Updated September 21, 2014 at 11:20am: Details of subway operational changes have been added to the article, and the summary table showing all schedule changes is now included.
Original article from August 27, 2014:
The TTC has just issued its memo describing service changes effective on Thanksgiving weekend. A few changes caught my eye and are worth talking about before I publish the complete route-by-route details.
The Crisis in Bus Fleet Capacity
The shortage of buses on the TTC network is now severe enough that several routes will revert to their summer schedules to save vehicles:
Route AM Peak PM Peak
Before After Before After
6 Bay 3'15" 4'
20 Cliffside 11' 13'15" 11'40" 14'
42 Cummer 5' 5'38" 5'45" 7'
125 Drewry 6'30" 7'30"
122 Graydon Hall 10' 12' 13' 16'
37 Islington 4'30" 5'15" 5'20" 6'
110 Islington South 5' 6' 5' 6'
41 Keele 4'47" 6' 4'51" 6'06"
59 Maple Leaf 11' 12' 12' 14'
16 McCowan 8' 9' 7'30" 9'30"
57 Midland 6' 7'15" 7'30" 8'20"
70 O'Connor 7' 8'30" 7'30" 8'30"
79 Scarlett Road 4'15" 4'30"
112 West Mall 5' 5'38" 5'45" 7'
91 Woodbine 6'55" 7'22"
95 York Mills 2'31" 2'51" 3'11" 3'34"
Some planned service improvements remain on hold because there are no buses with which to operate them.
Subway Schedule Changes
Both the Yonge-University-Spadina and Bloor-Danforth subways will see changes in their scheduled running times to better match actual conditions, and the implementation of step-back crewing at terminals to aid with quick turnarounds during peak periods.
Updated: Trains that are going out of service at the end of peak periods can produce queues and lockouts at terminals during the transition from peak to off-peak headways. These trains will now run out of service in a different manner:
- 1 Yonge-University trains that leave service from Finch Station southbound to Davisville Yard (AM peak): These trains will now go out of service northbound at Lawrence, dead-head north to the pocket track at York Mills, and then dead-head south to Davisville.
- 1 Yonge-University trains that leave service southbound from Downsview Station to Wilson Yard (AM and PM peaks): These trains will now go out of service northbound at Wilson.
- 2 Bloor-Danforth trains that leave service westbound from Kennedy Station to Greenwood Yard AM peak): These trains will now go out of service eastbound at Donlands.
Step-back crewing will be implemented at terminals on the YUS and BD subways so that crews are ready to take trains out as soon as they arrive. Running times are increased on both routes to better reflect actual operating conditions.
[End of update.]
St. Clair Transit Signal Priority
The signal priority on St. Clair is not working in so many locations that the TTC must adjust schedules to provide more running time for the streetcars. Up to 8 minutes of additional round-trip time will be added to the schedules, and headways will be widened to accommodate this.
This is a perfect example of how capital spending — provision of a transit right-of-way — can be sabotaged by operational decisions, in this case by a separate agency — City Transportation Services — regarding the priority of keeping TSP working.
Spadina/Harbourfront Streetcar Service
Streetcars will return to 509 Harbourfront, and there will be some improvements to service relative to the pre-construction schedules to handle increased demand.
The 510 Spadina route will resume operation to Union Station, and its short-turn at King will be reinstated (during September, all service is scheduled to run to Queens Quay).
Whether the signal priority for Spadina and Harbourfront cars actually works when they return remains to be seen.
Steve Munro 
Steve,
Will cars be running to Union year round on Spadina or are we looking at a return to off-season turnbacks at King?
Does this also mean Queens Quay and Union turnbacks for the 510?
P.S. Did you disable following new posts and comments?
Steve: Read the article. Short turn service to King, through service to Union. No scheduled cars to Queens Quay.
Re following new posts, yes I turned that off (it was enabled by accident a few years ago I discovered). It was triggering blasts of activity on the server every time people got a notice and downloaded not just the update, but entire pages. Some mobile browsers’ cache management does not seem to be working too well, and they would keep downloading photos over and over and over. At least by shutting off notifications, I spread this load out.
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Steve this is completely outrageous, and a city council that was really worried about efficient city operations or transit would be dragging the City Transportation Services head before council for an uncomfortable review of operations. This makes transit less attractive, which means more congestion, and makes the TTC more expensive to operate, in that to maintain the same service level more staff and vehicles are required.
