Miscellaneous TTC Discussion & Questions

[Byfold]

41 minutes ago, nfitz said:

????

I made very clear I was joking. There's no need to be rude, when you know it's a joke. I'm starting to see why you parted ways with TTC!

I didn't think you were joking.  I've seen you go full Karen on @ttchelps lol 

[nfitz]

6 hours ago, Byfold said:

I didn't think you were joking.  I've seen you go full Karen on @ttchelps lol 

Not once have I ever swatted anyone on the TTC (or anywhere) based on colour!

And if I did I don't use smiley's to indicate jokes to do it! I'd never do something like that.

Worst I've done similar, is politely ask a driver why they are short-turning, when I can see we've got a 15-minute wait until the next car. There's no point in being angry at them ... it's not like they have any say in the matter.

[Turtle]

12 hours ago, nfitz said:

????

I made very clear I was joking.

Yes, I understood you were joking.

 

12 hours ago, nfitz said:

There's no need to be rude, when you know it's a joke. I'm starting to see why you parted ways with TTC!

What part made you upset?

- Saying that someone who did something like that would be a huge jerk? (wasn't saying that you are one, just saying doing that would make you one)

- pointing out how selfish it is forcing someone to stay at work past their finish time, even though the vehicle clearly says it is only going that far, just so you don't have to wait for the next vehicle or walk 1km? Just because you can bend the rules to suit your wants? Never mind how much money that costs the ttc, and how it affects the driver and their personal time or their health

 

Maybe I should have put a smiley after "bite me", to make it clear I didn't find your joke funny but don't actually want you to bite me

[Turtle]

12 hours ago, Byfold said:

I didn't think you were joking.  I've seen you go full Karen on @ttchelps lol 

Are they the one that sits in their apt at Queen and Woodbine filming streetcars doing street changeovers?

 

5 hours ago, nfitz said:

Not once have I ever swatted anyone on the TTC (or anywhere) based on colour!

I forgot about the original definition of Karen, but how would you know what race a person was, what religion they believed in or practiced, or what orientation they were based on the @ttchelps initials they sign to their responses?

[Byfold]

5 hours ago, Turtle said:

Are they the one that sits in their apt at Queen and Woodbine filming streetcars doing street changeovers?

Nah.  Different Karen. 

[nfitz]

9 hours ago, Turtle said:

What part made you upset?

The bite me.

 

8 hours ago, Turtle said:

Are they the one that sits in their apt at Queen and Woodbine filming streetcars doing street changeovers?

Unlikely given I used to make fun of the guy who who used to do film the Graydon Hall bus to show how empty it was at the west-end of the route. And have criticized TTC for not doing more route management.

 

8 hours ago, Turtle said:

I forgot about the original definition of Karen, but how would you know what race a person was, what religion they believed in or practiced, or what orientation they were based on the @ttchelps initials they sign to their responses?

I wasn't referring to online interactions with TTCHelps. Though as I'd never do such a thing, I haven't really given much thought on how to achieve it. Though aren't those the folks you see up in that office behind the glass behind the customer service counter at Davisville (which I'd pop into every few years to exchange old tickets, or pick up a pass that had failed to come in the mail for my annual subscription).

[Turtle]

15 hours ago, nfitz said:

The bite me.

I'm sorry

[raptorjays]

I am wondering if this is acceptable

Took 49 Bloor West yesterday going home from work (Usually takes 50, but somehow ended up at Kipling so I took 49)

I usually get off at the top of the Markland Wood loop (Markland Dr & Mill Rd) 

However, the driver said her bus is done for the day AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LOOP (Bloor & Markland Dr, west side) and kicked everyone off the bus, including one elderly who complained about it. The driver was claiming that it was her last run for the day so she is ending her service there. 
I had to take 15 minute walk because of that

Doesn’t the bus have to complete going around the loop before ending its service? 

[TTC Guy]

1 hour ago, raptorjays said:

I am wondering if this is acceptable

Took 49 Bloor West yesterday going home from work (Usually takes 50, but somehow ended up at Kipling so I took 49)

I usually get off at the top of the Markland Wood loop (Markland Dr & Mill Rd) 

However, the driver said her bus is done for the day AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LOOP (Bloor & Markland Dr, west side) and kicked everyone off the bus, including one elderly who complained about it. The driver was claiming that it was her last run for the day so she is ending her service there. 
I had to take 15 minute walk because of that

Doesn’t the bus have to complete going around the loop before ending its service? 

