Day: August 10, 2023

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TTC’s New Board

Today, Toronto Council appointed a new slate of members to the six Council positions on the TTC’s Board of Commissioners. They are:

  • Jamaal Myers, Chair
  • Josh Matlow
  • Paul Ainslie (*)
  • Dianne Saxe
  • Chris Moise (*)
  • Stephen Holyday (*)

(*) Members who were reappointed.

The new chair, Jamaal Myers, will be interesting to watch. He has a background in transit advocacy and was once part of the Scarborough Transit Action group. He has also been appointed as Chair of the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Having a regular transit rider from an activist background will be a big change for the TTC as it plans for pandemic recovery and improvement.

Josh Matlow has been a thorn in the side of the Scarborough Subway advocates, but he is is not a one-issue candidate. He will bring another important voice to the TTC Board for improvement across the network.

Dianne Saxe comes from an environmentalist background and was the last Environmental Commissioner of Ontario until the position was consolidated with the Auditor General by the Ford government.

The three new members, joining Commissioners Ainslie and Moise, strongly swing the balance on the TTC Board to a concern with transit as a service and with addressing rider needs. As I have written in detailed past articles, all of them must now wrap their heads around how the TTC works (or doesn’t work) and determine priorities for the TTC’s future.

As for TTC management, I have a word of advice: these people actually ride the system and know what day-to-day transit experience looks and feels like. Don’t try to con them with meaningless stats skewed to show the system in the best possible light. Where there are problems, shortfalls between expectation and delivery, tell people so that they can be addressed, and so that riders sense that management is living on the same planet.

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TTC Hillcrest Changes for New Streetcars

The first of the 60 additional streetcars for Toronto’s fleet arrived at the Hillcrest Shops on August 9, 2023. Based on the budgeted cash flow over coming years, delivery of these cars is expected to complete in 2025.

  • 2023: $58.434 million
  • 2024: $193.248
  • 2025: $82.644
  • 2026: $5.759
  • Total: $340.265 million
Car 4604 at Harvey Shops on August 9, 2023 [Photo from a reader]

The currently active streetcar yards at Leslie, Russell and Roncesvalles can absorb 35 of these cars, but the remaining 25 will need additional storage and servicing facilities elsewhere. The TTC plans to adapt part of their Hillcrest site as a small carhouse that will serve the 512 St. Clair and possibly 511 Bathurst lines. Aside from providing space, this will also reduce dead-head costs for cars that now come to St. Clair from Leslie Barns.

The presentation erroneously states that “New streetcars will begin arriving at TTC facilities by 2025” [p. 2] when quite obviously this will be late in the overall delivery scheme. However, as the first 35 can be accommodated elsewhere, it would make sense that Hillcrest changes do not have to be ready until the latter half of the order arrives.

Some of the project schedule, however, extends into 2027 and this begs the question of why the work will take so long.

Aerial view of Hillcrest from the northeast. [TTC photo]

The TTC plans consultation sessions in the neighbourhood in August, although they have not yet announced dates or locations. Links:

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