Updated November 30, 2012 at 5:00 pm:
The City of Toronto budget papers released yesterday include Budget Analyst Notes for the Operating and Capital Budgets.
These are different in format from the TTC versions in that they are cast in a standard reporting layout for City budgets and concentrate on the financing of the TTC from the City’s point of view. All expenditures have a “gross” and “net” version with the difference made up by various revenues such as fares and subsidies from other governments. That difference represents what the City must raise from its own resources (although some of this actually originates externally).
Operating Budget
The net expenditure for 2013 is $411m for conventional operations and $97m for Wheel-Trans. Starting at page 11 of the report is a detailed listing of the savings expected from various sources including wages, benefits and energy costs.
A saving of about $1.9m (on a base of about $39m) is listed for traction power costs reduced from the preliminary 2013 budget because of “variances from service planning”. The TTC has clarified that power savings don’t arise from service cuts, but from improved efficiency of the TR trains. Additional savings come in facility heating based on actual experience, although that is in another budget line.
The City continues to seek a multi-year plan from the TTC that will take into account rising demand, inflation, potential cost savings, customer service and performance measures. Such a plan would be very sensitive not only to future economic conditions, but also to the policy framework for transit service and what is considered “good quality” that the City should be providing. What remains to be seen is whether the TTC will deliver a broad view including options and costs for enhancing the transit system, or a bare bones, do only what’s needed forecast.
The 2014-15 Outlook on page 15 is in more detail than any public reports from the TTC itself. Both years include provision for additional revenue from ridership growth and from a ten-cent fare increase in each year. The service budget is projected to rise by 3.2% in 2014 and 2.0% in 2015, while energy costs are projected at about 4% in each year.
What is noteworthy is that the increase in energy costs is greater than the cost of additional service. Out of the total projected system cost increases, actual service improvements count for less than 20%. The rest goes to pay the cost of doing business with the existing service. This relationship works in reverse too, and shows how only very substantial service cuts can offset the annual inflationary effects. Savings may be available in parts of the organization, but some can only be achieved once (e.g. contracting out) not over and over in future years.
Opening the Leslie Barn will add $10m annually when it is fully operational in late 2014. This is a one time increase associated with any new major facility. In years beyond this projection lie the effects of opening the Spadina Subway extension and the LRT lines.
Improved cleaning of subway stations will cost $1.7m starting in 2013. This is the net cost of contracting out for a higher frequency of cleans (every 90 minutes weekdays, every 5 hours weekends).
Debit and credit card capabilities will be expanded to most collector booths in the system, and this will increase service fees by $3.9m in 2013 with a further $1m in 2014. The City has asked the TTC to quantify any savings from reduced cash handling as part of the 2014 budget. This begs an intriguing question about the cost-benefit analysis on Presto: have some of the savings from moving away from cash been counted twice?
A new “Chief of Staff” position will be created in 2013. This was originally proposed in 2012, but deferred. Its role will be
“to take a lead role in the transformation of the TTC’s reputation among stakeholders, media and peers. The position will also undertake program coordination for major schemes for the TTC.”
There will also be a new “Customer Development Department”:
TTC requires an increase of 6 positions effective January 1, 2013 to establish a new Customer Development Department.
The positions include 1 Head of Customer Development, 3 Senior Planners, 1 Customer Development Analyst and 1 Fare Policy Analyst.
The Customer Development Department of the Strategy and Customer Experience group will be a small department entirely focused on identifying, developing and delivering new and innovative ways of delivering improvements for TTC customers. They will focus on improving the value of money of the TTC proposition and ensure that the quality of the time customers spend with TTC meets the highest standards of transit operators around the world.
It is fascinating that these functions are not included within an existing department structure. Whether the positions will be filled with existing TTC staff or from outside the organization remains to be seen. The goals sound good, but the new department must be able to influence the organization as a whole to change both the quality of service it delivers and the standards for acceptability.
A section on provincial funding notes that there was no specific operating budget funding for the years 2010-12. Instead, part of the gas tax revenue intended to support the capital budget was diverted to operating accounts (about $90m annually). The City and TTC will continue to pursue a return to 50% funding of the operating deficit, although this may be a lost cause with the state of provincial deficits.
