Streetcar News

[Tom1122]

I had a thought: I wonder if the CLRVs retained for work cars would be used as Event Support cars like the event support buses. I don't see them used as rail grinders.

[Shaun]

43 minutes ago, Tom1122 said:

I had a thought: I wonder if the CLRVs retained for work cars would be used as Event Support cars like the event support buses. I don't see them used as rail grinders.

Last time they rented Loran grinders. 

[lip]

3 hours ago, Tom1122 said:

I had a thought: I wonder if the CLRVs retained for work cars would be used as Event Support cars like the event support buses. I don't see them used as rail grinders.

Ask yourself why the Toronto Police would ever want/need to use streetcars for any kind of reason, and then you'll have your answer.

[drum118]

4 hours ago, Tom1122 said:

I had a thought: I wonder if the CLRVs retained for work cars would be used as Event Support cars like the event support buses. I don't see them used as rail grinders.

You got to be kidding.

Unless you plan on having a line shut down, no way can another streetcar pass it.

Then, where are the tracks to do the event when none exist nor able to get to X??

[WoodbineSecondExit]

On 9/5/2022 at 9:02 PM, lip said:

Most dogs are actually pretty damn intelligent, and especially much more so compared to the "CEO" currently employed with the TTC.

While the CEO Leary is undoubtedly a clueless idiot we shouldn't let anybody and everybody else off the hook. I would think Leary is not the one making the low level decisions like under which phase of the moon streetcars are allowed to enter intersections at faster than 10 km/h. We need to start attaching more names to the operations failures so the public can call out the garbage job they're doing. I know Stephen Lam is one name but does he have duties extending beyond rolling stock? Who is responsible for track design and maintenance? Who is responsible for the lowest common denominator procedures? Who is responsible for the procurement failures? The public needs to start going after their jobs just like we go after Leary's.

[Gil]

15 hours ago, WoodbineSecondExit said:

While the CEO Leary is undoubtedly a clueless idiot we shouldn't let anybody and everybody else off the hook. I would think Leary is not the one making the low level decisions like under which phase of the moon streetcars are allowed to enter intersections at faster than 10 km/h. We need to start attaching more names to the operations failures so the public can call out the garbage job they're doing. I know Stephen Lam is one name but does he have duties extending beyond rolling stock? Who is responsible for track design and maintenance? Who is responsible for the lowest common denominator procedures? Who is responsible for the procurement failures? The public needs to start going after their jobs just like we go after Leary's.

You might want to add whomever is in charge of procuring the extra curves in the network that would make streetcar diversions much simpler.  Does a collective groan from the public carry the same weight as a targeted approach?  People like Steve Munro have been pointing it out through repeated track replacement projects but it never seems to get to the right person or in time for procurement.

[WoodbineSecondExit]

On 9/25/2022 at 3:54 PM, Gil said:

You might want to add whomever is in charge of procuring the extra curves in the network that would make streetcar diversions much simpler.  Does a collective groan from the public carry the same weight as a targeted approach?  People like Steve Munro have been pointing it out through repeated track replacement projects but it never seems to get to the right person or in time for procurement.

Looking through their reports I see a few names such as Betty Hasserjian, Chief Safety Officer and Fortunato Monaco, Chief Infrastructure and Engineering Officer, but what are their specific duties? Your guess is as good as mine. Much like that fool Richard Leary, I doubt these people know what's happening under their own noses. Did Hasserjian issue the decree to program streetcar doors to close at half the previous speed? Probably not. The approach I would favour would look like review bombing. Bombarding their social media pointing out their specific failures no matter what context the discussion is.

Speaking of TTC failures... It takes a special kind of moron to divert the 501 to Dundas at the same time the 506 is already eating up track time there. Dundas is completely jammed up with streetcars... and there are large gaps along King. The 501 usually diverts to King but head office seems to avoid using King at all costs since recent history. (See the carhouse runs that switched to Queen now instead of using King.) I bet this has to do with the pathetically small far side stops.

[Ed T.]

I was sitting at Kipling and Lake Shore for a red light and had a chance to eye the overhead.

Three of the four curves have pantograph-ready wiring.

