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The State of Disrepair (II)

The extended shutdown of Line 2 on May 13 brought the TTC’s work car fleet into the spotlight thanks to multiple equipment failures leading to hydraulic fluid leaks.

In the management presentation, the average age of that fleet was cited as 17 years, but these cars vary greatly in age. Here are the affected cars.

VehicleBuiltFunctionLeak Incident Dates
RT-411993Tie TamperApr. 2/24 & May 16/24
RT-171996Tunnel WasherJan. 17/24
RT-71998LocomotiveFeb. 10/24
RT-562006Vacuum & Drain CleaningJan. 14/24 & May 13/24
RT-842011Vacuum CarMay 15/24

Replacement of RT-41 with a new car was proposed in the 2018 Capital Budget along with several other new and replacement cars. The intent was to refresh the fleet and increase capacity to perform more work on the expanding subway network. Most of this program was deferred under CEO Rick Leary, although a second Tie Tamper, RT-21, does now appear in the illustrated list of work cars. RT-41 is well overdue for replacement.

Inspection of all work cars began a few days after the May 13 incident. Sources indicate that fewer than one third of the three dozen cars reviewed in the first two days passed inspection.

Planned work on Line 1 on the May 18-19 weekend was deferred, and it is unclear how the sidelining of RT-41 and other cars might affect planned track repairs.

Questions for the TTC

On May 22, I wrote a series of questions to TTC Media Relations attempting to get an official version of what I had heard from sources. Here are the questions.

  1. Can you confirm the failure rate for inspections (over 2/3)?
  2. Has all of the fleet been inspected now and what are the results?
  3. Will further adjustments be required in maintenance plans?
  4. A key vehicle that was not available last weekend was RT-41 the tamper car. According to the fleet diagram included in the board presentation there is another tamper car RT-21. What is its status?
  5. In 2018 the capital budget included a multi-year program to replace elderly work cars and expand the fleet including [replacement of] RT-41, but this program was repeatedly pushed into future years. What is its status?
  6. Since the pandemic the budget blue books have not been available, although there was talk of an e-version of them. What is the current status?

The TTC’s response on the afternoon of May 22 was not very revealing:

As you know from the Board meeting, we’ve already started the deep dive with external consultants AND our own staff have enhanced our proactive inspections on the workcar fleet.

The results, outcomes and findings will first be shared with our Board when they are known.

I can say that your source has misinformed you in as much as we have not yet inspected the entire fleet as this is a time-consuming process that sometimes requires workcars being shunted from one location to another.

As deficiencies are identified, they are corrected before being the work cars are put into service.

The TTC’s response was less than helpful for all questions:

  1. The TTC did not address the failure rate for cars that had been inspected.
  2. The TTC claimed my source was incorrect, but misrepresented the question. In fact I asked whether the inspections had been completed, and indirectly they confirmed that the answer is “no”.
  3. Not answered.
  4. Not answered. Tamper RT-21 is a comparatively new vehicle (it does not appear in 2018 fleet lists). It is not clear why it was unavailable when tamper RT-41 was sidelined.
  5. Not answered. The repeated deferral of this project is a matter of record within the budget papers from 2017-2024.
  6. Not answered. The significance of the “blue books” (so named because of the colour of the binders that held them) is that they included detailed descriptions of all capital projects and their status well beyond information in budgets or quarterly financial reports. Before the pandemic, these were routinely provided on request, but I have not been able to obtain them since 2019.

Most of the questions have nothing to do with the “deep dive” into fleet condition, but the TTC has used a simplistic response to dismiss all questions whether they relate to the deep dive or not. The one “answer” attempted to discredit a statement I did not make, and by extension the entire sequence.

Maybe, somewhere, there is a Board member who will demand answers.

Reduced Speed Zones

The tables below track the Reduced Speed Zones where track is awaiting repair. This is an updated version since the previous article. Depending on how your browser presents the tables, you may have to scroll to the right to see the most recent entries.

Although many of the entries from early 2024 have cleared off, others appear suggesting that inspections are uncovering new problem areas and adding them to the list. Little has changed through the month of May.

Source: TTC Reduced Speed Zones Page

Line 1Jan 18Feb 2Feb 12Mar 7Mar 12Mar 14Mar 21Apr 29May 8May 17May 22
Hwy 407 to VaughanNB
Sheppard W to WilsonNBNBNB
Wilson to YorkdaleSBSBSBSB
Yorkdale to Lawrence WSBSBSBSB
Eglinton W to St. Clair WNBNBNB
St. Clair W to DupontNBSBSBSBSB
Spadina to St. GeorgeBWBWBW
St. George to MuseumNBNBNB
St. Andrew to UnionBWBWSBSBSBSBSB
Union to KingNBBWNBNBNBNBSBSBSBSB
College to WellesleyBWBWBW
Bloor to RosedaleNBNBNBNBNBNBNBNB
Summerhill to St. ClairBWBWNB
St. Clair to DavisvilleBWBWBWBWBWSB
Davisville to EglintonBWSB
Lawrence to York MillsNBNBNBNBNB
York Mills to SheppardNBNBNBNBNBNBNB
North York Centre to FinchNBNB
NB = Northbound SB = Southbound BW = Both Ways
Line 2Jan 18Feb 2Feb 12Mar 7Mar 12Mar 14Mar 21Apr 29May 8May 17May 22
Royal York to JaneBWBW
Runnymede to High ParkWB
Keele to Dundas WestBWBWEBEBEB
Sherbourne to Castle FrankEBEB
Castle Frank to ChesterEBEBEBEBEBEBEB
Chester to BroadviewWB
Greenwood to CoxwellEB
Coxwell to WoodbineEBEBEB
Woodbine to Main StreetEB
Victoria Park to WardenEBBW
Warden to KennedyWB
EB = Eastbound WB = Westbound BW = Both Ways

2 thoughts on “The State of Disrepair (II)”

  1. I assume that the TTC is covered by the Municipal Freedom of Information Act, could you not apply for the Blue Books with an FOI Request? The exemptions do not include one for ‘avoiding awkward questions’!

    Access to RecordsRight of access

    4 (1) Every person has a right of access to a record or a part of a record in the custody or under the control of an institution unless,

    (a)  the record or the part of the record falls within one of the exemptions under sections 6 to 15; or

    (b)  the head is of the opinion on reasonable grounds that the request for access is frivolous or vexatious.

    Steve: Yes I could and have contemplated going that route. However, it’s annoying for an organization that used to freely give access to such material to have become so secretive.

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  2. Steve,

    When I first joined the GO Transit board (pre Metrolinx), I was shocked by years of poor maintenance that resulted in unnecessary delays and significant impact on  service.

    You attended those meetings and will recall what happened to GO service reliability when starved of capital and maintenance budget.

    It appears that the same thing is happening to the TTC. When capital and maintenance budgets are reduced , there are inevitable consequences to safety and service. 

    Poor and unreliable service is not a consequence of bad operational management, it is a deliberate political choice to starve the organization of critical funding.

    Lee Parsons

    Steve: What is worse is that the TTC Board appears to have connived in the situation through willful blindness and a desire to support the dual messages of keeping taxes down and “everything’s just fine here”. There was no budget committee worth the name, and questions at budget time tended to focus on one small item, not the big picture. There was also no public debate about the quality of management.

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