Capital Budget
The Analyst Notes for the capital budget focus on the problem of financing the TTC’s need mainly for “State of Good Repair” (SOGR) projects which include fleet plans. The concurrent projects to replace subway cars, streetcars and a large number of buses has placed a strain on TTC financing generally especially considering that a good chunk of these costs are born by the City of Toronto. The City would like to see a TTC fleet plan that looks beyond the 10-year budget horizon and addresses the need to spread out capital requirements.
I have written about fleet planning before and won’t belabour the matter here. However, current plans do not address many issues including:
- Realistic estimates of subway capacity including constraints at terminals and other locations that interfere with achieving claimed future headway reductions.
- A discussion of the option for “high rate” operation to provide the same headways with fewer trains.
- Fleet and service growth in all modes to handle ridership. This is especially critical for rail vehicles that tend to be acquired infrequently, but it also affects bus planning because of the need for garage space.
- The implications of a return to “Ridership Growth Strategy” loading standards and any initiatives to improve the overall quality of service provided to riders.
As I reported previously, the decision to defer 10 additional TR sets beyond the 2022 budget horizon allows a delay in providing capacity to handle these trains. If this proves impractical, then the costs will move back into the current planning window. TTC ridership projections indicate that they will be needed beginning in 2018. Related issues include those of station capacity (more and larger trains arriving more frequently will add to demand within the stations), and the debate on whether platform doors are a pre-requisite to this level of operation.
The bus overhaul program’s budget has increased by $120m (39.6%) because of additional requirements for the hybrid bus fleet and the original Orions.
Bus purchases were also stripped out of previous budgets, and they have been restored. This, in turn, triggers the need for the McNicoll Bus Garage to handle an additional 250 buses by 2018.
The new LRV budget has been increased to restore the 15 cars cut from the budget in 2012 as these will be required for future service improvements.
The Budget Analyst notes that unlike the City’s departments, the TTC does not have a formal SOGR backlog report showing the work required, but as yet unfunded in the capital program. Some of this does show up in the unfunded projects list, but there is no real sense of the amount of “nice to have” work that is put on hold, eventually becoming “must have” as a call on future budgets.
The TTC’s list of unfunded projects comes to just over $5-billion, but the lion’s share of this is the North Yonge Subway Extension which may very well not wind up as a TTC project. The TTC needs to segregate “unfunded” work depending on whether it supports the existing system and is likely to require substantial City funding, or if it is related to growth and will likely have a large commitment of funding from Queen’s Park or Ottawa. Moreover, the TTC has blind spots about projects such as the Waterfront (someone else’s funding problem) and the DRL (until recently, not a project they cared to address). The “unfunded” list reflects the skewed priorities of TTC management and it should be updated to reflect a broader view of transit needs and funding pressures.
I leave it to my readers to dig through the Analyst Notes in detail. There is a wealth of information beyond that provided in public reports from the TTC itself.
Transportation Services
The Transportation Services Capital Budget is mainly concerned with the road system, but it contains a few items of transit interest.
The single biggest one is the proposed reconstruction of the Gardiner Expressway, a $626m project that will stretch out to 2024 [see pages 23-24 in the analyst notes]. This work will no doubt have quite an effect on adjacent city streets and greater congestion on the surface network close to the Gardiner will become a fact of life for the next decade.
Also included is a St. Clair / Metrolinx grade separation project at a total cost of $32m with the main work in 2016-18. This would address the narrow roadway between Keele and Old Weston Road.
Updated November 21, 2012 at 5:00 pm:
The TTC confirmed that adult token fares will go up by five cents to $2.65 in 2013 with increases in most other rates on a proportionate basis. Cash fare remains at $3.00. The new rates are listed on page 6 of the budget report and in the press release.
Various reports were requested by the Commission:
- The cost of extending the family pass to 7-day use.
- The cost of providing free off-peak service to seniors, or of a reduced price off-peak senior’s Metropass.
- The implications of reduced fares for recipients of ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and Ontario Works.
See the main article below for detailed updates on the Operating Budget.
Original post from November 20, 2012:
At its meeting on November 21, the TTC will discuss revised operating and capital budgets for 2013 including a proposed five-cent increase in token fares to $2.65. The budget report reveals that funding concerns have eased somewhat from the original proposal in September.
Operating Budget
In the preliminary budget, there was a $10-million gap between projected funding, including subsidy, and the system’s operating cost. This gap has been closed thanks to revised projections for certain revenues and costs.
- The average fare paid by riders through 2012 has been running slightly above expectations, and this generates an additional $2m in the 2013 projections.
- An additional $1m in “other revenue” (advertising, rents, etc.) is expected.