The new, south-to-west curve has no overhead at all.

I eagerly await the coming horsecar service between Kipling and Long Branch loops.

[Cityflyer]

This is an interesting. Non signal priority makes TTC go faster. lol

Broken traffic signals somehow actually improved a Toronto intersection (blogto.com)

[Turtle]

deleted

[Turtle]

My prediction for King St. when we get close to the Ontario line opening:

 

We need high capacity surface transit in the core on King between Parliament and Bathurst when the Ontario Line opens, even though most destinations will be less than a 10min walk from an Ontario Line station. So, for the next decade and a half we will have to put up with the stupidity that currently is King.

 

You want to get people moving on a streetcar on King, look to Roncesvalles and bump out proper protected raised stop platforms to protect passengers on farside stops, and eliminate left turns at the same time. Get rid of cafeTO, or other "urban parkettes" on the street to allow deliveries and parking. Give proper traffic signal priority to transit, so that north/south intersecting traffic doesn't have a chance to block mass transit.

 

What they have now is confusing, stupid, and poorly enforced.

 

...the prediction is that eventually they will reevaluate King, and come up with a decision on a final design for a high capacity surface transit corridor, but it will be stupid

[Articulated]

2 hours ago, Turtle said:

...the prediction is that eventually they will reevaluate King, and come up with a decision on a final design for a high capacity surface transit corridor, but it will be stupid

Ah, the traditional Toronto compromise, where the final outcome is so watered down and convoluted that nobody is happy in with the final result.

[Doppelkupplung]

2 hours ago, Articulated said:

Ah, the traditional Toronto compromise, where the final outcome is so watered down and convoluted that nobody is happy in with the final result.

The classic "try to please everyone" approach. 

I see it coming in the Hurontario LRT street plans as well. "Road widening", because that always solves problems. 

4 hours ago, Turtle said:

Get rid of cafeTO, or other "urban parkettes" on the street to allow deliveries and parking.

Brother, you want to "get streetcars moving" but you want to get rid of CafeTO and etc. in favour of parking? Deliveries I get, but parking?? We've been over this, haven't we?

[Turtle]

1 hour ago, Doppelkupplung said:

Brother, you want to "get streetcars moving" but you want to get rid of CafeTO and etc. in favour of parking? Deliveries I get, but parking?? We've been over this, haven't we?

I should have said bike lanes,

[T3G]

1 hour ago, Doppelkupplung said:

"Road widening", because that always solves problems.

[Doppelkupplung]

3 hours ago, Turtle said:

I should have said bike lanes,

Har har.

If you seriously think that programs such as CafeTO and the creation of walkable urban spaces should be scrapped to make way for street parking, then we have a more fundamental problem here. 

[T3G]

By what process would having parking spaces on a “transit mall” speed service up? Surely people trolling for parking spaces will do the exact opposite and plunge the route into pre-2017 days, no?

[Turtle]

11 hours ago, Doppelkupplung said:

Har har.

If you seriously think that programs such as CafeTO and the creation of walkable urban spaces should be scrapped to make way for street parking, then we have a more fundamental problem here. 

I was thinking of deliveries when I mentioned parking, not general parking

10 hours ago, T3G said:

By what process would having parking spaces on a “transit mall” speed service up? Surely people trolling for parking spaces will do the exact opposite and plunge the route into pre-2017 days, no?

Not much different than all the Ubers pulling u-turns or double parking in front of the streetcars.

 

I was also thinking of when the Ontario Line opens, the need for high capacity rapid transit in the stretch of the King Street pilot will be gone, since the Ontario line will be running one street north of there, so we could allow private vehicles to drive straight through instead of forcing them to turn every block or so

[Xtrazsteve]

Those UberEats drivers are by far the worst people ever. They park on sidewalks, crosswalks, fire hydrants, etc wherever they can get the closest to the restaurant to pickup. They will do anything to speed up their deliveries and grumble when they are getting their orders are made late. Meanwhile they pay 1% attention to what they are doing and 99% to their chat buddy on the phone. Their ability to follow instructions are seemly very low too.