This quickly reduces quality of service and increases costs.
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Steve, could you kindly explain what City Transportation Services role is in Transit Priority and keeping it working? Is it configuration, maintenance or installation of equipment. Sorry, I just don’t know how it works and I am curious. Thanks
Steve: Yes, it is their equipment. Also, they set up the programming as to when it is active and what the timing parameters are.
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Hi Steve,
Will the 509 Harbourfront route return to Roncesvalles or will it remain at Russell (as it was before construction)?
Steve: Temporarily to Ronces while 511 Bathurst operates with buses for trackwork at Dundas and at Wolseley Loop, then back to Russell for the November schedule period.
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512 in October will have significant changes; the 8 minutes was requested by Roncy. The plan is to have 4 Route Supervisors on the line, along with C.I.S. (unknown if C.I.S. console to be 1 route dedicated), as well as the elimination of am/pm trippers. All of the cars would run out in the am and stay up there (similar to Bathurst closure) with 2 cars being put aside as stand bys. Operators have been put on notice to not screw around.
Top brass is pissed.
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Hi Steve,
Any idea of what percentage of signalized intersections on St. Clair have transit priority enabled? Also, is there any record of the transit priority actually being enabled on Spadina? That is something that commissioners had been asking about as long ago as 2005. I remember a reassurance several years back that it would be in place “by December (of whatever year that was)”
Thanks.
Steve: Almost all of St. Clair except for major arterials is supposed to have it, but whether it is working is quite another matter. As for Spadina, the only priority that was ever enabled was for turns, and this depends on the electric switches actually being in working order. When the switch has to be thrown manually, the signals don’t know about it, and don’t give a white bar call on. And, of course, there has never been any priority for the west to north turn from King onto Spadina.
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Is it possible that the TTC will have to –gasp!! — lease extra buses again? What is this, 1994?!?
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Mind you, the white bar has been appearing for southbound Spadina at Adelaide at every cycle all through the summer. I guess that’s where St. Clair’s priority has gone to!
Steve: That’s a case where there is no transit vehicle detection, and the white bar is programmed to appear all of the time.
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Again, we ask 50++ in a streetcar to wait on vehicles that have single occupants, and think that this is the best way of managing traffic. It may clear the cars on the street today, but it creates a strong incentive for more not fewer of them to be there tomorrow. It would appear that the city is not expecting people to react to incentives.
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Thanks for the information. One final follow-up question:
Is there any hope that the use of Flexities on Spadina will provide an impetus for TSP? Or should I not get my hopes up about TSP on Spadina any time soon?
Steve: Don’t hold your breath. The really telling indication will be whether the signal at Lake Shore still provides interminable green time for east-west traffic. With all of the Spadina cars scheduled to Queens Quay in September, the headway of streetcars may be shorter than the cycle time.
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The Transportation Services concern about signal priority on St. Clair is more about how many VEHICLES go through an intersection than about the people in those vehicles. It really bugs me that a streetcar full of people (46+) has to wait as maybe four single-occupied automobiles make a left turn ahead of them, and only then can they roll next to the far-side stop.
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I wonder a bit about signal priority on Spadina. It crosses so many other streetcars. Can signal priority be offered to Spadina as well as College, Dundas, Queen and King.
Steve: This is an argument advanced by the City’s Transportation Services folks, although given the relatively lower level of service on cross-routes except at King, this does not always hold. The larger problem is that the green time for the east-west streets is determined by pedestrian crossing times, and the right-of-way is not set up as a formal refuge for two stage crossings as on University Avenue. This sets a lower bound on east-west green time and makes giving more time to the streetcars trickier than it might otherwise be. Another issue is the service frequency that results in a car being there on almost every cycle in one direction or the other (presuming even spacing).
The debate also turns on whether there should be a streetcar only phase between the red for the cross street and the left turn green. Where this has been done, transit can be even worse off because it can move only on its own, very short phase even though there may be no competing traffic once the north-south left turn phase ends.
An example of a transit only green was at Queens Quay and Spadina in its pre-construction configuration. I don’t know how it will work in September, but did notice that the buses seemed to be getting more frequent transit greens than I was used to seeing for the streetcars. I do remember that the streetcar operators tended to treat the traffic green as a transit green, especially in the through east-west direction.
