Streetcar News

[Ed T.]

15 hours ago, Xtrazsteve said:

They don't need streetcars with the current situation. Why don't they just finish up the the pantograph upgrade on Broadview so they don't need to change to trolley poles.

Reading Steve Munro, they have to do that. Part of the 505 route is now only suitable for pantograph, while there are other sections that are only suitable for trolley pole. Someone forgetting a changeover would result in a bad overhead day.

[Tramguy]

506 Carlton was the only streetcar line showing vehicles at 7 PM Thursday April 2nd on Transsee.

[Articulated]

7 minutes ago, Tramguy said:

506 Carlton was the only streetcar line showing vehicles at 7 PM Thursday April 2nd on Transsee.

Seems like the vehicle tracking failed on the streetcar network a little after 2PM today, with lots of cars reporting "last seen 4:59:00 ago" right now (at 7:10PM).

Not sure why most of the cars on 506 are still reporting, although I don't know if they are using the proper schedule (most cars are reporting significantly early).

[nfitz]

Some of the 15 cars that are currently reporting on 506, I've seen listed as having VISION upgrades.

Seems odd that all the VISION cars would be on 506 though ... here's the currently active ones - http://webservices.nextbus.com/service/publicXMLFeed?command=vehicleLocations&a=ttc&r=506&t=0

[Articulated]

57 minutes ago, nfitz said:

Some of the 15 cars that are currently reporting on 506, I've seen listed as having VISION upgrades.

Seems odd that all the VISION cars would be on 506 though ... here's the currently active ones - http://webservices.nextbus.com/service/publicXMLFeed?command=vehicleLocations&a=ttc&r=506&t=0

It's not odd. VISION uses a completely different reporting system from the old system, that are incompatible with each other.

If you're trying to manage a line, you need to see all vehicles on one screen. Can't bounce between two screens with two setups and try to "guess" which gaps on one screen correspond to where vehicles are on another screen.

It was like this back in the early days of VISION rollout with buses too - Arrow Road was a good example with the VISION route-of-the-day, where all buses on route A would be VISION-equipped (mostly 3100s at the start), and route B would have zero VISION-equipped vehicles. The routes changed weekly/daily depending on how many VISION-equipped vehicles were available for service as the 3100s were being commissioned.

[ttc rider]

2 hours ago, Articulated said:

It was like this back in the early days of VISION rollout with buses too - Arrow Road was a good example with the VISION route-of-the-day, where all buses on route A would be VISION-equipped (mostly 3100s at the start), and route B would have zero VISION-equipped vehicles. The routes changed weekly/daily depending on how many VISION-equipped vehicles were available for service as the 3100s were being commissioned.

In case of the streetcar fleet, deployment of the VISION equipped vehicles was managed differently, with both VISION-equipped and non-VISION vehicles in service on the same route concurrently.

4486 was the first prototype and was deployed a lot on route 508 Lake Shore starting last fall, together with non-VISION vehicles. The second car equipped was 4538 (in February this year). It run on routes 501 & 506 for the first few days after returning to service, but then it too was primarily deployed on 508. By mid-March, 508 was exclusively run with VISION-equipped vehicles. On weekends, however, the VISION cars would be deployed anywhere.

As more cars were equipped, there were days when most of 509 or 510 were run with VISION cars, but always with non-VISION cars mixed in. It was over the past few days that 506 Carlton got most of the VISION cars, after the 508 was cancelled.  

3 hours ago, Articulated said:

Seems like the vehicle tracking failed on the streetcar network a little after 2PM today, with lots of cars reporting "last seen 4:59:00 ago" right now (at 7:10PM).

Not sure why most of the cars on 506 are still reporting, although I don't know if they are using the proper schedule (most cars are reporting significantly early).

I checked and only the VISION cars are still reporting accurate positions. The non-VISION vehicles are no longer trackable after the system failed earlier today.

[smallspy]

10 hours ago, ttc rider said:

In case of the streetcar fleet, deployment of the VISION equipped vehicles was managed differently, with both VISION-equipped and non-VISION vehicles in service on the same route concurrently.

That wasn't supposed to be the case.

 

The original plan was to roll it out route-by-route, just as they had for the buses. Harbourfront route was listed as being the first route to have VISION-equipped cars used on it.

 

It may well be that plans have changed as the service levels across the City have dropped.

 

Dan

[bus_7246]

508 service started back again this morning

[ttc rider]

3 hours ago, smallspy said:

That wasn't supposed to be the case.

 

The original plan was to roll it out route-by-route, just as they had for the buses. Harbourfront route was listed as being the first route to have VISION-equipped cars used on it.

 

It may well be that plans have changed as the service levels across the City have dropped.

 

Dan

Thanks for the information.  Considering that the first VISION equipped car has been in service since the fall, mixed in with non-VISION cars, well before the current drop in ridership, I think it is more plausible that plans were changed so that there wouldn't be a situation with cars that were otherwise available for service being sidelined for weeks at a time until enough VISION cars became available to convert an entire route in one fell swoop.

[John Oke]

18 hours ago, Tramguy said:

506 Carlton was the only streetcar line showing vehicles at 7 PM Thursday April 2nd on Transsee.

I remember DRT had similar issues with tracking busses on Transsee around Christmas when only 2 routes(900,915) where showing 

[ttc rider]

20 hours ago, Articulated said:

Seems like the vehicle tracking failed on the streetcar network a little after 2PM today, with lots of cars reporting "last seen 4:59:00 ago" right now (at 7:10PM).

