Tonight, I spent the later part of the evening at the Gladstone Hotel at spacing magazine’s latest issue launch, one devoted to transit issues. You can read all about it at www.spacing.ca.
Let me tell you about my trips to and from the Gladstone. I arrived at Queen and Spadina on a southbound 510 just in time to see not one, not two, but three 501 Queen cars leave westbound. Hmmm. Not a good sign. As things turned out, the next 501 (actually two of them) did not show up for 25 minutes, and the first car was going only to Roncesvalles. Fortunately for me, the Gladstone is not in Long Branch.
On the trip home, a bit after midnight, the eastbound 501 showed up reasonably promptly and the trip across Queen was uneventful. We pulled up to Broadview just behind a 504 King car, the one that should have taken me home. Did it wait for transfer passengers from the 501? No. At least the following 504, about 10 minutes later, was not short turned (this happens regularly late at night when I attempt this route home).
In a way, these are two isolated incidents. Eastbound service on Queen at Spadina during my long wait was quite regular. Service on the Dufferin bus seemed to be running smoothly any time I peeked out the door or window from the bar at the Gladstone [please note how this demonstrates my commitment to monitoring the TTC, and the places I will lurk to do so].
But the point is that in both directions, I encountered problems that should not be part of TTC service — a long wait and bunched service one way, and a missed connection thanks to an inconsiderate operator the other way. We can have the cheapest fares in the world, but if we don’t have reliable service, people will stay in their cars.
Steve Munro 
I guess nobody told you that buses in London usually hunt in packs of about five to six…. At least they did when I wanted one to go to university in the morning….
😉
LikeLike
Unfortunately, events such as you describe are closer to being regular ocurrences rather than isolated incidents. (I get a good view of the service patterns from out of the window of my gym at a key streetcar turning point – which thankfully does not require that I lurk anywhere to make observations!)
In my view, the budget should give the TTC an incentive to focus on service quality. I prefer the ridership-based funding mechanism (in this case rebating a portion of the pass cost via a tax credit) to block grants (such as the $200 million the province gave the city for “subway operations”.)
LikeLike
I am a new reader to your blog and I find it interesting that you took these two incidents so calmly. I cannot stand inconsiderate drivers that do not wait for transferring passengers. The explanation given to me is that the driver must keep to a schedule but some common sense and courtesy on the part of drivers who take a few seconds to look around to see if there are transferring passengers before blindly leaving would be most appreciated. As a TTC passenger, I am fully aware of the schedule including my next transfer but drivers seem to have no idea. I don’t think it would cost the TTC anything to remind their drivers that TTC passengers often make transfers and time their trips accordingly.
Steve: “Calmly” may not quite describe it. For the westbound trip, several people who were waiting with me gave up and walked or took a cab. For the eastbound trip, well, it’s par for the course. Standing in the middle of Queen & Broadview screaming “I’m fed up and I’m not going to take it any more!” would produce amused looks, but no better service. Such is the lot of a dedicated transit rider.
LikeLike
When I lived in East York I was a regular commuter of lines 70 and 91 [O’Connor and Woodbine], and I was always impressed that they would show up at my stop at exactly the right time, with almost no exceptions. The last 70 even waited for the arrival of the last eastbound subway, even though it technically was supposed to leave at 2 AM.
I suppose reliability depends on the line.
Steve: And a system-wide ethic that customers come first.
LikeLike