That kind of attitude towards car owners (i.e. over 85% of the GTA population) is not helpful to the discussion.  The last thing we need is a “us versus them” type mentality which will get us nowhere.  People are free to choose their lifestyle however they want.  Who are we to judge them?  Making a political/ideological statement out of it is absolutely unnecessary.  There is no need to use your own sense of pride to judge others.

I am a transit advocate myself, and I also do not own a car as I take the transit everywhere everyday and I love it.  But unlike some of the readers here, I do recognize the importance of a balanced transportation network where cars and transit should co-exist.

Besides road congestion and lack of buses, deputy general manager of surface operations Bob Boutilier, says they have 20 to 30 supervisors out on the street and 7 people in front of the computers each watching 8 or 9 routes using “old technology”.

He also says, “I don’t like giving excuses, because there’s no reason why we can’t do a better job than what we’re doing — but certain things are out of our control.”

Perhaps they should move the supervisors in front of the computers so they can see the big picture and invest in improving thier route monitoring software. It shouldn’t be too expensive if they can do it without updating the hardware on each bus. With the modest cost and the ridership they are losing because of bunching and shortturns, it would be worth it.

I read that the supervisors used to work in front of a computer, but David Gunn put them on the street. Perhaps a compromise is to put them on the street with Palm-top computers connected to the TTC using Hydro’s wireless Internet.

Steve:  Last week CBC Metro Morning ran a series of items on TTC and technology focussing on fare collection and all the money we lose via “old technology” or could gain via smart cards etc.  The whole issue of line management is a perfect example of how we don’t use technology that is sitting there for the taking (and has been for years) to properly manage the system.  Rather, we somehow think that marketing will convince people that there is really something scrumptious in that empty shop window.

The TTC is very good at making excuses, not so goot at fixing things

They intended to have GPS installed on all of the buses, reporting back to transit control on the exact location of the bus.  It was intended that the schedule would be modified as needed depending on the situation, connections etc.

The operators killed the project because they considered it would deprive them of their independence.

Steve:  This is ridiculous.  Transit systems all over the world have tracking systems for their buses, and if Brampton is using union opposition to block the project, I can’t help wondering how committed they were to it in the first place.

For several decades, the TTC has known where all of their vehicles are, although you would never know it from the way they run the service.

Steve:  I don’t dislike Margaret Wente.  She serves a useful purpose of showing just how shallow some journalistic analysis can be.  The frightening part, and the significance for many areas of public policy, is that many people have the same view of the world and its problems.

What is sad is that so many others think just like Wente, and a week on the TTC – whether necessitated by auto breakdown or a gimmicky newspaper story – cannot transform their perspective enough to realize it is their very greed that prevents public transit from reaching its potential as the better way.

Steve:  Looking back at the article, I am also struck by the car-induced idea that you don’t need to know about your local neighbourhood’s services because “shopping” entails driving all over the city.  Where I live, there is a wealth of nearby stores, and in a pinch I can get to specialty shops on a short transit ride.  Yes, my local supermarket may not have everything a well-stocked house might want, but I can make a round trip there in under half an hour including the time it takes to get dressed and wait for the rather leisurely elevator service in my building.  Meanwhile, I save a fortune by not owning a car.

Apparently to provide this AM express, a streetcar or two is removed for every 143 bus so in fact we non-express users get even less service during the morning rush.

Ms Wente. without knowing it, entered the ‘dead-zone’.  Between approx 8.50am (when 2 or 3 cars depart within minutes of each other) and 10.00am weekdays, you are lucky to get one, let alone two streetcars showing up.  At 9.10am, she probably waited a half hour or so.  The evening ‘dead-zone’ begins around 5-530pm.  Once again the wait is usually 30+ minutes and going west, the 143 buses do not pick up any passengers, they return downtown as ‘Out of Service’ (The 143′s do however, pick up local from Kingston to Neville in the PM rush, but this doesn’t help the westbound traveller.)  Oh, and during the ‘dead-zones’, the streetcars always sit in the loop for 7-10 minutes for a break, before going west.

There is nothing more frustrating than waiting 20 minutes for a car, and then watch it take a ten minute break!

Daytimes are also hit and miss affairs.  After lengthy gaps, 2 or sometimes 3 cars arrive within minutes of each other, take their break and then depart together.  You have to wonder if any human being is actually supervising this route!

Evenings…regular as clockwork.  One car in the loop, waits for another to arrive..leaves.  Regular, reliable service except that after 7PM, no one rides the service (or very few).

Have the planners actually ever ridden this route????

Oh, another frustration.  How would you feel waiting 15 minutes for a streetcar, you see one coming, approaching Neville, finally, here it is…oh-oh, the dreaded red sign, it’s an out of service car with 2 yard guys taking it for a test drive.  This happens all day long.

Frustated…. yes
Pete

Steve:  This is a testimonial to rotten line management.  Any time I have looked at Queen Street in the morning rush hour, there is very little traffic congestion.  Most stores are closed, and this means there is no delivery or shopping traffic parked legally or otherwise.  Moreover, the morning service should not be a mess from six hours of mid-day traffic and screwups, and things should be in good shape.  That’s the theory.  What happens on the line clearly does not match this.

One big problem with short turns these days (as the long layovers at Neville attest) is that even after the schedules were padded to allow for layovers or “recovery time”, cars still get short turned “on spec” even if they are only slightly late.  There is no management of their re-entry into the westbound flow, let alone any attempt to space downtown-bound service on the 501, 502 and 503 to even out loads and headways.

The gigantic gaps of half an hour are simply unacceptable, and it is time the TTC faced up to the fact that one of its major lines is a complete mess as far as service to the Beach is concerned.  Stop carping about transit priority and start managing the service properly.

The idea that cars were removed from the line to offset the 143 is a real joke considering that this cut affects riders on the whole line, not just the east end where riding is not at its peak anyhow.

Occasionally, I come down to the Beach to the Fox Cinema, but try to avoid doing this in the winter given the irregular service from Neville late at night.  On paper it’s not too bad, but in practice, I sometimes wonder if there is any service on the line at all.  Route “supervision” consists of maintaining something like a regular headway at Queen and Yonge.  Those who live east of Kingston Road or west of Roncesvalles can take their chances.

And finally, the Manager of Service Planning lives in the Beach and rides both the Queen car and the Main bus depending on where he is going to or coming from.  His department write the schedules, but is not responsible for managing the quality of service.