The TTC Board met on July 24, 2013, with a rather threadbare agenda. The most important item discussed — a proposal for a new Downtown Relief Line on GO corridors — wasn’t even on the agenda. It was walked in by Chair Karen Stintz, proposed as a report request and voted on with almost no debate near the end of the meeting.
Included in this wrapup:
- Steeles West Station gets a new name (again)
- Evaluation of contract bids
- Bixi and the TTC
- CEO’s Report
- Trial Service Changes on 53 Steeles East and 95 York Mills
- Implementation of New Streetcars (update)
What passes for deep policy debate was reserved for the never-ending consideration of new names for Spadina Subway extension stations. After agreeing to rename “Steeles West” station as “Black Creek Pioneer Village” at a previous meeting, the Board was back with the same issue. Why? It’s such a long name that the major architectural decoration (imagine the “Hollywood” sign from Los Angeles in rust brown letters wrapped around the station entrance parapet) that the new name would make for significant extra cost. Never mind that the site in question is at Jane Street, well west of the station itself, and that the name violates an approved TTC policy that station names should reflect the actual location.
Chair Stintz favoured “Steeles West” but hooked her campaign, such as it was, to the length and cost issues. As a “compromise”, Commissioner Augimeri proposed “Pioneer Village” which is only slightly longer than “Steeles West” and has, as she described it, a lot of thin letters like “I” and “L”. Another alternative — putting “Black Creek Pioneer Village” in smaller letters under the main name (as is done with “Yorkville” at Bay Station) — got only brief attention. Most of the Board was happy to support Augimeri and her version won the day.
Evaluation of Contract Bids
Commissioners Colle and Heisey raised questions about two contracts for services related to capital construction projects:
- Retention of MMM Group to provide construction management services for a five-year period with an upset contract limit of $30-million
- Retention of Stantec Consulting to provide design services for the planned McNicoll Bus Garage at a cost of $11.5-million
Some Commissioners wanted more information about the projects and the bid evaluation process so that they could give approvals with a clearer sense of what was behind the award. Staff replied that this should be provided in the confidential session of the Board meetings because bidders on future contracts could obtain vital information about rivals if too much detail appeared in the public version of the reports.
Awards often come under attack by bidders who feel that they have unfairly lost a contract, and they sometimes attempt to circumvent the process by bringing their case directly to the Board. After the findings of the Bellamy Commission and the computer leasing scandal, City of Toronto procurement practices were tightened and lobbying by bidders was strictly limited. There is a tricky balance between the need for informed consent by Council and its Boards and the avoidance of political interference in bid evaluation.
A proposal for the TTC to take over the Bixi bicycle rental system (now privately operated, but in financial difficulty) met a cool reception from TTC management as they do not regard cycling as part of their core business. Moreover, Bixi as it exists is a money-losing proposition that would simply add to the TTC’s deficit with no guarantee of additional support from Council.
The matter was deferred to the October 2013 meeting to await the outcome of a Council debate.
There was little discussion of this report although a deputation at the meeting mentioned the problem of service reliability especially at evenings and weekends, and the issue of route capacity that should trigger more subsidy and service.
The second quarter 2013 route performance report is now available. I will publish a consolidated version of this information with the first quarter report at a later date.
There is nothing particularly new in this month’s CEO’s Report. Riding continues to grow (2.9% over the corresponding period for 2012), but not quite at the rate predicted in the budget. Fare revenue is also below budget because of a continued shift to discount media (passes). An offsetting reduction in expenses (primarily diesel fuel and utility costs) means that the projected subsidy requirement will match the budget.
Trial Changes to 53 Steeles East and 95 York Mills Routes
Effective September 2013, there will be three trial changes to these routes:
- The peak period Pharmacy short turn on 53 Steeles East will be eliminated, and the buses used for it will be redistributed to the route as a whole. All service will operate at least as far east as Markham Road.