- Non-salary employee costs have been dropped by $2m to reflect actual usage of health care benefits.
- Gapping — the period when a budgeted position is unfilled — is expected to be greater than the original budget’s provision giving a $3m saving.
- Operator turnover has been greater than expected, and the proportion of junior operators (who are paid less than senior operators) is higher than planned. This will save $2m in labour costs.
The evolution of TTC operating subsidies over recent years shows that Toronto has not yet returned to the 2009 level. The gap is even larger when inflation is taken into account.
TTC Operating Subsidies ------ Operating ----- Wheel-Trans ($million) Toronto Ontario Total Toronto 2009 $350.7 $ 91.6 $442.3 $ 77.0 2010 306.8 91.6 398.4 84.2 2011 342.0 91.6 433.6 89.8 2012 (original) 282.5 91.6 374.1 96.8 2012 (revised) 319.4 91.6 411.0 96.8 2013 budget 319.4 91.6 411.0 96.8
The revised 2012 subsidy arises from funding of the arbitrated wage settlement. The City of Toronto absorbed this additional cost. (Figures for 2009-11 are taken from the TTC’s audited financial statements.)
(Updated)
The TTC’s total expenses in 2013 will be $68m more than in 2012 (revised) made up of the following changes:
- $24m from the Collective Bargaining Agreement
- $20m for additional service to carry the projected 528m riders in 2013
- $11m for other employee costs (mainly benefits)
- $4m for increased use of debit and credit cards by passengers
- $4m for increased overtime
- $3m for inflationary increases in non-labour costs
- $3m for increased depreciation (this is charged on capital assets for which the TTC receives less than 100% subsidy)
- $3m for increased facility maintenance
- $2m for improved washroom cleaning
- $6m saving for reduced accident claims settlements (mainly due to legislative changes in no-fault rules)
- $2m saving in reduced cost of natural gas
- $1m saving in contracting out of bus servicing
This will be funded from:
- $39m of increased revenue from higher ridership relative to the 2012 budget
- $18m of increased revenue from the fare increase
- $10m as described above
- $1m in other revenue (this appears to have been counted twice, once as part of the $10m and again as an independent item)
(End of update)
Strong ridership plus fare increases provide the funding for recent service improvements, but the TTC remains vulnerable to unexpected jumps in future costs such as diesel fuel. Operating savings were achieved through service cuts. Recent service improvements only keep pace with demand, but at the new lower standards imposed in 2012. Any further cuts would run counter to the newly liberal view of transit service on Council, and retrenchment of the TTC as a budgetary saving would be counter-productive.
The frozen contribution of gas tax revenue belies Ontario’s frequent claims of strong support for transit. Capital, yes, for specific projects and mainly in the later parts of the decade, but repeated announcements of that $8-billion worth of LRT projects ring hollow when Queen’s Park contributes only 6 percent of the TTC operating budget.
A matter for future debate and a new administration at City Hall will be the questions of which cuts should be undone and how much money should be devoted to increasing latent capacity on the transit system. Service quality is always a victim of budget pressures even when debates rage about billions of dollars in mythical rapid transit plans.
Capital Budget
In the preliminary version of the 10-year capital budget, there was a $688m shortfall in available funding versus the planned projects to 2022. This has been addressed by three changes:
- $74m has been deferred beyond the 2022 horizon (Wheel-Trans bus purchases in 2020-22 and T1/TR yard accommodations). Plans to buy additional trains to improve service on the Yonge-University-Spadina line (beyond those needed for the extension to Vaughan) have been put off beyond the 10-year planning window, and this is now reflected by delaying the yard changes needed to store them.
- Development Charges will produce an additional $79m beyond original projections.
- Asset sales by the City will produce an additional $534m.
While this clears away an annoying gap in TTC capital planning, it does nothing to address the list of projects that are not even in the budget including major items such as the Downtown Relief Line or the Richmond Hill extension. These represent a considerable future cost for the City and its “partners” at Queen’s Park and Ottawa. Although we hear a lot about future revenues and the Metrolinx Investment Strategy, those two subway projects would soak up a large chunk of any new taxes, and it would be hard to justify spending so much of new “regional” revenue on downtown-oriented subway spending.