This discussion is valid only for the major cross-streets and it does not apply at places like Baldwin, Sullivan and other locations where the amount of east-west traffic that has to be accommodated is lower.
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When streetcars finally return to the “509 Harbourfront” route, what will happen to all those shuttle buses which served this route over the past 25 months, since 29 July 2012 before construction on Queens Quay West began? They’d probably be serving other routes in Toronto, particularly those with less frequent service (ex. the “80 Queensway” and “48 Rathburn” routes).
Steve: As you can see from the article on the October schedule changes, there is a shortage of buses across the system and those now on Harbourfront can’t come free a moment too soon. However, many of them are earmarked for retirement due to their age and inaccessibility. Queensway and Rathburn will not see any service improvements.
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Before the closure of the Union streetcar underground station, the platform could only accommodate 2 CLRV’s which would translate into 1 Flexity. Was the streetcar platform expanded to handle 2 Flexity cars? If not, would there be more queuing of streetcars in the tunnel waiting for platform access? Or would the TTC simply replace 2 CLRV’s with one Flexity?
Steve: Actually, there is room, barely, for two new cars but there would be some overhang. It will be intriguing to see how they manage the offloading/loading sections of the platform.
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When Streetcars for Toronto proposed the Spadina streetcar line, did they also propose far-sided stops as well?
Steve: In the original proposal, we did not have farside stops, nor were they part of City Planning’s sketch design for the street when the scheme was revived many years later. However, during the detailed design and the EA, the traffic folks wanted left turn stacking space, and this required that the islands be moved farside.
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It seems that the transit priority signal to and from the Gardiner underpass to Lake Shore (immediately west of Humber loop) has been fixed. I went through both ways yesterday, and the streetcar got the green signal almost right away. Previously, it was typical to sit there for about 75 seconds (yes, I timed it). This signal is a “streetcar-only” phase, and yes it is by default red. This is not necessarily a bad thing if it changes to green quickly. It is a bad thing if your streetcar is waiting to make a left turn across a single traffic lane with no cars coming, for over a minute. (Back in the old pre-streetcar-priority-signal days, streetcars had the right-of-way over westbound cars for this turn, and never had to stop — though slowing down was generally prudent.)
Steve: Just in time for service to be suspended for construction until December!
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Hi Steve;
In another forum there is discussion of another change to subway service: subways going out of service will do so northbound at Wilson and Lawrence, and eastbound at Donlands, instead of deadheading back from Downsview and Finch, and Kennedy as at present. This seems like a pretty big impact on north Yonge and Bloor-Danforth in particular. (There are snippets of the documents posted, I’m sure you have them as well.)
I can see it being a wash for someone trying to get to a terminal, since the change is supposed to reduce the terminal backups, so it might be fine for the Spadina line, since it only cuts off the terminal stop anyway.
For north Yonge, well there’s always demand right up to Finch, so a lot of passengers will be offloaded at Lawrence. For Bloor-Danforth, anyone wanting to go anywhere between Greenwood and Victoria Park is going to be inconvenienced. I also wonder if the tieups at Kennedy will be replaced by tieups at Donlands, which will result in a lot of (still) packed trains to back up in the tunnels — and their passengers being offloaded at Donlands.
Steve: Yes, this was announced as part of the October package. It is not unusual for the trick of going out of service eastbound to Greenwood to be used now on BD. How this is usually done is that the last “official” stop is Pape, and this gives the guard the run over to Donlands to catch any stragglers who have to be let out. It’s a bit of a delay, but far better than contributing to the backlog at Kennedy.
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Couldn’t the signals continue to work as they do now, but with an additional transit-only phase activated by the presence of a streetcar waiting for the light to change? In other words, transit always gets a green with other traffic, but also before left-turning vehicles if necessary?
Steve: In practice, there should always be a streetcar there in one direction of the other if they operate on a 120 second headway.
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Steve, just a clarification for your readers: step-back crewing has been in use for a long time on both the YUS and BD lines. What is happening in October is that DOUBLE step-backs will be implemented (so that crews will have double the time to get ready for their outbound trip from the terminals).
