There were several items on the TTC’s agenda today that I wish to write about, but won’t be able to turn to them until Thursday or Friday. Here is a brief “coming soon” list.

The Kennedy Derailment

A detailed presentation showed the cause of the derailment, and I will post this here with explanatory notes when I get an electronic copy.

Transit City Update

A thorough review of the Transit City plans was presented including a review of each line and of other related projects such as new vehicles, carhouses, fare collection, signalling, and urban design.

My overall impression is that at long last we are seeing transit projects as a unified plan with all of the interlocking design elements acknowledged and included. Many of the questions that have been raised here by me and many commenters are touched on in this review, and readers should be pleasantly surprised that the TTC and the City have a comprehensive plan for all of the studies including public participation.

Service Improvements

A follow-up report to the February 17 service improvements tells us to expect further changes in the March 30 and May 11 schedules to complete the “catch up” with the backlog of overcrowding.

In September and October, service will be added to cope with anticipated rising demand through the year as well as the gradual change from high-floor to low-floor buses which have a lower capacity.

Late in the fall, the peak period loading standards will be reduced by 10%. This means that the target average load for a bus will be 10% lower than it is now with concurrent service improvements on routes that are close to the line today. Also, hours of service will be changed so that “substantially” all TTC services will operate from 6 AM (9 AM on Sundays) to 1 AM on a maximum headway of 30 minutes. A possible move to a maximum 20 minute headway will be reviewed in 2009.

Status of St. Clair West Station Loop

Joe Mihevc will be visiting St. Clair West Station tomorrow (Feb 28) and will be posting a video regarding the projcet’s status. I will place the link here when it is available.

Buy Canadian

John Cartwright, President of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council, presented a report throwing serious questions on the Booz-Allen “buy Canadian” report that recommended a low threshhold for the TTC LRV contract.

I will post a summary of this critique here when I have time.