Steve Munro 
Steve, at great risk of igniting a discussion here regarding the pay of TTC Operators, I would like to make the following comment. It is stated that
This is true in the very short term of the first two years on the job. After two years, these operators will go to full rate. I’ll give some (somewhat out of date, but useful for comparative purposes) numbers: effective April 1, 2010 the starting rate was $21.92/hr; after 12 months the rate was $24.42/hr; after 24 months the rate was $29.05/hr. The current full rate is $30.78/hr (effective April 1, 2012). This rate comes after the two arbitration decisions: the award of the “GTA Clause”; and the award of the CBA retroactive to April 1, 2011 which gave a 3% increase per year for the three years of the CBA (April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2014). My point is that the Commission has a temporary reprieve on the Operator wages until the higher proportion of “new” operators reach their 24 month anniversary date when they go to full wage rate. Once again, this is a Commission report that states the “now” with no indication of what will happen down the road!!
Steve: The amount involved is also trivial on the scale of the entire $1.5-billion budget. We go through this charade every year with management finding pennies in things like the average fare and projected ridership. But the exercise keeps the bean counters on Council happy that the TTC has “balanced its budget”.
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Using private suppliers for fuel is not always the best. This is a case where the TTC should purchase its own oil refinery. Even though West Texas Intermediate crude goes up and down everyday, owning a refinery will allow the TTC to at least control the refining cost. This cost fluctuates based on season, the availability of other refineries and local demand. The Wall Street Journal applauded Delta Airline’s move to purchase its own oil refinery. This will lower their oil purchase price by 2.5%. When one spends $0.33 on fuel based on $1 of revenue, this is big money. (based on Air Canada’s reported numbers)
Steve: The TTC buys about $100m worth of fuel annually, and does so by locking in future supply at favourable rates. This practice has resulted in savings relative to commercial fuel rates for several years. At this scale of buying, owning a refinery would be like buying a steel mill to get cheaper rail. Unlike Delta, the TTC is paying 6.3 cents on every dollar of revenue for fuel.
Labor cost must be contained and this will mean contracting out certain operations. GO Transit contracts out maintenance to Bombardier with no ill effects. Does that mean Bombardier will abuse and exploit their workers? No. With their extensive parts and support network, they can delivery the same level of service at lower cost than in house.
It is time to have a rational discussion on the TTC’s role. If the TTC is an organization that moves people, then activities like oil refining should be done in house while other activities should be contract out. If the TTC has a social mandate like equalizing income, then there should be no discussion on the budget. It should be treated like a social spending. None is more right than the others.
Steve: Your arguments contradict each other. On one hand, you want a publicly owned refinery in an industry dominated by private firms, and certainly a function that is not a core part of the TTC’s business, to take over responsibility for 6% of the business. On the other hand, you want to contract out vehicle maintenance, a function with a large, specialized workforce who have contractual guarantees of jobs that have, for better or worse, been deemed an “essential service”.
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It used to be that electric power companies owned electric street railways. That lasted until anti-monopoly forces made that a no-no. Though, however, oil companies (and tire companies and car companies) owning bus companies were a concern for a few years, as they bought up the street railways and converted them to buses.
Steve: Public ownership of both transit and hydro in Toronto and Ontario are a direct result of the problems brought on by the private companies that preceded the public takeovers.
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Sorry, but I can’t resist.
For Phase 2, the TTC will purchase and re-activate the Don Valley brickyard. This will give it a more economical source of bricks for stations etc. As a side effect, we will revert to brick pavers between and around all new trackwork, including on the new LRT lines. The debate between concrete encasement and ballasted construction is over.
Of course, since this will require a large capital outlay, a Design/Build/Finance/Operate/Maintain (DBFOM) contract will be let for the purpose. Some money will also be earned back by charging MetroLinx for the privilege of operating the Don Branch over the brickyard.
Watch for the announcement of Phase 3, which will concern a TTC-owned rubber plantation on the Leslie Street Spit to supply gaskets, tires, seals, etc. for TTC vehicles and buildings.
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The TTC has been lucky or very skilled in securing fuel contracts. However, no matter how good or lucky they are, the middle man (oil refinery) still exists. This middle man has overheads and he will need a margin to function. It is also known as crack spread in oil industry language. Delta purchases $12 billion of fuel annually and this move is expected to save $300 million per year. This is money that can be used to buyout workers, add routes or lower prices. One must keep in mind that oil crack spreads varies. Today, it might be 2.5%, but it could also be 10%.