The issue was resolved just before 3 PM today. All vehicles are now tracking normally.

[ttc rider]

8 hours ago, bus_7246 said:

508 service started back again this morning

Thanks for letting us know. Of the five scheduled runs this afternoon, only two went out on 508 (cars 4442 & 4466).

However, the schedule and run data for the current board period have not been provided to nextbus, so the vehicles cannot be tracked using the various online apps.

[Tom1122]

Sorry if it's been asked before, but is there a reason why St. Clair (and Dundas when it is eventually reopened) overhead cannot accept poles when the other lines that use pantographs (509, 510, and 511) do accept poles? Were those lines done by a different company?

[bus_7246]

8 hours ago, Tom1122 said:

Sorry if it's been asked before, but is there a reason why St. Clair (and Dundas when it is eventually reopened) overhead cannot accept poles when the other lines that use pantographs (509, 510, and 511) do accept poles? Were those lines done by a different company?

St Clair has the overhead wire separated in many parts across the line (view from the street near Deer Park and Russell Hill stops for a better view). Not sure of its intended purpose. Also the setup at St Clair West Stn does not allow for trolley poles whatsoever. But Dundas looks to be regular new overhead hangers, with new copper wire from Spadina to Bay

[Tom1122]

According to Transsee, 4586 is on 505. Can anyone confirm that streetcars are back on Dundas?

[a.dicion]

9 minutes ago, Tom1122 said:

According to Transsee, 4586 is on 505. Can anyone confirm that streetcars are back on Dundas?

Yes they are back on Dundas.  And as of today Bathurst is bustituted.

[Mar_AC_23]

9 minutes ago, Tom1122 said:

According to Transsee, 4586 is on 505. Can anyone confirm that streetcars are back on Dundas?

Confirmed. Streetcars back on 505 and the 511 is being operated out of Mount Dennis.

[Tramguy]

Probably known to all but not mentioned on this thread, the 508 has not run for a couple of weeks due to less demand.

[TTC Guy]

20 hours ago, Tramguy said:

Probably known to all but not mentioned on this thread, the 508 has not run for a couple of weeks due to less demand.

The 503 is also operating between Victoria Park and Coxwell and Queen. 

[John Oke]

35 minutes ago, TTC Guy said:

The 503 is also operating between Victoria Park and Coxwell and Queen. 

How is it looping at Coxwell? Through Russell carhouse or another way?

[Xtrazsteve]

35 minutes ago, John Oke said:

How is it looping at Coxwell? Through Russell carhouse or another way?

It's a bus route

[lip]

On 4/20/2020 at 5:19 PM, Tramguy said:

Probably known to all but not mentioned on this thread, the 508 has not run for a couple of weeks due to less demand.

Even when demand was relatively normal prior to Covid-19, the 508 operated seemingly whenever the TTC felt like providing the service. There would be 2 days where you see service, then the next day there would be nothing, then all of a sudden the following day there would be buses.

I have a feeling the TTC will cut the 508 yet again with this goof Leary running the show.

[Xtrazsteve]

3 hours ago, lip said:

Even when demand was relatively normal prior to Covid-19, the 508 operated seemingly whenever the TTC felt like providing the service. There would be 2 days where you see service, then the next day there would be nothing, then all of a sudden the following day there would be buses.

I have a feeling the TTC will cut the 508 yet again with this goof Leary running the show.

The 508 doesn't really run well westbound in PM rush. It just gets stuck at Humber loop behind all the 501s. Ultimately a southern Etobicoke to downtown connection would have to be replaced with a rapid Waterfront West LRT with a new tunnel connecting to Union (not via Queens Quay) and 501 relocated to a new Park Lawn loop to be successful.

[CLRV4002]

9 hours ago, Xtrazsteve said:

The 508 doesn't really run well westbound in PM rush. It just gets stuck at Humber loop behind all the 501s. Ultimately a southern Etobicoke to downtown connection would have to be replaced with a rapid Waterfront West LRT with a new tunnel connecting to Union (not via Queens Quay) and 501 relocated to a new Park Lawn loop to be successful.

In the meantime the 508 should just be run with buses via Park Lawn to avoid Humber Loop entirely 

[ttc rider]

15 hours ago, lip said:

Even when demand was relatively normal prior to Covid-19, the 508 operated seemingly whenever the TTC felt like providing the service. There would be 2 days where you see service, then the next day there would be nothing, then all of a sudden the following day there would be buses.

That is incorrect. There was a hiatus between Monday, Dec 30, 2019 and Monday, Jan 13, 2020 inclusive, immediately after 511 Bathurst was fully converted to LF operation, during which time the 508 was indeed operated with buses.

However, starting on Tuesday, Jan 14, 2020, streetcar service returned to 508 and, save for a few days immediately after Jan 14, when buses and streetcars ran together, it was a consistent streetcar operation until Tuesday, March 17 inclusive.

What ended up happening was that there were days when additional RAD buses would be sent out in addition to the 5 streetcars runs. But the scheduled streetcar service was being deployed consistently.  Even after March 17, there were occasional streetcar runs on 508, despite ridership dropping precipitously.