On the YUS, double step-backs will be used at Finch in both AM and PM peaks, and at Downsview in the PM peak only (single step backs in the AM peak). On the BD line, double step-backs will be used at both terminals in both peak periods.
Additional running time will be given on both lines during the peak periods only (two trains added during peaks on each line with no change in headway). Subway Transportation has been asking for this for a very long time. Also, the timing of deadhead trips will be changed, so that peak trippers can run in to the yard sooner without reaching the terminals, reducing inbound congestion which is a major problem at the end of peak periods.
Steve: I suspect that we will find that queues to terminals will still grow in the period before the trippers run out of service, especially on days when the IPHC does nothing to regulate late service, and trains are able to cross the city without time point holds enroute. Many years ago, the running time was reduced for precisely this reason keeping the same number of trains on a slightly shorter headway. The basic problem is that the “peak” running time is not needed for every trip, and also that there are seasonal, even day-of-week variations in loading and travel time.
An analogous problem occurs at my home station, Broadview, where despite the supposedly inadequate running time for 504 King cars, it is quite common to see them queued up onto the street because they are early. There is a very lare difference in trip times depending on the time of the trip and on conditions of the day, but a fixed schedule cannot deal with this and so there are queues. I say “supposedly inadequate” not to claim that there is no problem (there is, and I plan to review the upcoming King changes in an article soon), but the situation varies quite considerably over the peak period and depending on daily conditions. The same applies to off-peak periods when some locations of delay vary quite substantially depending on the weather and the day of the week.
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Sad to see that the TTC has been pushed this far. It will be interesting to see what the impact is on crowding and ridership. Clearly the TTC will not be able to provide additional buses if there is continued growth in ridership.
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TTC has done a poor job of explaining this judging from today’s council debate, though of course there are some including commissioners like J Pasternak whom seem to be deliberately obtuse. On the new bus garage debate today, he kept trying to claim that the TTC won’t need more buses due to all the new subways & LRT we are building that are somehow going to magically appear next year.
Steve: Leaving aside the amount Cllr Pasternak does not understand about transit, yes, the TTC did a terrible job. Yesterday, Cllr Shiner was asking which routes (ie what parts of the city) would benefit from the new garage. The TTC said that it would be routes in Scarborough with some spillover into North York. Of course the correct answer is that if you build a new garage, then even another one far away like Queensway can shift some of its routes to, say, Wilson, which shifts routes to McNicoll. The whole system benefits from more storage.
It would be rather like saying that Wilson Yard only benefits subway service in Downsview.
On a related note, the TTC really cocked up the public consultation process and needlessly alienated some in the neighbourhood. This is not the first time they have done this sort of thing, but it was supposed to be fixed after the debacle with the subway second exits at Donlands and Greenwood.
It is appalling how often I sit in meetings and could answer technical questions about TTC projects better than the staff who have been sent to give the official position. The TTC can be its own worst enemy at times.
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Steve is this because of the TTC’s own view of the process, in that it uses “relations” people to provide answers instead (as well as) of sending engineers and planners (technical people) to the meeting?
Steve: Sometimes it is the technical people who are simply not well-informed.
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Would it not be better if instead of wasting money on adjusting the schedules, etc that they adjust the signal priority system to actually make it work? This is not a new technology and has been successfully implemented all over the world with very little cost and very little time to implement it.
Steve: The signals are maintained (or not) by the city, and it appears that the TTC in frustration at inaction is changing its schedules to compensate. A related question raised by another comment in this thread is the reliable operation of scheduled headways by operators. To what degree these two problems interact, I do not know. But, yes, just fix the signals!
How many new streetcars will start running this Sunday? Also what will happen to the prototypes of the new streetcars that were used for testing? How many prototypes were built and will any of these enter service? Unless there was something wrong with these prototypes (safety wise), I see no sense in wasting them. I can’t wait to ride the new streetcar.
Steve: Two will be in service. 4403 (a “production” car) and 4400 (originally a prototype, now retrofitted with production updates). Details in a post to follow.
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It seems to me that this could create its own problems.
A couple of weeks ago, while I was waiting for a east-bound 512 at Keele at least 6 went past westbound. A look at the map function of my Nextbus app showed that 3 or 4 cars were waiting on the street as Gunn’s Loop was full. I wondered how upset the riders were, as I expect the drivers would not be willing to let them off, for safety reasons.