Steve: Just a moment here. Delta purchases $12b of fuel annually, an amount over 100 times the purchases by the TTC. Scaling the numbers down to the TTC, the saving would be $3m. That’s a very small saving to justify setting up a completely foreign industrial operation within the transit system.
The TTC does not need a large refinery to make this work. A typical east coast refinery like Trainer, PH (from Conoco Philips data) processes about 300000 barrels of oil a day. This is a breakdown of the refined products.
52% Gasoline
19% Diesel
15% “Other” like tar
14% Jet-A
The TTC can use the diesel themselves. But they can also barter the other byproducts with the likes of Suncor and Shell. For example, 1L of Jet A for 1.2L of diesel. Owning a refinery just cuts out the middle man in their most volatile cost. The chance of fuel going up 10% is higher than bus operators asking for a 10% raise. Instead of being impacted by refining cost and crude cost, owning their own refinery will eliminate the refining risk. By the way, Suncor has their own airline consisting of 2 CRJ900 and 1 CRJ200 jets. Even though air travel represents less than 1% of their cost, they still find it worthwile to do this in house over using commercial airlines.
Steve: Yes, once you’re in the oil business, it’s easy, but you don’t buy an oil company just to make running a few jets cheaper.
Certain activies like maintenence should be contract out due to economy of scale. Toronto will likely use the same Flexity vehicles as Waterloo. Now, if both the TTC and GRT have their own maintenence facilities, isn’t it a duplication of resource? Does that mean every airline should have their own catering ops in house? No. By contracting it out to Sky Chef, every airline realize savings over their in house ops. This is economy of scale. Also, it costs money to warehouse parts and to procure them. For example, why store 100 copies of say a power inverter when Bombardier can fly them in from FRA and PEK daily?
Steve: Joint maintenance capability is something Metrolinx is already thinking about.
Steve, making a breakthrough require taking risks. Henry Ford took the risk with the assembly line. Delta took the risk with buying their own refinery. I want the TTC to one day rivals the likes of Tokyo Metro and JR East. But we need to look at what needs to be done in house and not.
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This is rather disturbing, since experienced operators are an essential part of delivering safety and public service goals.
Any idea of why people are quitting these vital jobs at the TTC? Pay too low? Shiftwork? Having to deal with members of the public who sometimes engage in suboptimum behaviour?
Are exit interviews conducted to find out why TTC operators are leaving these jobs?
It is very disturbing that there is a higher-than-expected rate of people quitting operator jobs at the TTC. I would be strongly interested in information about why this is happening.
Steve: The TTC pension system does not automatically index for COLA, but is only improved when and if this can be afforded. A much-awaited increase went through around the start of 2012 triggering retirement plans by many who had been anticipating this improvement.
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That’s an interesting idea. Contract out workers that provide and support the core service while buying businesses that have nothing to do with the core service.
I’m surprised that you’re not advocating a fully vertically integrated operation with the purchase of mining companies, steel mills, and vehicle production facilities.
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Owning a refinery isn’t going to protect Delta or the TTC from fuel price fluctuations. As crude oil goes up and down, it affects refineries and end-users the same. Putting that aside, there looks to be a boom in oil shale production over the next 8-10 years, with the US surpassing Saudi Arabia as the top oil producer in the world. Prices are expected to drop into the $60-80 per barrel range or at least stay ‘reasonable’ at $100-120.
On a side note, why is the TTC expecting parking revenue to fall? Have they lowered rates or closed parts of some lots?
Steve: There has not been any specific commentary on this in the budget reports or in the 2012 ongoing results that are summarized in the CEO’s report. However, the 2012 budget included an estimate of 17.6% increase in parking revenues over 2011, and this may have been optimistic.
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Benny Cheung says:
Suncor’s “airline” is meant to transport its own employees. If you look online it says that one of the requirements to board its flights is a Suncor ID badge.
Steve: Moreover, there is a huge difference between owning aircraft for corporate use and owning an airline.
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Isaac Morland says:
Isaac;
This would never work, clay fired bricks absorb water too easily. We need to buy a quarry and make granite sets. This would also discourage motorists from driving on the tracks. They last forever, just look at the Roman roads still around. As for rubber trees you should realize that they will not grow in our climate, but we could plant a forest on the spit if we got rid of the cormorants and grow our own ties. You must make your suggestions practical. Thanks for the laugh.
Robert Wightman
Steve: The Romans built great aqueducts. Just think of the possibilities for Swan Boats!
