Streetcar News

[CJ.]

45 minutes ago, Turtle said:

 

In theory everything is great with the current system, but vision sucks balls in practice. Press Yellow (emergency button) or Orange (mechanical) and wait up to a minute for a response. Press talk (blue) and you can wait 20 minutes or never for them to respond. The drivers are not allowed to use their cell at any time when in the seat, but if there is an emergency and the yellow isn't working and their personal safety is at risk what are they to do? With vision a lot of times they don't get communication because the system doesn't have reliable connectivity, or the supervisors running the line in control are ignoring the calls or overwhelmed with other calls.

20 minutes? Its usually within 1-3 minutes on a speaking request. The only time it takes longer is when the system itself is slow and laggy, and that's the real liability issue because of how common that is

A lot of time, it can't even handle maps properly without being ridiculously slow

[Turtle]

23 minutes ago, CJ. said:

20 minutes? Its usually within 1-3 minutes on a speaking request.

Absolutely. In streetcar land some of those calls go unanswered for an entire shift. Got a problem with the guy from Spadina and Harbord with the "service dog" who shits on your vehicle? You're on your own buddy. Being threatened and verbally abused by a male karen? The problem will solve itself as soon as the guy gets bored of yelling at you and leaves, which is never. But "what could you have done differently to prevent this?" Bite me.

 

Bus land must be a lot better than streetcar land. According to my sources in streetcar land, a blue talk request never gets answered, and they have to rely on calling on their personal cellphones or making broadcasts on the tetra such as "hey, King console can you answer me?". Must be nice to be able to steer around stuff or park on the curb until you get a response

 

But, hey, employee health and safety is a priority right?.

 

23 minutes ago, CJ. said:

A lot of time, it can't even handle maps properly without being ridiculously slow

Welcome to 2009

[CJ.]

1 hour ago, Turtle said:

Bus land must be a lot better than streetcar land. According to my sources in streetcar land, a blue talk request never gets answered, and they have to rely on calling on their personal cellphones or making broadcasts on the tetra such as "hey, King console can you answer me?". Must be nice to be able to steer around stuff or park on the curb until you get a response

That also makes me constantly question why a lot of the seniors in bus sector want to transfer to Leslie barns. There's too much problems in the streetcar sector but "i can sit down, relax and just press on a few buttons here and there" really takes them over and they only realize the mistake after going through the nightmare of misery

And I also recall if the operator doesn't show up to take over your streetcar, you literally keep driving it despite your shift being over. Sounds miserable to me

It must be quite awesome for the folks from Lakeshore Wheel-Trans driving empty community buses all day, stopping at their favourite resturant, malls and coffee shops whenever they want and making up their own schedule while getting paid good for it

[Turtle]

10 hours ago, CJ. said:

That also makes me constantly question why a lot of the seniors in bus sector want to transfer to Leslie barns. There's too much problems in the streetcar sector but "i can sit down, relax and just press on a few buttons here and there" really takes them over and they only realize the mistake after going through the nightmare of misery

They are delusional to think that streetcar ops have it easy. If you ask someone who has done bus subway and streetcar, they will most likely tell you that streetcar is the hardest to operate. Not that the vehicle is hard to drive, but all the stuff you have to watch out for with a vehicle that is slow to stop relative to other vehicles. Throw in some crushed leaves, road salt, grease from a overenthusiastic greaser, and the start of a small drizzle that never gets the rail clean, and you are going to have a fun day.

 

10 hours ago, CJ. said:

And I also recall if the operator doesn't show up to take over your streetcar, you literally keep driving it despite your shift being over. Sounds miserable to me

That is subway land, in streetcar land they have the same rule as buses where you are required to run it in with no relief. Of course, if you are on a short stepback break, that no relief will cascade quickly, so they try to park it somewhere if they can.

 

Subways are required to do up to a full round trip with no relief, but control will often park the train somewhere where possible, especially if they know another crew will take it later on. On line 1, a round trip is 3 hours. Line 2 is just over 2 hours. That's if everything goes smoothly, if there is a turn back because of a jumper or a fire, you are stuck. Even worse if you have a Finch finish at night where the train has to be parked, you are sitting on that train until you get to Finch.