If the TTC extends the trip time, I would expect this to occur more often unless the headway is significantly extended, which will certainly annoy the riders.
Steve: I think that more may be going on here than just signal priority issues.
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The other thing is that this issue lends credibility to those who say in median LRTs (or BRTs) will not work, and will wait in traffic etc. The city is in effect making a choice to sabotage its own transit in so doing. The worst is however, is that by so doing the effect will be that the city will not be able to resolve many of its congestion problems. Subway cannot answer the congestion issue in Toronto, because the origins and destinations are too dispersed. Yes Toronto needs an underground high capacity service to help address issues going to the one super concentration, but across the rest of the city much will need to be done, and closed ROW and TSP need to be part of that solution if there is to be one implemented.
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Do you have the names of all the councillors who voted to cut back the TTC’s budget which led to the reduction, or was it elimination, of one year’s bus purchase order. Everyone who has trouble getting on a bus, streetcar or subway should be reminded that room for them was considered to be gravy.
Steve: Almost all of the then TTC Commissioners who voted for the 2012 budget which included the changes to service standards without which plans for a larger fleet could not be dropped, plus all who conspired to kill off Transit City that would have led to a real reduction in bus requirements.
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Robert you sound close to saying that someone should be creating a formal list of the enemies of transit in Toronto, and having a location where this can be sought. I would almost say you could take it a step further and have a page that was simply
“Councillors for Congestion”.
They of course would not see it that way. Some believing that there is a viable choice to be made between LRT and subway, many seeming to believe that there is still room to be had on the buses and subway, not appreciating the impact on congestion for trying to squeeze for that last bit of theoretical efficiency, or the compound effect of 2% growth.
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It seems that Toronto is not the only jurisdiction suffering from poor Transit Signal Priority
From Railway Age:
With the short traffic light cycle times it is difficult to steal time from one direction to give an early or extended signal to another without throwing the entire timing sequence off.
Spadina is one of the few 6 chain, 99′ or 30 m, wide roads in the downtown. Most of the other streets are 4 chains, 66′ or 20 m, wide. Dundas has a 38 cycle green phase at Spadina to handle the pedestrians not the auto traffic. If I recall correctly there is 8 seconds of steady hand followed by 30 seconds of flashing. The initial 8 seconds is required to get all the pedestrians off the sidewalk and into the cross walk and the rest of the time allows the slower people to finish their crossing.
There has been suggestions to place the left turn phase at the end of the green instead of at the front where it is now. While this might work in the suburbs with wider streets I do not believe it is feasible on Spadina. The left turn phase allows the slower pedestrians to finish crossing without interfering with Spadina motorist. Also having the turn phase first empties the left turn lane before the through traffic starts. If the turn phase were at the end there would often be more cars trying to turn left than would fit into the turn lane. This would make the left turn lane unusable for much of the time. At some intersections the right turn lane gets blocked by vehicles backing up to turn right and through put would be greatly reduced.
Having said that there is no reason a transit only phase could not be put before the turn phase on Spadina at Front and Lakeshore as well as during the regular green phase. This would give street cars two crossing windows per light cycle. The same could also be done at Bathurst and Lakeshore.
All street car turning movements should get a white bar phase before the left turn phase and/or after the through phase as required. This, of course, would require that the electric switches work.
Steve: For the benefit of readers, priority signals for turns only work if the electric switches are operating and can signal the traffic controller that a transit phase is required. It is not uncommon for many TTC track switches to be operating manually, although this situation is supposed to be fixed over the coming year or so as the electronics are upgraded.
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“Spadina is one of the few 6 chain, 99′ or 30 m, wide roads in the downtown. Most of the other streets are 4 chains, 66′ or 20 m, wide.”
A chain is 66 feet.
Steve: Yes, a chain is four rods at 16.5 feet each. The significance of a chain is that 10 of them make a furlong (horse racing fans should know this), and 10 square chains make an acre. See! The imperial system is metric!
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Steve: This comment was posted to another thread before my article on competing plans went live.
I realize that this is totally of this, or any other current topics but I feel that something more needs to be said about John Tory’s SmartTrack plan, so here goes.
