With much fanfare, the TTC launched its new website earlier this year. Improvements are coming soon, we are told, but meanwhile a goodly chunk of the old website has vanished, one that policy wonks like me and other readers of this blog find quite useful.
Yes, it’s the Service Planning page. You can still read this page by using the search engine on the City of Toronto’s site and pulling up the cached copy of the page. Don’t try the actual page or links within the cached copy because you will be redirected to the new site. If you want to find something listed on that page, you will have to craft a search query and hope that there’s a cached copy of what you want. Needless to say, any documents created after August 2008 are not linked here because that’s when maintenance on the old page stopped.
I have inquired about this situation, and the official story is that the TTC is working on making the old content accessible. Meanwhile, the content is equally unavailable to everyone, and I am not quite sure that’s what is intended by “accessibility”.
The TTC seems quite content to publish its Commission Reports through the most primitive of interfaces rather than using the standard meeting and report format developed by the City Clerk’s office for its agendas. This is really rather embarrassing, although at least they are no longer publishing documents that contained draft text and editorial comments, and there’s a fighting chance that the illustrations will actually show up. Appendices and carry-in presentations to the Commission are still a challenge, however.
Sadly, this is one more example of a half-finished TTC project that starts with the best of intentions, but appears as if someone forgot about it along the way.
Updated October 11, 1:00 pm: As a convenience to readers, the current TTC service summary is available on my site. It’s a sad affair when the fans/advocates have to host official content because an organization can’t get its own act together.
Steve Munro 
Where are the service summaries?
Steve: They are not online any more. I am going to add a link from this post to a copy on my own site.
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Another example of lost functionality is on the Construction Projects page. The old page used to give one easy access to maps of any changed routes – the new one describes the changes but has no maps or links to them.
Of course, these construction pages are usually very out of date in the first place.
The St Clair West Phase 3 page – dated August 2008 – reads:
“Start Date: Mid September 2008* End Date: Summer 2009*
*Timeline is subject to change due to unforeseen events. Content is accurate and current at time of posting.” It it is now mid-October 2008 and surely the page should have been updated.
The Rosedale Station page was last updated November 2007, have they made no progesss?
On the Union Station platform page they proudly announce that the sewer relocation will begin in June 2006. I think it’s finished, what’s going on NOW?
Steve: It may be that there is an historical web page brigade at work lobbying the TTC to keep out of date material online so that future generations can appreciate it. Think of it as a heritage web site.
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This may be a bit conspiracist, but I’m suspicious a few folks at TTC are happy that people don’t have ready access to stuff like the number of streetcars operating, which can lead to awkward questions about those parked up, as well as the other analyses you and others produce at Service Report time.
Steve: Never assume clever, dastardly, moustache-twirling plots when simple inattention and incompetence can explain everything.
For those who might think that description extreme, I have a simple reply. If you are going to redesign your website, at least retain all of the existing functionality even if you have to put a link to an “old format” page as an interim step. Instead what seems to have happened is that the service info has a new look, and that’s given the impression that they are “doing something”.
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I’m trying to write a short piece for the next issue of Spacing, and wanted to get a hold of a current or recent service summary (surely one of the basic reports transit nuts like to leaf through), to look at the bus fleet numbers. I have to go through other channels to find something out that has been public until the “new and improved” site launched. Sure the front page looks a lot prettier, but there’s a lot of missing content.
Steve: I too have to go through other channels to get reports that should be public, some of which should be a matter of record because they are presented in public sessions. The service summary itself claims that it is available online and gives a URL, but it’s a dead link.
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Sean,
Let me know if you want the historical fleet numbers, I have them going back to 1988 peak, 1996 (low) to 2007.
Bob
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I gotta say as well, the new website is chock fulla bugs. See here for an example; what is this “A” branch that suddenly appears down the list at Humber Loop? This is a common problem on many routes (non-existant branches). Also, more seriously it seems that some routes with a one-way loop don’t show scheduled times correctly; they’ll show only AM times in the one-way loop when you choose Northbound and only PM times in the one-way loop when you choose Southbound even though the loop is the same direction all day (see here for an example). Regardless of the direction chosen, when you choose the stop it always reports the direction correctly “Northbound on Skyway at Dixon”, but depending on which direction you choose at first you only get half the day’s scheduled times.
It’s really ridiculous. This was OK while it was still a “beta” but now this is the general public is being given, and it’s confusing and downright wrong.
I used the feedback form to report these problems but noone ever responded. I guess they don’t care. -shug-
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Apparently there was a stink from ACAT regarding the TTC’s use of PDF-formatted documents, and the fact that they can’t be easily read by the screenreaders used by the visually impared.
If this is in fact the case, making them completely unavailable rather than available only in PDF format while they search for an alternative format is completely unacceptable.
Dan
Steve: This is a rather strange claim. The entire City of Toronto website, all the agendas and reports, is full of PDFs. For example, the agenda for last week’s Executive Committee is a PDF as are all of the attachments.
Something tells me that the TTC is much better at making excuses than in providing a useful website. The issue is not PDF’s per se, but PDFs that are designed for use with screen readers.
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Thank You Steve for posting the service summary, its been hard living without it. Hopefully the TTC can have the next one up before the new board period starts so we know what to expect in terms of service improvements with the new Mount Dennis Bus Garage opening.
I think they could have easily finished the new site in 1 month with all of what was on the old site and more, its been up for 2+ months now and is still missing things.
Oh, and for those that like finding bugs on the new ttc.ca, put in a fake route number in the “Find a Schedule” box and look at what appears in the service disruptions box on the right side of you screen.
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I asked the TTC for this document but was unable to get a response, thank you very very much.
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There’s a few things still missing. I was just looking for the TTC’s subway time calculator PDF.
I googled it at http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/subway_travel_time_chart.pdf
But why not link it from their website?
Steve: Probably that page is a remnant from the old site that is not officially online.
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