 

[Ed T.]

On 4/29/2023 at 8:13 PM, Turtle said:

But that is exactly not the point. No matter what you do, somebody is not going to be happy.

But that is exactly not the point. While my ears are not calibrated in dB SPL, some vehicles are LOUD. Obviously much louder than others. And if you have REALLY LOUD!! announcements EVERY STREET CORNER!!, it makes me want to get a sound level meter and actually measure how loud it is, and does it start to fall under the OHSA.

[Turtle]

7 hours ago, Ed T. said:

But that is exactly not the point. While my ears are not calibrated in dB SPL, some vehicles are LOUD. Obviously much louder than others. And if you have REALLY LOUD!! announcements EVERY STREET CORNER!!, it makes me want to get a sound level meter and actually measure how loud it is, and does it start to fall under the OHSA.

See, now you understand my point, you can't make everybody happy. You're not happy that some buses have stop calls that are too loud. I'm not happy that some buses have stop calls that are too quiet. Neither of us is happy.

 

I bet some of those streetcar drivers that have to call out the stops right now are not happy about it either, or the people who have trouble understanding a human making announcements with a tinny microphone.

[Ed T.]

46 minutes ago, Turtle said:

See, now you understand my point, you can't make everybody happy. You're not happy that some buses have stop calls that are too loud. I'm not happy that some buses have stop calls that are too quiet. Neither of us is happy.

I'm not happy that overly loud announcements are a hazard to your hearing, no.

While I prefer no announcements, just like in the good old days (unless it is for my stop, of course!) I realize that they are required and I accept that. I think you are being obtuse here. Well, whatever.

[Turtle]

On 5/1/2023 at 6:39 PM, Ed T. said:

I'm not happy that overly loud announcements are a hazard to your hearing, no.

Being a wee bit dramatic?

 

On 5/1/2023 at 6:39 PM, Ed T. said:

While I prefer no announcements, just like in the good old days (unless it is for my stop, of course!)

It sounds like you want to take an Uber/Taxi or bike/walk to your destination. Other people have to be accommodated, sorry it annoys you.

 

On 5/1/2023 at 6:39 PM, Ed T. said:

I realize that they are required and I accept that. I think you are being obtuse here. Well, whatever.

 

Put on noise cancelling headphones, jerk. You must have been the one telling me to turn the announcement volume down on that bus, that other drivers do it so I must know how to.

[Turtle]

Derailment reversing on a trailing switch at King and Church during overhead testing on May 11, 2023. Defective switch, my guess is it didn't lock in place.Why they don't do testing overnight where it would minimize inconvenience to everybody is beyond me.

[Ed T.]

Overhead truck was sitting in the King/Church intersection Friday midday, doing some kind of work.

Southbound NIS car went through the intersection, but exactly which way it went I didn't see. (Overhead is not done on Wellington, so I assume not straight through.)

TTC Queen shuttle buses caught in the general traffic chaos. Best to walk in that area.

[drum118]

50 minutes ago, Ed T. said:

Overhead truck was sitting in the King/Church intersection Friday midday, doing some kind of work.

Southbound NIS car went through the intersection, but exactly which way it went I didn't see. (Overhead is not done on Wellington, so I assume not straight through.)

TTC Queen shuttle buses caught in the general traffic chaos. Best to walk in that area.

Last week, there is no OS on church street south of king. They had a few supposed wires up on new poles at Church and Wellington. New OS brackets are in place between Church and Yonge, and nothing east of Yonge. Looks like a few new black post installed east of Yonge. The new platform in place at Yonge, but not raise.

They were starting to string new support wire with brackets on poles and wire in a roll north of Queen.

[WoodbineSecondExit]

22 hours ago, Turtle said:

Derailment reversing on a trailing switch at King and Church during overhead testing on May 11, 2023. Defective switch, my guess is it didn't lock in place.Why they don't do testing overnight where it would minimize inconvenience to everybody is beyond me.

The streetcar clown show continues!!! What kind of idiot schedules this sort of thing during rush hour when the sorts of risks are wires coming down and forcing power shutdowns or something that wasn't on the bingo card like jumping the rails while doing non-standard moves? You can never give these people the benefit of a doubt.