John Tory’s Math Does Not Add Up OR the SmartTrack Line Ain’t So Smart
John Tory’s SmartTrack plan says that the line will run a train every 15 minutes on his 53 km line and carry 200,000 passengers per day. If he runs 12 car EMUs of the current bi-level design his capacity is 8,000 passengers per per direction, pphpd. This would give an hourly bi directional capacity of 16,000 passengers per hour. In order to get 200,000 passengers per day would require over 12.5 hours of full trains. If it were to use TTC subway style trains their capacity is 1100 per train or 4400 pphpd. At a bi directional capacity of 8800 passengers this would require just over 22 hours worth of service.
This assumes that there are no trains from either the Stouffville or Kitchener trains on the line. There are currently 6 GO trains on the line in the busiest 2 hour period of the morning rush. Starting in 2015 there will be 8 UP express trains both ways in that time plus a VIA train. SO John I ask you this one question. How are you going to fit 8 UP express and 8 smart track trains each way plus 6 GO during that 2 hour window. That is 48 trains on railway, not rapid transit tracks, using archaic railway signalling and operating rules.
The problem on Stouffville is not so bad, there are only 6 GO trains on it until you hit the Kingston Sub where there are currently 5 eastbound GO trains and 10 westbound ones on the joint trackage. In the peak 2 hours this would give 8 + 6 + 10 or 24 inbound train plus 8 + 5 or 13 outbound trains.
Current Transport Canada operating rules will not let trains operate close enough together to get the service levels required to carry 200,000 passengers per day with most being in the 2 rush hours. In order to provide his levels of service new, separate tracks would be needed beside the existing tracks and who knows where the room would come from for them. Since he expects Metrolinx to operate them it would appear that they would be on existing Metrolinx lines.
The other big question for Mr. Tory is whether the 200,000 passengers are just ones that would be diverted from the existing subway system or do they include GO’s passengers most of whom do not get the subway now?
I think the most accurate part of his whole plan is the single foot note that is the only thing on page 6:
Actually I believe that they are studying their own Regional Express Rail and his SmartTrack line. I will not mention the problems of running out Eglinton Avenue to the Airport.
Tory has to be called out on his “Plan” that would provide great transit for free using only TIF. This is the 2014 version of the “Gravy Train”.
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1. Spadina and Lakeshore
Why has there not been a proposal to bury the small section of track underneath Lakeshore (and the connection to QQ)? This would include an open trench for the loop, underground intersections on QQ and 3 portals, one north of Lakeshore, one east of Spadina on QQ (south side of road) and one west of Spadina on QQ (middle of road). It is such a busy intersection and causes havoc on the streetcar (and off-ramps to the Gardiner).
Steve: Two big problems. First, it would be below the water table and extraordinarily expensive. Second, there would be problems with locations of the portals. North on Spadina, the portal would have to start north of the Gardiner structures, and this takes it into the ramp structure leading over the rail corridor. East of the loop, there isn’t enough space to rise to the surface before crossing the bridge over the slip. To the west it would fit physically, but without the other two approaches, it’s not viable.
2. Pedestrian timing
Why do they not have quicker pedestrian crossings? Throughout Europe (UK, France, Italy, etc) pedestrian crossings are much quicker. It’s almost like you have to run across or else you will be hit. I know some places are allowing a longer crossing for the elderly (i.e. press the walk button for 3 seconds and then the pedestrian crossing is extended for 5-10 seconds). I know…think of the elderly…but these countries have an older population than Canada.
Steve: A war on pedestrians to speed transit? I think not.
3. St Clair
… sigh … it started with a bad design to make the NIMBY’s happy and it continues. The first problem is the number of lights. Why do they have so many lights across a LRT corridor? Get rid of these and the transit priority will be so much easier. About 1/2 the lights to manage. (Of course this is a city that creates a signalized cross walk on another streetcar line that is within 100 meters of other lights … Bathurst and Niagara.)
Steve: Actually, I would challenge you to name the 50% of traffic signals on St. Clair that could be omitted. There are a few (and even these would take a fight), but half of them?
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Funny you mention that – TTCriders has been working on this exact project.
Note that there is an explicit indication of the councillors who repeatedly vote against transit, as compared to those who repeatedly support it, and those who waffle. This list intentionally focuses on all councillors and a few key votes, instead of the few who are also TTC commissioners and involved in many votes in that capacity, so that voters in every ward can take this to the polls.
