January 31, 2006 saw the first post on this blog, a compendium of film festival reviews I wrote going back to the dark ages of 1986 on another platform, the long-departed “Artworks” BBS. Many readers will recall text-based systems and the whine of 2400-baud dial-up modems connecting us to the outside world.

Among other films in that 1986 batch were Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Itami’s Tampopo which brought new meaning to the term “spaghetti western”, and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. (Try to imagine seeing that film for the first time when nobody in the audience knew what to expect.) There was also a little film called Malcolm about a reclusive lad who had an inordinate fascination with Melbourne’s trams.

I stopped doing reviews years ago because major political events kept getting in the way, and more recently I prefer to see films on a more leisurely basis without the lineups. Toronto’s cultural scene has been through many ups and downs over the years, but the reps survive somehow, and even the gorilla on King Street, TIFF, hopes to weather the combined effects of the pandemic, film industry strikes, and the fall in tourism. There’s enough to keep me out and about (now that we can be out and about again) on many evenings and quite a few matinees.

The second post went up on Groundhog Day 2006, A Bold Initiative for Don Valley Transport with a plan for Swan Boats, the product of much 2am hilarity with a dear friend. Newcomers to the scene ask about my Twitter/X handle. If only they knew. Fantasy transit maps have nothing on our imagination!

At the risk of really dating myself, 2023 was the 60th anniversary of my first non-trivial computer programming. It was on an LGP-30 that was on loan to the Toronto Board of Education for enrichment classes. My program was a random sentence generator that would spit out grammatically correct, albeit totally nonsense text. This was not on a par with teaching HAL to sing, but it gave me a healthy suspicion of the claims for AI when that field started years later.

2023 brought departures of friends and transit colleagues, not uncommon for someone of my generation, and they are much missed. But there is much new blood with a strong interest in making a better city. A particular strength is that transit activism is now city-wide and cannot be dismissed as the preserve of downtowners and railfans.

Transit has been through a lot since 2006. In March 2007 we had the Transit City plan. [Full disclosure: I had a minor role in its creation, and coined that name for a separate TTC report a year earlier.] In an era when subways were far too expensive to afford even one of them at a time, let alone four, there was hope for a suburban LRT network that, by now, would be running across the city.

That was not to be thanks to the Fords and John Tory, and rafts of politicians more than happy to buy votes with promises of subways everywhere. That ship has sailed, but over the years no end of would-be network planners filled maps with lines hither and yon, some with little concept of geography or travel patterns.

Seven years ago, I gave a talk for UofT’s University in the Community program entitled “The Transit City That Won’t Build Transit”. We have lost too much time not just to the pandemic, but to inaction and a focus on vanity projects rather than the overall transit network and service.

Through the 2008 financial crisis, cutbacks in funding, the evolution of a provincial agency into an uncaring extension of the Premier’s ego, and the deep financial hole as we emerge from the pandemic, there has always been a role for transit advocacy.

In particular there is an important place to defend riders, whether they actually be on the network, or potential users. Construction for tomorrow brings some hope, but a lot more photo ops, while riders yearn for service today. Transit is more than a handful of subways and commuter rail lines.

The pandemic unmasked the failings of a network built for downtown commuters using them as cash cows. Big demand. One destination. Economy of scale. But that’s not where everyone wants to travel. There was an “Aha!” moment when the importance of travel across the region stopped meaning “Oakville to Downtown” and started meaning “Scarborough to Downsview”, or “Port Credit to Guelph”, or “Ajax to Vaughan”. Those trips are very much the realm of cars and expressways. As the city-region grows, so does demand for travel between many areas. They are very badly served by transit.

The most useful announcement Metrolinx could make would be the creation of a truly regional bus service. They have always wanted to take over the TTC, but the real need is the much, much larger field of southern Ontario. This should not be left to a collection of ad hoc private and public sector operators, but should be a real network, centrally funded and managed. Subsidies for local transit should encourage, no, should demand convenient service. Riders should not face long waits for buses providing minimal service for transit captives, but should enjoy reliable, frequent service as an essential part of the whole network. It is deeply ironic that “frequency” is at the heart of GO Transit’s expansion plans while local bus service gets the leftovers.

“Regional transit” needs far more service that does not go downtown, and elimination of fare barriers must be accompanied by service those regional riders can actually use. Transit should not be a zero-sum game stealing service and funding from one area to serve another. Toronto riders are not coddled by good TTC service, something to be envied and pillaged for political gain. The city needs more TTC and more transit riders, and so does the region around it.

Within Toronto itself, we have the bizarre situation where the TTC claims to be almost back to “full service” compared with early 2020, but this is a statistical mirage. The metric is service hours (one bus in service for 1 hour is one service hour). But those buses run more slowly now that pre-pandemic traffic has returned, and their schedules are padded to improve performance stats. A 2024 bus or streetcar hour literally does not go as far as one in 2020. Service frequency and reliability are the rider’s view of transit service, not vehicle hours. In many cases much more than a few percent remains to achieve January 2020 levels.

Midweek peaking produces an effect where demand can be as high or higher than past levels, but total ridership sits at about 80% thanks to lower demand on Mondays and Fridays. Budget hawks wonder why we run “so much” service while riders complain of stuffed buses and trains reminiscent of past years. Designing service for this new demand pattern is probably the biggest challenge facing the TTC, closely followed by the need to provide service that is really reliable, not a fictional “on time performance” that is demonstrably out of touch with reality.

Lest this all sound rather disheartening, recent events give me cause for hope. The unexpected departure of John Tory brought a new Mayor to Toronto and a shift in City priorities. There are huge financial problems, but at least now we talk about them openly. Transit will not get everything it wants, but this will be a conscious choice, not a back room deal to pretend we can get by on less.

There is hope that the TTC Board will bestir itself to actually deal with management and policy rather than abdicating its role. One might argue that the Board should stay out of management’s way and only set overall policy. That would be nice if the Board took that job seriously. There are signs of change because the financial situation does not allow a laissez-faire approach.

For my part, I will continue to publish a mix of articles looking more deeply at issues than conventional media coverage can provide. Yes, I have my own biases about what makes “good transit”, and it is neither my role nor my inclination to be a cheerleader.

Some topics, notably service analysis, require deep dives to reveal complexity, but also as a counterpoint to the overly simplistic stats coming out of the TTC. I know that all of you don’t read every pearl of wisdom published here, any more than I read every article in the print and electronic media I follow and subscribe to. But I know that you read some of them from the site stats, even if a collective cry of “oh no, not more charts” wails through the city whenever I hit “publish” on the latest epic service analysis.

You, dear readers, have been busy too. I may have published over 2,800 articles since 2006, but you have left over 59,000 comments.

A year ago, I despaired facing years of a Tory/Ford future. Tory is gone, and Ford is under fire, if not yet defeated. Memo to the opposition parties: Ontario has had quite enough of that corrupt simpleton and his minions. Defeat them, not each other.

Change comes to City Hall, but winning back the Mayor’s office is only a beginning. Sustained change will not happen without strong advocacy and I salute those who push for better transit on many fronts.

Thanks for reading for all those years!