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Instead of a monorail through the Portlands, we could have an aqueduct (which is elevated of course) carrying a fleet of swan boats!! I bet Doug Ford would support this, especially if we could find a private-sector backer!!
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To expand upon and add clarification to Steve’s response to Kevin Love.
There was a large group of senior Operators (and other employees) who were qualified to take their retirement on full pension over the past two years. They were in a position of “wait and see” regarding an update to their pensions. As Steve mentioned, our pension plan is very fiscally conservative in the way that it is administered. There is no automatic COLA increase each year; instead it is updated only when the plan administrators judge that there is sufficient funding to support the update. When the anticipated update came through this year, the pending retirees took advantage of the opportunity.
There was actually no mass, mad rush to quit the TTC; but rather a mass retirement. Most operators who quit, by the way, usually do so after their first year on the job when they discover that they cannot adapt to the demands of working in our crazy world at the TTC. Our world bears little similarity to the “real” world.
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At one time, didn’t the TTC investigate setting up its own bus assembly plant at Hillcrest?
Bus manufacturing really is an area that the TTC spends a lot of its money on and they aren’t really satisfied with the products that is available on the market, anyway.
If they don’t want to set up their on plant, they can just buy Orion’s Mississauga facility when it goes up for sale shortly.
Steve: They thought about it briefly, but only because then-Chair Howard Moscoe floated the idea. They would far rather buy from someone who is, comparatively speaking, mass producing vehicles for the transit market, not just 100 or so per year for Toronto.
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We could solve the rubber tree issue by buying a tropical island, ideally, one with a volcano. That way, we could also harvest natural pozzolans from volcanic ash for ‘eco concrete’ for all new TTC construction. (not to mention have a new vacation destination)
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As a quick note about the Delta refinery, the thing to note is that Delta very much does understand the economics of the thing. The logic is not that they expect to do this cheaper in house per se, but that since third party refineries almost inevitably produce Jet A (essentially just Kerosene) as a byproduct of other primary products they believe they can reduce costs by bringing a facility into operation that is first and foremost tailored to maximize jet fuel production. The agreement they have with a traditional supplier (I believe Shell, but could be wrong) to trade the Delta produced non jet fuel production for jet fuel in location Delta isn’t producing is a also a pretty core part of the plan.
The point here is that what Delta is doing is interesting enough but not primarily a story about vertical integration for its own sake.
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These companies that have aircraft to fly their employees around typically outsource that function to a specialty company that provides maintenance, pilots, air stewards and other related functions. One such company is Execair.
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The definition of off peak for Seniors is up for some debate It certainly ain’t 9-3 anymore. I suppose depending upon how the TTC wants this to go, they can make off peak 9-5, or 10-2.
I’m more upset that one group (that tends to vote) will get a super discount compared to the rest of us, thus causing the TTC to have even less revenue.
Steve: I suspect that all of these motions are intended to “look good”, but to fail on the question of funding. We will have much hand-wringing over how the poor seniors (of which I will be one in less than a year) are so hard done by, but then go on to cut service quality and quantity to make ends meet. It’s also a poor negotiating position to be asking Queen’s Park for more money and investing that not in better service, but in lower fares.
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I would like to see or know how much of the turn over is junior operators in the first 24 months. A lot do leave in the first 24 months, some on their own and others with help from the TTC.
Also I would love to see numbers for total workforce of the TTC. Then broken down into Unionized, Non-Union also broken down to staff and management. Would love to see these numbers before Gunn, when Gunn left and today. I think they could be interesting.
Steve: The comment is specific to operators, and to those with enough seniority to be at full pay being replaced by new operators. Although there may be turnover of junior operators, in order to have a substantial effect on the average hourly rate, it must be the operators at the higher rate who are leaving in unexpected numbers. See the previous discussion about retirements.
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Darwin O’Connor said:
Oh … wait ….
Michael S said:
Moaz: The idea of making the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean a part of Canada has been raised again & again. (scroll down to “Movements outside of Canada.”)
The earliest was in 1917 by Prime Minister Borden, then in the 1970s, 80s & 90s. In 2004 the province of Nova Scotia voted to accept the islands as part of the province. There is also a recent article (2009) mentioning a proposal to build a deep water port as an opportunity to export Canadian goods. Of course, they may not be able to grow rubber, but they do export snowmobiles.
~m!