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When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get
four emails witth the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Thanks!
Steve: Use the “Manage Subscriptions” option at the bottom of any of these emails. The notifications are generated by WordPress.com.
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I know you have said that there is a shortage of buses and that is why there will be slight reductions of service but I believe part of it is the shuttle service right now on the 509 and the 501. Yesterday I took the 501 and there were 4 buses at Humber loop. They all left within a few minutes of each other. I was on the 4th bus and was the only passenger, the 3rd bus left with less then 5 and the 2nd bus was half full and same with the first bus. According to TTC loading standards all of that passengers could have fit in one bus. The whole time I was on it from Humber loop to Long Branch I was basically the only passenger. Pretty nice being on a practically empty bus during rush hour.
Steve: Line management on replacement shuttles is basically non-existent, and they can be terribly undisciplined. 509 Harbourfront can see half of the service on siesta at Exhibition Loop even when there is little traffic congestion to blame for the problem.
Also a huge pet peeve of mine is seeing buses with headways of only a few minutes then buses bunching up and needing to short turn. My thought is why not take a few routes and have certain buses that only go part way. Like for example on Islington, why not run a bus that goes only from Steeles to Eglinton. That way it provides more service in certain areas and can help with the bunching. This way the scheduling actually has built in short turn buses.
Steve: 37 Islington is an example of a TTC route that is, indeed, scheduled to be bunched during certain periods. The Steeles service has a peak headway of 6 minutes while the Rexdale service runs every 18 with the latter scheduled to split the gap between two Steeles buses. The result is a scheduled headway pattern of 6-6-6-3-6-6-6-3, and that’s assuming everyone is on time. As the TTC allows a three minute leeway for “on time performance”, bunching is inevitable.
The reason I bring that up is on some routes because of how long they are buses can get held up and delayed. By having a shorter section it can possibly help to keep other buses running more on time. That way if it is full coming from the subway to Eglinton the empty bus can come out and do all the pick ups to Steeles. My other thought would be maybe on the 25 for example take the bus and run it as 2 routes. One from Pape to Don Mills only and the other from Eglinton to Steeles. There are many routes that they can do this to that would potentially help them out. It might make some routes a lot easier for people to travel on.
Lastly one other question. The routes that have the articulated buses, those routes would have a slight reduction in service. Can’t some of the buses they replace be moved to more areas of the city until we get more buses? I know a lot are due to be retired but as long as some of them are in decent running condition I am sure some can be spared from retirement even as a rush hour only bus. I look forward to your opinion on these thoughts.
Steve: The TTC claims that the vehicles that are about to be retired are beyond saving. I am not convinced that this is more a matter of will than of possibility, but there have been comments here from ops about the number of vehicles that don’t make it into service. Of course, some of these are relatively new, and I think that the TTC conveniently conflates the two problems — an elderly fleet needing extra maintenance with newer but less reliable buses. I am looking forward to an update on the state of the bus fleet and options for improving (or even maintaining) service levels in the coming 2015 budget.
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Steve I agree with the ops you mentioned about vehicle availability. I have seen a number of vehicles with issues recently ranging from busted rear doors (that won’t close) to engines that have gone kaput on the side of the road.
Jesus Christ Steve! Where is David Gunn when you need him? Right now its about keeping the system in a state of good repair rather than about expansion. Simply put Steve.. building new lines is critical and adding new routes (198 for example) is essential but if the system breaks down what good is the expansion?
I know Gunn was referring mainly to Russell Hill when he subscribed that ideology but the sentiment is the same, even for surface routes. If you cannot keep vehicles on the road and do so safely then you need to take a hard look at your priorities.
What we need right now is new buses and new surface vehicles.. not SUBWAYS!! SUBWAYS!! SUBWAYS!!
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I think a good way to fix a lot of issues on certain East/West routes is to shorten them. Routes like the 96/165/84/52/32 could all just be terminated at the western leg of the yus line. Between the west and east leg stations they could run a shuttle style bus that runs less frequent then from the west end
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Again with the over-complication of things. There is a crossover at Lawrence Station which means they could just turn the out of service trains there as opposed to York Mills.