[Turtle]

13 hours ago, WoodbineSecondExit said:

The streetcar clown show continues!!! What kind of idiot schedules this sort of thing during rush hour when the sorts of risks are wires coming down and forcing power shutdowns or something that wasn't on the bingo card like jumping the rails while doing non-standard moves? You can never give these people the benefit of a doubt.

It was off peak this testing was being done, between rush hours. I've been told they do daytime testing because of staffing issues. Costs more to schedule them overnight. Nobody would expect that testing on Church street just after lunch time would cause such a huge problem, overhead testing should be relatively straightforward, given that the overhead crews are usually pretty good at what they do.

 

You don't expect that reversing over a trailing switch would cause a derailment, since that switch mechanism should lock in place automatically unless defective. Dirt, improperly adjusted, worn, or whatever. It is an extremely rare move to reverse a streetcar on the street over a trailing switch. If it is set in position, and flush, it should be locked in place.

[WoodbineSecondExit]

4 hours ago, Turtle said:

It was off peak this testing was being done, between rush hours. I've been told they do daytime testing because of staffing issues. Costs more to schedule them overnight. Nobody would expect that testing on Church street just after lunch time would cause such a huge problem, overhead testing should be relatively straightforward, given that the overhead crews are usually pretty good at what they do.

 

You don't expect that reversing over a trailing switch would cause a derailment, since that switch mechanism should lock in place automatically unless defective. Dirt, improperly adjusted, worn, or whatever. It is an extremely rare move to reverse a streetcar on the street over a trailing switch. If it is set in position, and flush, it should be locked in place.

I'm going by the service alert on Twitter which was timestamped at 3:24pm. They are of course known for sometimes having delays sending out alerts which could be 30, 60, or (insert random number here) minutes late. Another issue with them too.

[Turtle]

On 5/14/2023 at 12:26 PM, WoodbineSecondExit said:

I'm going by the service alert on Twitter which was timestamped at 3:24pm. They are of course known for sometimes having delays sending out alerts which could be 30, 60, or (insert random number here) minutes late. Another issue with them too.

I wish they would get a move on with the overhead on Church south of King and on Wellington. They last time I was down there, it looked like they still had a ton of work to do on Wellington for the stops and bike lane. That will be a really good loop to get back, for the 503, and route splitting. I haven't checked if Church/Richmond/Victoria/Adelaide is open yet, should be soon if it isn't. Now all they have to do is re-energize the switches SB at Queen on Spadina and SB at Adelaide on Spadina.

 

Of course, finish the track EB on Adelaide from just before York to Victoria. Not holding my hopes up for SB York from Queen to Adelaide. This is all stuff that should have been done at the start of the pandemic.

[drum118]

1 hour ago, Turtle said:

I wish they would get a move on with the overhead on Church south of King and on Wellington. They last time I was down there, it looked like they still had a ton of work to do on Wellington for the stops and bike lane. That will be a really good loop to get back, for the 503, and route splitting. I haven't checked if Church/Richmond/Victoria/Adelaide is open yet, should be soon if it isn't. Now all they have to do is re-energize the switches SB at Queen on Spadina and SB at Adelaide on Spadina.

 

Of course, finish the track EB on Adelaide from just before York to Victoria. Not holding my hopes up for SB York from Queen to Adelaide. This is all stuff that should have been done at the start of the pandemic.

There is a thing known as budget, schedules, timeframe and when did ML state they plan on closing Queen?

York Southbound track were removed in 2013.

There were rewiring Church/Richmond on April 30 with most of it completed.

[Turtle]

On 5/16/2023 at 9:33 AM, drum118 said:

There is a thing known as budget, schedules, timeframe and when did ML state they plan on closing Queen?

It looks like they are using Church for (panto) short turns again, so they must have completed the work there. But wtf is going on with Wellington? I get that it was held up for years with Hydro and other contractors dicking around, but that stuff is done, why haven't they gone in and installed the overhead and finished the stops and bike lanes???

