Miscellaneous TTC Discussion & Questions

[Shaun]

Are the RTS the worst performing of the entire fleet? I know a lot of drives are not happy with their performance...

[FlyerD901]

Where have you been?

Are the RTS the worst performing of the entire fleet? I know a lot of drives are not happy with their performance...

[J. Bullock]

What's Wilson gonna give up? The 36 is a major route that requires almost 45 buses, and as far as I know Wilson is already at capacity.

First i'd recommend the routes that are waaaaaaaaay out of the way from the garage (i.e: 74 Mt. Pleasant, 75 Sherbourne, 103 Mt. Pleasant)

Maybe cut the 97 Yonge? Transfer it to Eglinton.

[TheAverageJoe]

That would not work as those routes do not use any where use 45 buses.

[BBC 9197]

The plan is that Mt Dennis will get Finch West.

Those routes you listed are no closer to Eglinton.

[Ed T.]

Would anyone be interested in some web spelunking on ttc.ca website? I'm saving old TTC Service Summaries; James Bow will be archiving them on Transit Toronto. It's a bit of a game since the old summaries are not indexed on ttc.ca, and the form of the URL changes randomly. I've gotten close to 30, back to the start of 2010, and I have the URLs for almost all of them. I'm simply guessing the URL using the board period start date. Sometimes this works, often it doesn't.

Anyone who would like to help, PM me and I can send you a spreadsheet showing the Service Summaries that I have found and their URLs. If you have a better idea than simply guess-and-try, I'd be glad to hear it.

[Mike]

Would anyone be interested in some web spelunking on ttc.ca website? I'm saving old TTC Service Summaries; James Bow will be archiving them on Transit Toronto. It's a bit of a game since the old summaries are not indexed on ttc.ca, and the form of the URL changes randomly. I've gotten close to 30, back to the start of 2010, and I have the URLs for almost all of them. I'm simply guessing the URL using the board period start date. Sometimes this works, often it doesn't.

Anyone who would like to help, PM me and I can send you a spreadsheet showing the Service Summaries that I have found and their URLs. If you have a better idea than simply guess-and-try, I'd be glad to hear it.

Ed, I think I have all (or most) of them since TTC started publishing them on the website. Let me know which ones you need and I can email them to you.

[Ed T.]

Ed, I think I have all (or most) of them since TTC started publishing them on the website. Let me know which ones you need and I can email them to you.

Thanks, I send you a PM.

[G.A]

Anyone know if all the ELF's have been retired??

[FlyerD901]

I saw one on Markham Rd today. they are still out there.

Anyone know if all the ELF's have been retired??

[409 Thornton]

Anyone know if all the ELF's have been retired??

I see a lot of them on the road...I usually see them in East York, but I'm sure they are all over.

[lip]

Its really shocking to see how bad transit is in Canada as a country. TTC can really be considered as the best of the worst in this case, but I find the list to be a fairly accurate one.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/03/11/torontos_transit_best_in_canada_based_on_new_ranking_system.html

[BBC 9197]

Its really shocking to see how bad transit is in Canada as a country. TTC can really be considered as the best of the worst in this case, but I find the list to be a fairly accurate one.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/03/11/torontos_transit_best_in_canada_based_on_new_ranking_system.html

Maybe some people need to realize that TTC service excellent and stop all the unproductive bitching. Service levels in Toronto are unparalleled pretty much anywhere else and the city offers little to no transit priority whatsoever.

[nfitz]

Ed, I think I have all (or most) of them since TTC started publishing them on the website. Let me know which ones you need and I can email them to you.

I've got a lot too. Not exactly saved, but still sitting in my downloaded folder years later. If you need one, shout.

[lip]

Maybe some people need to realize that TTC service excellent and stop all the unproductive bitching. Service levels in Toronto are unparalleled pretty much anywhere else and the city offers little to no transit priority whatsoever.

I cant even take you seriously with that comment

[ttcgeek]

I cant even take you seriously with that comment

Then I can't take you seriously. Believe it or not, that's the truth where ever I go on the system.

I don't know how many time I've been on the system and heard someone making some sort of unproductive complaint over some little thing with little or no constructive criticism. Most of it is just bitching because something didn't go their way.

In my opinion, all of these people who say service is (insert negative adjective here) without suggesting ways to improve it are, quite frankly, spoiled brats.

[vivablue5215]

We have to remember the issue with the TTC is not frequency, but "coverage", in the sense we simply don't have enough N-S routes from Downtown that can mitigate the overcrowdedness of the Yonge Line.

You can't argue frequency when almost all of the major east-west corridors and many north-south corridors run at 10 minute frequencies or less 7 days a week at least 12 hours a day. I can't even think of anywhere in Montreal or Vancouver where consistent major arterials run at frequencies even close to that. A short-term solution, of course, is to revive the Transit City Bus Network, then promote/enhance/improve the downtown express routes so that they can actually be a viable option for commuters instead of suffering on the YUS...I mean Line 1.

[lip]

I don't know how many time I've been on the system and heard someone making some sort of unproductive complaint over some little thing with little or no constructive criticism. Most of it is just bitching because something didn't go their way.

That's a fair point but lets not kid ourselves here, the TTC is very far from perfect and excellent as some people are suggesting and we all know that. Compared to other cities in Canada, the TTC provides excellent coverage across the city (even at night which is very rare to find anywhere else). But i'm sorry to say, but the transit in this city still has numerous issues that needs to be addressed and line management for example, is one thing that immediately pops up to mind.