- The 53 Steeles East service looping via McCowan, Elson and Markham Road will be changed to loop via Tapscott, Passmore and Markham. This will bring two-way service on Steeles east of McCowan by buses looping at Markham Road.
- The 95A York Mills short turn that operates around the triangle of York Mills, Victoria Park and Parkwoods Village will be extended to Ellesmere Station to provide additional service east of Victoria Park.
Further details including route histories and maps of the changes are available in the report.
Implementation of New Streetcars
This report was held down from the June meeting to permit deputations and discussion by the Commission. Very little occurred, and the report was approved without amendment. The full presentation can be found in the June 2013 version.
CEO Andy Byford raised the issue of limitations with the vehicle monitoring system, CIS, and its antique, decades-old hardware. He would like to find some way to fit a new system into the budget, but at this point the TTC is examining systems used by other operators to see what is available in the market.
Steve Munro 
Steve, the link to the CEO Report is bad. When clicked on it brings up a runtime error.
Steve: I fixed that shortly after posting the article. Please try again.
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Regarding the ancient CIS system, I was thinking that the in vehicle hardware replacement could be combined with the in bus presto terminals as some sort of software program. Is the in vehicle equipment the main limitation with that system and could such a combination be effective and possible?
Steve: These are two separate systems each with its own hardware, and it would not be practical to marry them because each has (or will have) its own vendor, software provisioning, etc. Presto is a Metrolinx system for use across the province (they hope) and it won’t be modified to piggyback another function. Given Presto’s chequered history and erratic development, it would be nice to see an off-the-shelf solution implemented on the TTC for a change.
The primary limitation on the existing system is the narrow data bandwidth which places a cap on the amount of information that can be merged together for transmission and hence the functionality that can be added to the system. For example, when GPS was added, it was a tight squeeze to get the additional data into the stream.
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Of course the most obvious and logical thing to do gets ignored. There’s already a precedence with the Spadina Line stations to be named after the major intersection followed by a “West”. Pioneer Station completely breaks with tradition and this misnomer will be confusing for transit users to wrap their heads around. Hopefully the naming debate gets reopened again, as it seems is the case with everything this city council attempts.
Steve: Don’t hold your breath. This is a case of the local Councillor really pushing for the name despite the TTC’s standards, and other members of the Board either trading favours on not being willing to take on the fight. One even supported it on the basis of liking a maverick attitude. So much for responsible thought about how people actually use the system.
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Thankfully the name is integral to the architecture of the building … what about integral to reasonable map design and layout … or integral to common sense …
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I really think people are making a mountain out of a mole with the station name. Rosedale, St Andrew, Osgoode, St Patrick, Museum, and Union should have all had different names if the standard is supposed to be the end all, be all. Those would have been Crescent, King West, Queen West, Dundas West, Charles (West?), and Front (West?), respectively. Speaking of Dundas West, we have three subway stations at various points along Dundas St W, people often forget.
I would point out that the GO system uses local area names for most of its stations, not street names, and this doesn’t seem to draw complaints by lost and confused patrons. Other metro systems commonly use conventions like GO’s (Tokyo’s subway system as an example). While Montreal’s metro often uses street names, it is not without exceptions, like Place St Henri, Place des Arts, Snowdon, Montmorency, Bonaventure, and Champs de Mars aren’t associated with a street name, and the world there hasn’t ended.
Steve: The early name for Rosedale was “Crescent” as you can see on some maps. The University line stations refer to ward names that still had some relevance when the subway was designed, and to major buildings like Osgoode Hall, Queen’s Park and the Museum that actually are right outside the doors of the stations, not minor historical sites a kilometre away. The GO stations are named after communities which, for a regional network, makes sense. Who cares, for example, which street Brampton Station is on?