Markland Drive and Bloor Street West is the end of the route. That is where the sign switches back to Kipling Stn and the layover point would be (if they got a layover at Markland Wood)

[H4 5600]

3 hours ago, raptorjays said:

I am wondering if this is acceptable

Took 49 Bloor West yesterday going home from work (Usually takes 50, but somehow ended up at Kipling so I took 49)

I usually get off at the top of the Markland Wood loop (Markland Dr & Mill Rd) 

However, the driver said her bus is done for the day AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LOOP (Bloor & Markland Dr, west side) and kicked everyone off the bus, including one elderly who complained about it. The driver was claiming that it was her last run for the day so she is ending her service there. 
I had to take 15 minute walk because of that

Doesn’t the bus have to complete going around the loop before ending its service? 

Thats the last trip on 49 2 run that you took. If you check the run guides, it is supposed to go NIS at that stop, despite not saying anything about it on the sign or posted schedules. The ops have been complaining about that run finishing there to management for a while, but nothing has been done. 

[raptorjays]

14 minutes ago, H4 5600 said:

Thats the last trip on 49 2 run that you took. If you check the run guides, it is supposed to go NIS at that stop, despite not saying anything about it on the sign or posted schedules. The ops have been complaining about that run finishing there to management for a while, but nothing has been done. 

Yes it is confusing because there’s no way for the customers to know that the run is ending at the beginning of the loop. 

[Gil]

55 minutes ago, H4 5600 said:

Thats the last trip on 49 2 run that you took. If you check the run guides, it is supposed to go NIS at that stop, despite not saying anything about it on the sign or posted schedules. The ops have been complaining about that run finishing there to management for a while, but nothing has been done. 

How does the bus return to the garage?  Does it just continue on its routing NIS which just sounds ridiculous and inconvenient for everyone.  I get that a layover point at Markland Wood and Mill would be inconvenient for anyone boarding on Maryland Wood, or for any motorist trying to access Mill Rd.

40 minutes ago, raptorjays said:

Yes it is confusing because there’s no way for the customers to know that the run is ending at the beginning of the loop. 

MiWay used to have the last PM rush hour run on their 68 TERRY FOX end before the start of the loop (for those familiar with the area, the last served stop was Britannia and Bidwell) since it was easier to get to the garage from that point.  The official end of the route was one stop later and had the bus pointed in the wrong direction.  It also avoided unwittingly picking up anyone along the on-street loop.

One board period I had gotten the same driver who would warn boarding passengers that he wasn't doing the full loop when boarding.  The driver agreed with how ridiculous the setup was and despite complaints from drivers the planners were apparently indignant that this would be inconvenient!  If the same mentality pervades the TTC, will customer complaints add some heft to the drivers' complaints?

I don't know if ALL routes (TTC and MiWay) have a programmed short turn display but it would be useful on this particular run!  Of course it's a trade-off having to explain how far you're going, but if it's a regular occurrence it might be better from a customer service standpoint. 

[H4 5600]

28 minutes ago, Gil said:

How does the bus return to the garage?  Does it just continue on its routing NIS which just sounds ridiculous and inconvenient for everyone.  I get that a layover point at Markland Wood and Mill would be inconvenient for anyone boarding on Maryland Wood, or for any motorist trying to access Mill Rd.

One board period I had gotten the same driver who would warn boarding passengers that he wasn't doing the full loop when boarding.  The driver agreed with how ridiculous the setup was and despite complaints from drivers the planners were apparently indignant that this would be inconvenient!  If the same mentality pervades the TTC, will customer complaints add some heft to the drivers' complaints?

I don't know if ALL routes (TTC and MiWay) have a programmed short turn display but it would be useful on this particular run!  Of course it's a trade-off having to explain how far you're going, but if it's a regular occurrence it might be better from a customer service standpoint. 

Yes, the bus literally follows the 49 route back to kipling but with NIS up, as it has to take bloor and kipling to get back to the division. It would be very easy to just make it do one last 49 EB trip. 

I know the op that did this run last board, and they would usually make an announcment at wb bloor and mill road, since it was a shorter walk to mill and markland from there vs from the last stop. They asked management if they could get permission to just keep people on the NIS bus to mill and markland since the bus has to pass by there anyways, and they said no. 

There is a 49 short turn code, but it has to be manually put in on the luminator keypad, as its not the official code for that trip. And even then, theres the issue where vision will sometimes override whatever is on the keypad and automatically put the official code back up. 

[WoodbineSecondExit]

On 4/25/2023 at 2:02 AM, Turtle said:

That's when they have even less run out time, and those expressing cars you see are being told to express to their lines so they have a decent shot at making it to their lines on time. Right now during the week, they are getting a lot of Spadina cars late into service, so they miss part of their first trip and get sent into Charlotte Loop for their time sb from King. You're telling me that all those people nb from Queen, or sb from Spadina stn are getting good service waiting for a car that never shows up? It's great that the one person at Front Street sb gets a car that is right on time, but what about the 150 people that didn't get a car that had to wait 15 minutes for one to finally show up?