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When I was a TTC bus driver several years ago, most of my fellow drivers were overjoyed at the chance of a unionized, decent paying, good retirement job. I doubt few if any vehicle drivers leave the TTC voluntarily. I left cuz I had 3 dings with my bus, 3 strikes & I’m out. Most leave cuz they had accidents or customer service issues. The flunk out rate for bus driver training in our group was about 20%, which apparently is the anecdotal average. Streetcar drivers have a much higher training & 1st year flunk out rate, 60-80%, and most of these are bus drivers who transfered to streetcar. Very difficult to operate a streetcar well in heavy aggressive traffic like Toronto’s.
And don’t get me started about calling drivers ‘operators’. One of the dumbest terms I ever heard. They drive a vehicle.
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Steve,
You include a table showing the Provincial subsidy for TTC operations. Am I correct in assuming that $91.6 million of the Provincial gas tax subsidy will go toward operations for the years 2012 and 2013? They make mention of using $91.6 million of the $165 million gas tax subsidy for operations in the 2011 TTC Annual report but I can’t find any mention of it in the 2013 Operating Budget. Have they just lumped $91.6 million in with the $410,951 million available subsidy from the City?
Steve: The provincial subsidy is not shown on the TTC’s books because it comes via the City of Toronto. Ontario gives about $160m worth of gas tax to Toronto, which in turn splits it roughly 90/70 between funding for the TTC’s operating and capital budgets. The TTC shows the City giving it $411m, but that includes the provincial money that was directed to operating.
It’s rather odd the way that the TTC reports the sources of funding in detail in its capital budget, and they also show up in detail in the financial statements, but not in the operating budget itself.
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I have been recently reading reports from the National Safety Board (US) and I cam across a rather serious collision involving 2 trains running in automated operation. One defective train had damaged the signal conductors, so the next train disappeared from view and the system ‘lost’ it. This caused an automatic shutdown. Recovery is a lengthy process that required identification of where each train is located. They did not correctly locate the stalled train before restarting and the following smashed into it at speed destroying 85% of the habitable space in the first car and killing several people.
This description sounds too much like the all to frequent occurrences on the SRT.
If the entire Yonge-University is operated in a similar manner, a situation where a train is lost could result in a long shutdown and tremendous pressure to get it back running. Perhaps missing a train in the process!!!!!!!
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Gordon says:
The important thing in any ATO is to allow the operator to over ride the system with an emergency stop command. In the accident in Washington where one train crashed into the rear of another when it was lost by the system, the hand of the dead operator was found pushing the emergency stop button. The computer ignored her.
Many years ago BART was planning an extension and was doing a computer simulation of an extension to one line. When service started they forgot to turn off the simulation mode and one train accelerated out of an elevated station onto the tops of parked cars despite the emergency application by the operator.
The Lindenwold Line which runs from Philadelphia into New Jersey would only enter dead end stub terminals in manual mode at low speed. The theory was that the operator would not run into a cement wall and kill himself. They also forced the operator to run at least one round trip each day in manual mode with the theory that if you don’t use it you lose it. I don’t know if they still do this but it does make sense.
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Robert Wightman wrote
It does make sense. Though in Montreal, the trains have been using ATO for 35 years now … and anyone who has had the rare mispleasure of riding the metro when the system is down would get the impression that the driver hasn’t had to actually drive the train since that time.
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In fairness to Montreal the ATO system being down also in all likelihood means the signals are down, so it’s less an issue of manual operation than running everything through control.
In general I’ve got to say that the Washington incident was really a rather isolated event that could have happened through a signal failure with conventional operation. More importantly though was that there were a lot of warning signs ignored before the accident and that you really can’t put the blame anywhere but on an operating culture that was essentially ignoring the safety concerns related to aging equipment.
Steve: The Russell Hill crash here in Toronto arose from a combination of worn, out of adjustment signal equipment (the automatic train stop), and an operating culture that “trained” a junior operator to run so close to the timing signals that he would not see them change, and would assume that all was OK because the train didn’t get tripped at a red signal. Also, the location was in a long block around a blind curve that should have had better protection (such as a “half block” signal to always have a signal and a point of control in view). An important change in signal protocol was the move to the flashing red aspect which indicates that the timer is active and the signal will clear. A solid red is a “stop and stay” indication.
This whole incident was a textbook example of the combined effect of many factors in an organization — including its operating culture and a budgetary/political environment where “we can get by with less maintenance” — were accepted practices. Any one event or decision would not be harmful, but the right combination at the right time and place was fatal.
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