I would not be surprise if they drive into a transit mall just to get to the restaurant. I really like to see the government force these companies to have a licensing system to only allow drivers who have passed a test of proper vehicle operation to operate in urban centres. There should also be a way the public report these people to temporary stop their workflow when they do a violations and ban them from the core if they keep doing it.

Example: 

[Turtle]

From the Wikipedia page on the Skoda 15T: 

 

"The fixed bogies which are used by most 100% low floor trams for this time[3] increase track wear and decrease the speed at which a tram can drive through a curve (usually 4–15 km/h (2–9 mph) on a 20 m (66 ft) radius curve).[4] The 15T is designed to cope with these drawbacks by using Jacobs bogies under the articulations, and pivoting bogies at the ends of the tram."

 

So there you have it, it's not just a Toronto streetcar problem 

[smallspy]

1 hour ago, Turtle said:

From the Wikipedia page on the Skoda 15T: 

 

"The fixed bogies which are used by most 100% low floor trams for this time[3] increase track wear and decrease the speed at which a tram can drive through a curve (usually 4–15 km/h (2–9 mph) on a 20 m (66 ft) radius curve).[4] The 15T is designed to cope with these drawbacks by using Jacobs bogies under the articulations, and pivoting bogies at the ends of the tram."

 

So there you have it, it's not just a Toronto streetcar problem 

Because Wikipedia is the be-all, end-all final source of information on anything.

 

For the record, that passage reads far more as marketing wank than it does anything that belongs in a proper encyclopedia.

 

Dan

[T3G]

On 1/8/2023 at 2:00 AM, Turtle said:

Not much different than all the Ubers pulling u-turns or double parking in front of the streetcars.

So because those guys do it, we should introduce further opportunities for the rest of the population to, as well?

By that logic, we might as well scrap all traffic laws altogether and have a free for all in the downtown core.

On 1/8/2023 at 4:41 AM, Xtrazsteve said:

I really like to see the government force these companies to have a licensing system to only allow drivers who have passed a test of proper vehicle operation to operate in urban centres.

That wouldn't mean anything unless it was properly enforced.

I believe there are regulations taxis have to follow. Didn't stop these bright sparks:

 

[Gil]

9 hours ago, T3G said:

So because those guys do it, we should introduce further opportunities for the rest of the population to, as well?

By that logic, we might as well scrap all traffic laws altogether and have a free for all in the downtown core.

That wouldn't mean anything unless it was properly enforced.

...

Things actually seemed to improve for the streetcars when the traffic lights went out on Spadina back in November.  Generally the techniques used in "safe streets" like removing the curb delineation between the street and sidewalk play on the fact that people drive more carefully if they think something unexpected is going to happen. 

I wouldn't call for a free for all - double parking when it blocks the flow of traffic (and likely streetcars) should still be discouraged with more active enforcement.  The proliferation of gig drivers either as rideshares or deliveries is likely straining the already limited resources downtown.  Rideshares in more congestion-prone areas should have designated pick-up points.  Taxi stands aren't as common unless you're outside of a hotel or major office tower.  Areas like Harbourfront with the streetcar tracks running on the south side make pick-ups and drop-offs problematic for anyone heading east.  I've seen several bone-headed passengers open their doors right into an oncoming streetcar!  I don't know who would get the Darwin award there, driver or the passenger!  The layout of the Queens Quay Promenade, while commendable still falls flat on a few things that weren't all that well thought out or assumed too much of the public.

[Turtle]

20 hours ago, smallspy said:

Because Wikipedia is the be-all, end-all final source of information on anything.

 

For the record, that passage reads far more as marketing wank than it does anything that belongs in a proper encyclopedia.

 

Dan

Because an online discussion forum is about as valid and verifiable source of information as Wikipedia.

 

I was just dreaming about how sexy something like the Skoda 15T would look running across Upper Gerrard, showing off her legs on the curves.

 

Of course, we would probably have to get double pointed switches for her. We would still be stuck with stop check and go unfortunately, since just having double pointed switches won't solve our problems in Toronto Streetcar Land.

 

[T3G]

Personally I think the 15 T is one of the worst looking trams in all creation. The whole ForCity family is, Škoda does much better trolleybuses than they do trams.

Our Flexities are much better looking.