an unusually bad day: only two cars in service - one on the 509 and one on the 510.

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Does anyone know why so few Flexities have been making into service for the past couple of weeks?

My knee-jerk response is to say that the TTC is trying to reduce wear on them to minimize the difference between the current ones and the rest of the fleet that has yet to be delivered. However, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong with that.

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Does that mean they didn't hire enough supervisors for that period? I think most people agree.

You don't need a dozen supervisors working, waiting for an odd chance that something might happen. 3 has been enough for most other night this year.
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3 for all the routes, or just the streetcars.

Given how many vehicles seem to be running extremely far ahead of schedule, without anyone doing anything. Or buses choosing to run in packs (your not supposed to leave the terminal in a 5-pack, with the last vehicle leaving early), I'd say that there's been a gross under-staffing of evening, and particularly overnight supervision for years. And in my experience, daytime on a Sunday is the worst (though perhaps that's because many mid-day Sunday schedules don't reflect traffic reality).

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3 for all the routes, or just the streetcars.

Given how many vehicles seem to be running extremely far ahead of schedule, without anyone doing anything. Or buses choosing to run in packs (your not supposed to leave the terminal in a 5-pack, with the last vehicle leaving early), I'd say that there's been a gross under-staffing of evening, and particularly overnight supervision for years. And in my experience, daytime on a Sunday is the worst (though perhaps that's because many mid-day Sunday schedules don't reflect traffic reality).

Obviously streetcars cause it's a streetcar thread.

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4405 & 7 on 509 and saw nothing for 510. Union was showing 14 & 18 minutes for a 510.

4001 is a trainer and testing car, as wires were strung on the driver side throughout the car. Saw it on Fleet and then doing the 509 route east at Bathurst. The sign board on the car said trainer with test signs on the side.

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4401 came out of Roncy for training at 7:30 PM tonight.

Yeah, I saw it on QQ around that time.

3 for all the routes, or just the streetcars.

Given how many vehicles seem to be running extremely far ahead of schedule, without anyone doing anything. Or buses choosing to run in packs (your not supposed to leave the terminal in a 5-pack, with the last vehicle leaving early), I'd say that there's been a gross under-staffing of evening, and particularly overnight supervision for years. And in my experience, daytime on a Sunday is the worst (though perhaps that's because many mid-day Sunday schedules don't reflect traffic reality).

I been to the CIS control room once during on of the doors open at Roncy. On a Saturday afternoon, they only have 6 or 7 guys working if I remember correctly. One for each busy routes like 501, 504, 505, etc. Literary the see a map like nextbus and all the runs with timing. They'll have to call each car separately. The whole line like the 501 has like 20+ cars. They don't have any tools to predict bunching nor can't tell how full is each car. It's so outdated. Byford has been musing about better tools to predict bunching but that won't kick in anytime soon.

The 6 cars leaving like a convoy of streetcars is a failure in the system itself. Every operator are assigned certain hours and have breaks in between. If they hold back some cars, by the time those ops get to the carhourse, they would have gone over their working hours. That's a violation against the labour law. And because the schedules for TTC ops are so tight (due to lack of funding), they can't short turn or hold all cars. The ops near the end of the shift pretty much have to go back unless they wanted to do and is allowed overtime.

Bottom line: Basically the TTC care more about the ops finishing on time than the customers getting to their destination on time. They should really care for both.

Given the off-thread comments one sees, nothing is completely obvious!

Every division have their own control room and one for all streetcars at Roncy. 3 guys for the entire system doesn't even split evenly lol

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nfitz: I left from gates 10 and 11 and that's only 2 blocks up Bremner to Spadina versus King|/John or Skywalk. Much shorter. Friday night was better. The operator announced he would stay at Bremner to avoid bunching. I don't know how crowded the 509 is but I would suggest all Flexities would be better served on the 510. If it hadn't been for the construction at Spadina and College, I suggest there wouldn't be Flexities on the 509.

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nfitz: I left from gates 10 and 11 and that's only 2 blocks up Bremner to Spadina versus King|/John or Skywalk. Much shorter. Friday night was better. The operator announced he would stay at Bremner to avoid bunching. I don't know how crowded the 509 is but I would suggest all Flexities would be better served on the 510. If it hadn't been for the construction at Spadina and College, I suggest there wouldn't be Flexities on the 509.

Not until Pam Am. Flexities are going on 511 too. I don't think they'll have them on the 510 during the games.

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The 6 cars leaving like a convoy of streetcars is a failure in the system itself. Every operator are assigned certain hours and have breaks in between. If they hold back some cars, by the time those ops get to the carhourse, they would have gone over their working hours. That's a violation against the labour law. And because the schedules for TTC ops are so tight (due to lack of funding), they can't short turn or hold all cars. The ops near the end of the shift pretty much have to go back unless they wanted to do and is allowed overtime.

That sounds more like justification of poor supervision and worker shenanigans to me. Sure, there's going to be times that the labour laws are an issue. But when you are standing a couple of stops after the terminal for 10 minutes, don't see anything heading towards the terminal, and then see 5 buses leave the terminal at once, the first running about 10 minutes late, and the 5th running almost 30 minutes late, and the final one running 5 minutes early ... then there's more than just labour laws at play.

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That sounds more like justification of poor supervision and worker shenanigans to me. Sure, there's going to be times that the labour laws are an issue. But when you are standing a couple of stops after the terminal for 10 minutes, don't see anything heading towards the terminal, and then see 5 buses leave the terminal at once, the first running about 10 minutes late, and the 5th running almost 30 minutes late, and the final one running 5 minutes early ... then there's more than just labour laws at play.

We all know that some people are lazy and just want to do minimum work. It's true for all jobs. Especially the BS 300 bus on Sunday mornings. It's super annoying that there are 25 minute gaps and then 6 buses go by in 5 minutes. The 320 is way better managed than the 300.

I just want to point out the labour law does have an effect on some short turns but something like the BS 300 is just pure bad schedules, unrealistic run time, unsupervised and operator shenanigans. Sometimes I think if operators have the ability to know that there is a huge gap in front of them, they would leave early instead of normally and figuring out 5 minutes later that there are people waiting forever at every stop.

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The 6 cars leaving like a convoy of streetcars is a failure in the system itself. Every operator are assigned certain hours and have breaks in between. If they hold back some cars, by the time those ops get to the carhourse, they would have gone over their working hours. That's a violation against the labour law. And because the schedules for TTC ops are so tight (due to lack of funding), they can't short turn or hold all cars. The ops near the end of the shift pretty much have to go back unless they wanted to do and is allowed overtime.

The other part of the problem is infrastructure. The lack of passing tracks at terminals and along the routes results in the network being doomed to bunching rather than having the flexibility to break up a convoy while minimizing the annoyance to riders.

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I used NEXTBUS for the first time tonight and displayed the 509 and 510. Some vehicles are streetcars marked CLRV and others are marked bus. Are the "bus" Flexities?

Next bus for me (Android) shows car numbers. Currently (9:55 Pm) Next Bus shows 4404 ,4405 and 4407 on the 510 & 4406 on the 509

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