 

Same thing with the 512, some cars are supposed to go eb from Bathurst in service, some wb. What actually happens is they are late at Bathurst and St Clair, enter service late and get short turned on the first trip, or instead of going eb in service are told to go wb for their time, or told to express to Oakwood and enter service wb from there on their time. So a car that is supposed to be in service doesn't actually start service on the line until 30 minutes after they were scheduled there. That's not good customer service.

 

Or on the 509, a car that is running out wb to the Exhibition, but is late running out so has to enter service eb, or turn from Fleet loop to get back on time. Not good customer service for those people at Strachan Av waiting to go to Union Station.

They managed for years to make it work but now they don't get them out in time or schedule enough time or use some of that excess schedule padding? That's another management failure. We're starting to sound like a broken record here.

[Articulated]

10 minutes ago, WoodbineSecondExit said:

They managed for years to make it work but now they don't get them out in time or schedule enough time or use some of that excess schedule padding? That's another management failure. We're starting to sound like a broken record here.

Streetcars normally use King Street to enter service. However, with King Street closed for most of the board, cars had to use Queen Street. Besides for King Street being faster than Queen for having the Transit Priority Corridor infrastructure, Queen Street is also heavily congested by having both the 501 and 504 cars simultaneously serving the street, so cars will be taking much longer to in-service deadhead to their routes.

Because streetcars cannot hold before entering service (or else they'd be blocking service cars), their deadheads gotta be timed pretty tight to arrive nearly exactly when they need to enter service. So when you combine tight running times with corridor delays along the deadhead route, that's gonna add up to cars entering service late. And it's up to supervisors to bring those cars back on time/schedule, because the longer gaps are left the worse they will become later in the day.

[WoodbineSecondExit]

1 hour ago, Articulated said:

Streetcars normally use King Street to enter service. However, with King Street closed for most of the board, cars had to use Queen Street. Besides for King Street being faster than Queen for having the Transit Priority Corridor infrastructure, Queen Street is also heavily congested by having both the 501 and 504 cars simultaneously serving the street, so cars will be taking much longer to in-service deadhead to their routes.

Because streetcars cannot hold before entering service (or else they'd be blocking service cars), their deadheads gotta be timed pretty tight to arrive nearly exactly when they need to enter service. So when you combine tight running times with corridor delays along the deadhead route, that's gonna add up to cars entering service late. And it's up to supervisors to bring those cars back on time/schedule, because the longer gaps are left the worse they will become later in the day.

This has been going on long before any of Queen or King have been shutdown. It's been happening regularly for 4 plus years at this point.

[tommike]

do anyone know if the bus roads at york u still open for buses?

[2822]

12 minutes ago, tommike said:

do anyone know if the bus roads at york u still open for buses?

Yes, Used for 939. 

[Mike]

8 minutes ago, 2822 said:

Yes, Used for 939. 

939 ends at Finch West Stn so it doesn’t go to York University. Roads within York grounds are used by routes 41 and 106.

[Xtrazsteve]

The busway on York U campus is no longer used by the TTC. The terms was once the subway opened, York U would reclaim the land used by the busway and limit bus traffic on the campus. They just use the regular roads.

[tommike]

ok old busway roads on campus id regular road and open?

[Xtrazsteve]

1 hour ago, tommike said:

ok old busway roads on campus id regular road and open?

No they are decommission, blocked and used for construction holding. Eventually York U would built buildings over them. It was a thing York U didn't like about the busway and made sure they got their land back after the subway opens for more buildings, not roads.

[nagaBus]

Has the transit signal at Sheppard Avenue East and Parkway Forest Drive ever turned green? All I've seen is the transit priority signal and nothing else.

[Articulated]

Just now, nagaBus said:

Has the transit signal at Sheppard Avenue East and Parkway Forest Drive ever turned green? All I've seen is the transit priority signal and nothing else.

TTC has always programmed their transit priority signals where the white bar indicates turning movements, and solid green is only for straight (through) movements. The only possible/programmed routing for buses at the signal departing Don Mills Station is to make a left turn onto eastbound Sheppard; therefore the green aspect should never appear.

[nagaBus]

1 minute ago, Articulated said:

TTC has always programmed their transit priority signals where the white bar indicates turning movements, and solid green is only for straight (through) movements. The only possible/programmed routing for buses at the signal departing Don Mills Station is to make a left turn onto eastbound Sheppard; therefore the green aspect should never appear.

I see. It seems really wasteful that buses have to wait an entire light cycle if they miss the signal. They could have made an exception for that particular intersection.