While I agree that there’s a certain amount of physical separation between the Pioneer Village and the station, I find it a stretch to say this will confuse riders. What will be far more confusing is when Eglinton enters service and duplicate stations start to materialize. If you’re going to be meeting someone at Keele station, Dufferin station, Bayview station, or Don Mills station, people will have to clarify which line they’re referring to, which currently isn’t the case. Unlike with the East/West suffixes, which are also on the street names wherever these are applied on TTC stations, “Keele North” and so on would not be consistent with the policy because there is no such thing as “Keele St N,” and so would presumably confuse riders as it is not a “real” location.
Duplicates names like those that will exist with Eglinton and either Sheppard or Bloor subways are undesirable as those genuinely are confusing, and local area names are better at avoiding that issue.
In the examples in Japan where two stations have the same name, they are prefixed with the railway name. Will the new Dufferin station be known as Metrolinx Dufferin while the existing one becomes known as TTC Dufferin?
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If the same pattern of naming metro stations after communities is done in other jurisdictions, like Tokyo as I mentioned, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the practice being used for metros here. If it makes sense for GO, there is no reason it wouldn’t make sense for the subway (although I think Brampton and Oakville are problematic names, as GO has two stations in each of those municipalities – they work fine for VIA).
The very point you make implies that nobody cares what street Rosedale station is on, what street Museum station is on, etc. And I agree; they don’t care – they figure it out. That’s why I think there’s no need to really pay the Pioneer Village name much attention – it’s not the big concern some make it out to be, as a number of precedents in our network demonstrate. There are things in the network that are more confusing, like the location of the Eglinton GO station compared to the Eglinton subway station.
There was a tug of war between Metrolinx/TTC and the local community over the name of the Mount Dennis station, which originally was going to be Weston per the same policy, but the locals fought back, and for good reason (really potentially confusing to call it Weston, given the Weston GO station only 2km away). Therefore, as demonstrated with Mount Dennis, it can be preferable to use the names of the local communities served for station names on an urban rapid transit system.
After all, the new York University station isn’t named after a street, which supposedly should be Ian MacDonald station, and neither is the new Downsview station, which supposedly should be Bakersfield station. So no need to fret over the Pioneer Village thing. People won’t care, and will figure it out like with all the other subway exceptions and the GO system.
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For months, both at Commission meetings and at City Council, TTC has been saying the “Report on Fare Policy and PRESTO Implications” would be introduced on July 24. They said this as recently as June.
Any indication what happened to it?
Steve: No.
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I live near Royal York Road and use Royal York Station frequently. On a few occasions, I have had tourists come up to me and ask which exit to use, or if already outside, how to find the Royal York Hotel!
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A co-worker who has lived and worked downtown for decades, but prefers taxis, recently asked me to help recall the name of the station at King and University. Swivelling my eyes in that direction that aids memory, I needed some seconds to confirm it myself. (It’s St Andrew’s… right?)
Steve: Yes, it is. Named after the old city ward, the market (which is actually on Queen), and the churches (one on King, one on Dundas).
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Ottawa integrated PRESTO into their existing Clever Devices based bus management system. There is no DCU, only standalone readers located on the bus. The driver can see the status of the reader at the front door when the bus comes to a stop. When the bus is moving the screen displays a GPS map of the route. I think this works well, since the 10″ touch screen isn’t doing anything when the bus is picking up passengers otherwise, and reduces clutter around the driver (the screen is mounted to the farebox, not a standalone pole). All of the readers connect using standard Cat5 cables to the on board LAN that the Clever Devices system already uses, sharing backend, modem and installation costs.
Steve: Now if only the TTC would replace its 30-year old monitoring system, we might be able to do this sort of thing in Toronto. Good to know that the capability to tap into Presto (pardon the pun) is available.
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I am not happy about the service change for 53B/E, because most people who work downtown live north of Elson, and cannot walk to Steeles to take a bus. Therefore most of TTC passengers are going to use the GO Bus.
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That’s unfortunate but I can’t feel too badly for those who contribute absolutely nothing to the TTC subsidy.
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