[drum118]

2 hours ago, Turtle said:

It looks like they are using Church for (panto) short turns again, so they must have completed the work there. But wtf is going on with Wellington? I get that it was held up for years with Hydro and other contractors dicking around, but that stuff is done, why haven't they gone in and installed the overhead and finished the stops and bike lanes???

TTC missing a few poles between Yonge and Church. A lot of the OS is up to Yonge what I have heard, Trying to get a first hand look this weekend.

Anything with hydro being involved in, add an extra 6-12 months to the completion date, especially for TTC projects

[WoodbineSecondExit]

3 hours ago, drum118 said:

TTC missing a few poles between Yonge and Church. A lot of the OS is up to Yonge what I have heard, Trying to get a first hand look this weekend.

Anything with hydro being involved in, add an extra 6-12 months to the completion date, especially for TTC projects

I don't think there's any overhead installed in the loop south of King Street. There's definitely nothing on York and nothing on Wellington east to at least Yonge.

[Gil]

8 hours ago, WoodbineSecondExit said:

I don't think there's any overhead installed in the loop south of King Street. There's definitely nothing on York and nothing on Wellington east to at least Yonge.

There is no overhead on Wellington West at Bay as of this week, so it's probably safe to assume the entire loop is still waiting. 

[Turtle]

5 hours ago, Gil said:

There is no overhead on Wellington West at Bay as of this week, so it's probably safe to assume the entire loop is still waiting. 

That's a huge shame, that route was one of the most logical ones for the east end commuters with the Ontario Line closures at Queen/Yonge.

[WoodbineSecondExit]

On 7/14/2023 at 10:50 PM, Gil said:

There is no overhead on Wellington West at Bay as of this week, so it's probably safe to assume the entire loop is still waiting. 

I looked today and aside from the 10m or so of overhead extending south from King on York and on Church, the only thing installed around the loop is the span wire.

[WoodbineSecondExit]

The more I think about it the more it becomes clear the 502/503 is the 507/508 of the east end. TTC management gives zero shits about these routes. They get canned and bused at their whims. Construction shuts them down for ages and they don't look like they're ever in any hurry to finish the job. Queensway gets shutdown for years. It takes them 6 months to change overhead on the 503 at the east end and it looks like it will take 6 months for them to do it on Wellington. I'll believe they'll be back and operating in normal capacities when I see it.

[bus_7246]

11 hours ago, WoodbineSecondExit said:

The more I think about it the more it becomes clear the 502/503 is the 507/508 of the east end. TTC management gives zero shits about these routes. They get canned and bused at their whims. Construction shuts them down for ages and they don't look like they're ever in any hurry to finish the job. Queensway gets shutdown for years. It takes them 6 months to change overhead on the 503 at the east end and it looks like it will take 6 months for them to do it on Wellington. I'll believe they'll be back and operating in normal capacities when I see it.

Hold you horses! The Queensway’s right of way extension is TTC, but also involved the city and other parties. Some of the projects are delayed due to the other parties involved, not the TTC‘s alone. Before you intend on slinging blame, fact check your info credibility correctly. 

[Turtle]

16 hours ago, WoodbineSecondExit said:

The more I think about it the more it becomes clear the 502/503 is the 507/508 of the east end. TTC management gives zero shits about these routes. They get canned and bused at their whims. Construction shuts them down for ages and they don't look like they're ever in any hurry to finish the job. Queensway gets shutdown for years. It takes them 6 months to change overhead on the 503 at the east end and it looks like it will take 6 months for them to do it on Wellington. I'll believe they'll be back and operating in normal capacities when I see it.

Wellington is a special case, since you have a handful of different contractors screwing things up for a few years. Nothing with anything there is logical, or planned properly. Everything is reactionary, and the easiest way to react to things is by bustitution. Even Metrolinx suffers from this, look at the mess with the Queen/Yonge diversions for the Ontario line construction.

4 hours ago, bus_7246 said:

Hold you horses! The Queensway’s right of way extension is TTC, but also involved the city and other parties. Some of the projects are delayed due to the other parties involved, not the TTC‘s alone. Before you intend on slinging blame, fact check your info credibility correctly. 

Yes, but then you get contractors banking the tracks at such an extreme angle you need to restrict speed to protect equipment, hopefully in this iteration they fixed that.