But since the results from the study focus largely on an individual's ability to access transit, I can agree that the TTC is quite accessible to most people in the city in large part due to the grid-based system.

[BBC 9197]

Line management is heavily dependent on the schedule and the individual route's characteristics. So many schedules are so far from being even remotely close to adequate it's not funny. Money is always an issue, adding more running time or god forbid recovery time is a monumental feet. The cost neutral option is of course to increase the headways to add running time but on busy routes that are already running at capacity this is hardly a reasonable option.

I love when people toss out the "if they'd only run the line better it would work out just fine" speech. I'm not saying that the ball doesn't get dropped sometimes or that some supervisors aren't better than others but the truth is that there are so many factors that negatively impact service that people never see, or don't understand. If you don't truly understand everything that's going on then you will never fully grasp why certain route suffer from certain issues. Remember that buses and streetcars can't be pulled out of the sky and dropped into gaps whenever or wherever they might occur. Mitigating the effect of a gap in the opposite direction through short turns is currently the only way to try and maintain a consistent headway once bunching has occurred. As a result, unfortunately some of the passengers on the line will "feel the pain", that's just how the cookie crumbles.

[williampaul]

Question to all you subway guys:

for quite a while, the maintenance track at Warden Stn has been out of service

Is it planned to be used again?

here is a JFB photo from the late 80's with a work train using it (train did not make it back to Greenwood in time for morning rush)

Used to be a fairly common sight to see work cars parked here. I saw at least 3 or 4 a year.

thx

[FlyerD901]

Why didn't they make it back to Greenwood? I've seen late work cars make it back, even as service had already started.

[smallspy]

Question to all you subway guys:

for quite a while, the maintenance track at Warden Stn has been out of service

Is it planned to be used again?

here is a JFB photo from the late 80's with a work train using it (train did not make it back to Greenwood in time for morning rush)

Used to be a fairly common sight to see work cars parked here. I saw at least 3 or 4 a year.

thx

For the past 7 or 8 years (or more), the only maintenance equipment that I have seen parked there has been the rented rail grinding train. I wonder if that is now the de-facto storage location for it when it is in town.

Dan

[Ed T.]

Line management is heavily dependent on the schedule and the individual route's characteristics. So many schedules are so far from being even remotely close to adequate it's not funny. Money is always an issue, adding more running time or god forbid recovery time is a monumental feet. The cost neutral option is of course to increase the headways to add running time but on busy routes that are already running at capacity this is hardly a reasonable option.

I love when people toss out the "if they'd only run the line better it would work out just fine" speech. I'm not saying that the ball doesn't get dropped sometimes or that some supervisors aren't better than others but the truth is that there are so many factors that negatively impact service that people never see, or don't understand. If you don't truly understand everything that's going on then you will never fully grasp why certain route suffer from certain issues. Remember that buses and streetcars can't be pulled out of the sky and dropped into gaps whenever or wherever they might occur. Mitigating the effect of a gap in the opposite direction through short turns is currently the only way to try and maintain a consistent headway once bunching has occurred. As a result, unfortunately some of the passengers on the line will "feel the pain", that's just how the cookie crumbles.

I have to wonder why some bunching starts right at the terminal. Living close to Long Branch loop, I see streetcars leaving early--same operator, same run, every day--or two or three streetcars leaving the loop at pretty much the same time. Obviously then this is going to be a problem all the way to Neville loop.

I am baffled why this happens. Are the operators playing games? Has the CIS room at Roncesvalles filled wtih some kind of hallucinatory agent? Beats me. Clearly, these streetcars are not adhering to any kind of schedule or headway. Yes, I understand the need for a break at the layover, but what I see as a passenger is nothing for twenty minutes, then a bunch of streetcars, right out of the loop. The first streetcar may have spent fifteen minutes laying over--I note the numbers of westbound streetcars, and if 4200 went west fifteen minutes ago, and then comes back eastbound at the head of a parade, it's pretty obvious. All very puzzling to this rider.

[lip]

I have to wonder why some bunching starts right at the terminal. Living close to Long Branch loop, I see streetcars leaving early--same operator, same run, every day--or two or three streetcars leaving the loop at pretty much the same time. Obviously then this is going to be a problem all the way to Neville loop.

The 501 is a classic example of route mismanagement. People can continue to list all the BS reasons about it being one of the longest routes the TTC has, and all of the traffic issues that occur downtown which cause a ripple effect to the outer ends of the line. Those reasons are all true and valid to a certain extent, but the TTC has continued to use to this same excuse for close to 2 decades now. There comes a point in time where the TTC has to own up an admit its own faults with problems such as this, instead of blaming it on external factors that have existed for a long time and wont get better any time soon.

[Robert Lubinski]

Question to all you subway guys:

for quite a while, the maintenance track at Warden Stn has been out of service

Is it planned to be used again?

here is a JFB photo from the late 80's with a work train using it (train did not make it back to Greenwood in time for morning rush)

Used to be a fairly common sight to see work cars parked here. I saw at least 3 or 4 a year.

thx

This was around 2000 or so, as there were no H-1 work cars in the late 80s. This train was parked there for a period of time, several weeks if I remember. It could have been parked there because it was being used in the area and didn't need to be run back to Greenwood every night. Since then as mentioned by smallspy I've only seen the Loram rail grinding equipment parked there. Maybe other cars have been parked there, but I don't go that way all that often anymore.