I know its possible since they used to turn trains there back in the early days of the tunnel work. I wonder if there is a problem with the crossover preventing it from being used this time around?
Steve: Actually, using the pocket is preferable. A northbound train will be in a parade of minimum headways, and will face closely spaced trains southbound. Going into the pocket gets the train off of the main line without holding up the northbound service, and allows its insertion into the southbound flow more easily. Otherwise, both north and southbound service would have to hold at Lawrence in order to create a gap into which a train could use the crossover.
This is not the same as using the station as a temporary terminal or for a short turn into a gap.
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One of the top 10 Big Ideas selected by the public from the Toronto Star Big Ideas series is the replacement of TTC and other nearby transit authorities with a single master transit authority (Metrolinx). What do you think?
I personally think that we should leave the TTC alone but merge other transit systems such as merging Brampton Transit, MiWay, Oakville Transit, Burlington Transit, and Milton Transit to form a single Halton-Peel Transit Authority and I think that St Catharines Transit, Welland Transit, and Niagara Region Transit could be combined to form a unified Niagara Region Transit. Mergers like this can save administrative costs, reduce transfers, reduce transfer times (where transfers are not eliminated), etc but forming a massive agency to cover thousands of square kilometres to provide not just regional transit but also local transit is an overkill and is like replacing all 3 forms of government with a single government to govern this vast country.
I also think that GO Transit should be an independent agency and not just a division of Metrolinx (let’s leave Metrolinx for transit planning and transit building only and for also to manage Presto).
Steve: There is a big problem with the TTC’s credibility which stems from poor funding at both the municipal and provincial level, and with management’s preference for “good news” at the expense of addressing real issues of service quality head on. This has started to change, in part I think because of Karen Stintz’ departure from the Chair and the ebb of demand to fit the TTC’s message around the Ford mantra of lower taxes, but there is a lot of catching up do to. Even the service improvement proposals made in August are only “half a loaf”, something designed to get support for change without an over-the-top demand for massive increases in funding.
Metrolinx is the ultimate “good news” organization whose whole purpose, it seems, is to make Queen’s Park look good. This is easy when you get to cherry pick the services you run and system expansion is as much a question of political motivation as of planning. Imagine if there were a “service standard” for Metrolinx planning based on actual travel demand, or on a policy of network coverage as a question of accessibility rather than cost recovery. Would the network match up? I’m not sure anyone knows the answer to that question.
Metrolinx is an insular organization that does not entertain public deputations and certainly never gets into messy policy discussions at the Board level in public. Do we really want this type of governance trying to swallow a system that now carries vastly more daily riders with a much more diverse set of demands — not a commuter railway, but an “all-day, everywhere” network? The only good thing I can think of to recommend this scheme is that it would give the Liberal caucus members something to worry about beyond building subways in their ridings.
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Steve, why are some people allergic to buses, streetcars, and LRTs?
Steve: By “allergic” I assume you mean in the political sense. Any form of surface transit has at least two political challenges.
First, it’s there all the time, and when it doesn’t work, riders are an unhappy lot. Day-to-day surface operations require ongoing funding commitments not to mention hard decisions about how we divvy up road capacity between classes of users.
Second, there are no ribbon-cutting opportunities. A subway line is easy: announce a plan to open something 10 years from now, set the project in motion, sit back and take credit for the economic activity of the jobs it creates (while downplaying the physical upheaval as a necessary side effect of a greater good), and then get your photo taken when the line opens (assuming you are still in office). Up to this point, it has very little to do with actually providing transit service.
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With the service summary now on the TTC website, I noticed the Saturday/Sunday service for the 92 Woodbine South drops from 3 buses to 2 buses (every 8 min to every 12 min).
Your notes say seasonal changes, but I looked back to the schedules for the last 3 winters (January 2014 for 2013/14 because of the Kingston Road construction) and they all have 3 buses on weekends, not 2.
Is there any additional information about these changes, which appear to be service cuts?
On the bright side, the early evening service from Mon-Sat finally seems to be improved from every 20 min to every 12 min over the winter. Though we’ll see in the schedules if that really means any later than the 7 pm or so it already did this.
Steve: Here is the text summarizing the changes:
Because the reduction is classed as “seasonal” for Sunday evenings, no before/after loading/crowding projections are included.
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