Month: March 2025

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TTC Service Changes Effective March 30, 2025

The TTC will make several service changes on March 30, 2025. Most of the changes will increase the frequency of service, but in some cases there are reductions. There are also a few cases where the new schedules adjust travel times, but the frequency is unchanged.

Updated March 27, 2025 at 10:15am: The detailed spreadsheet showing changes in headways, travel times and vehicle assignments is now available.

Updated March 28, 2025 at 11:15pm: Erroneous entries in the first/last trip table that were copied from the TTC’s service change memo have been updated with information from the electronic version of the schedules (GTFS) on the City’s Open Data site.

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Service Analysis of 512 St. Clair: January-February 2025

This article reviews the behaviour of service on 512 St. Clair during the first two months of 2025. This period was marked by an intense snow storm in mid-February that left many transit routes in disarray thanks to poor snow clearing.

Updated Mar. 21, 2025 at 10:30pm: The service chart for February 12, 2025, the first of the two major snow storms, has been added to this article.

Updated Mar. 22, 2025 at 1:00pm: Detailed charts of headways and travel times for February 12, 2025, have been added showing the consistency of travel times along the route even though headway quality deteriorated through the evening due to bunching.

The typical problem on four-lane roads was that snow was not removed to the curb causing parked cars to foul the streetcar tracks. Despite streetcar lines being “Snow Routes”, the signs were little more than decorations. The oft threatened but rarely practiced removal of cars for proper clearing did not occur, and some snow/ice banks remained until they eventually melted. Delays for blocked service occurred repeatedly well after the storms.

Another common problem was the absence of breaks in windrows (ploughed snow banks) at stops that lasted weeks after the snowfall. A few special cases had problems that were not addressed:

  • Where a street had permanent curb lane installations such as bump-outs for loading zones at stops, a windrow would be ploughed separating the streetcar lane from the waiting area making entry and exit from cars difficult, dangerous and in some cases impossible.
  • Where a bike lane occupied the curb lane, there would be a windrow between the streetcar and bike lanes blocking transit access.

While the City is officially responsible for snow clearing, the TTC was noticeably silent on a critical issue of operational reliability and passenger safety. They talk a good line about “safety”, but here, in a real crunch, the TTC did nothing beyond pleading by press release with motorists to not block the tracks.

The 512 St. Clair cars run in reserved lanes on a wider-than-usual Toronto street, and snow clearing was much less of an issue for them. Looking over the two-month period, we can see the benefit of a clear, protected right-of-way when many other routes were snarled or inoperative thanks to parked cars.

St. Clair is a relatively short route running between Yonge Street (St. Clair Station) and Keele Street (Gunn’s Loop). It loops through St. Clair West Station underground. In theory, this should provide four points — the two termini and the midpoint at St. Clair West both ways — where service could be regulated easily. Actual headway data show highly erratic service even during the pre-snow period.

By contrast, travel times along the route were consistent, with only small variations thanks to the storm, indicating that the snow was not a major problem. Of course, with a reserved lane, the TTC’s favourite chestnut about “congestion” could not be blamed for headway problems.

The charts in this article show both the travel times and headways (spacing between vehicles) for 512 St. Clair in January and February 2025, as well as detailed charts for specific days.

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TTC Audit & Risk Management Committee – March 24, 2025

This article was originally published with a title of “February”. It has been changed to “March”.

The TTC’s Audit & Risk Management Committee will meet on March 24 to discuss several items. The agenda includes:

  • TTC Internal Audit 2025 Audit Plan and Departmental Evaluation
  • City of Toronto Auditor General’s Report on TTC Non-Union Workforce Planning and Management

There is also a confidential update on the Fare Compliance Action Plan, but no hint of what this might entail.

The 2025 Audit Plan includes four areas for review including:

  • A review of the TTC’s customer-centric initiatives, performance metrics, and public reporting practices to ensure alignment with customer needs, operational best practices, and global transit standards.
  • A review of processes and controls over maintenance and rehabilitation of subway tunnels.

Follow-up reviews include:

  • […] implementation of various third-party Hydraulic Leak Investigation Recommendations

The Auditor General’s report covers many aspects of employee management including issues with retention, succession planning, employee satisfaction and complaint handling. There are profound problems with lack of confidence in the internal complaint handling process.

Departing employees gave very negative marks to the management and culture at TTC, and yet for the period from 2016 to 2024 there was no analysis or reporting on data from exit interviews. This is not surprising considering that the CEO during much of this time was not noted for his open, collegial manner, and critical reviews might have been embarrassing.

As a quick overview, there is an Audit at a Glance, but more troubling information is in the full report.

The Auditor General is silent on the number and cost of “resignations” that were accompanied by buy-outs and non-disclosure agreements that occurred throughout Rick Leary’s tenure as CEO. A difficulty in attracting staff would also be affected by a “poisoned work environment” at TTC which became fairly common knowledge.

I was deeply troubled by the Auditor General’s report because it reveals an organization with widespread problems in employee attitudes, and by extension a dysfunctional management-employee relationship. Long-time TTC watchers have been aware of issues, although getting comments on the record has been challenging. The TTC Board should be concerned at how this situation developed on their watch, and how complicit they are in allowing this decline. Any incoming CEO will face challenges to rebuild the esprit de corps within the TTC, on top of the many other problems our transit system faces.

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TTC Expands Fare Inspection to Bus Routes

The TTC has announced that effective Monday, March 17, fare inspection will occur on bus routes. However, unlike the streetcar system, this will be done at locations where bus passengers enter subway stations at fare-paid interchanges.

To maximize efficiency, inspections will be carried out on bus platforms at integrated stations where customers could be required to show proof-of-payment between exiting buses and entering the subway system.

Fare inspection on board buses is more challenging than on streetcars due to tighter circulation space, and on both modes is particularly difficult on crowded vehicles. A further wrinkle will be added when the new Lines 5 and 6 open because their cars have no on board fare equipment, and riders are expected to “tap on” using machines on platforms at surface stops unlike existing streetcar lines where riders can tap as they enter vehicles.

This type of inspection already occurs at streetcar/subway interchanges. While the tactic is “efficient”, it will not address fare evasion for trips that do not end at a station. The TTC regularly cites a $140-million annual loss to evasion. They give no estimate of the proportion of losses bus-to-subway transfer trips represent, nor the net revenue they expect to obtain after allowing for the cost of inspectors.

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A Sign Of Life on Line 5 Eglinton

The TTC work signup is now in progress for the schedule period starting March 30.

It includes a signup for the Eglinton LRT for non-revenue simulation training.

Now if only we could get Metrolinx to give a clear indication of an opening date. They did once claim that there would be a three-month pre-opening period. We will see just how long “three months” is.

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TTC Hillcrest Update: March 2025

The project to reconfigure Harvey Shops at TTC’s Hillcrest facility was formally launched today. The work involves rejuvenation of the 100-year old property so that it can host up to 25 streetcars serving 512 St. Clair and, at least to some extent, 511 Bathurst greatly reducing dead-head time from carhouses for these routes.

This change in use is triggered by the new longer cars and the shift of major streetcar maintenance to Leslie Barns which is designed for them. Hillcrest was built in an era of Peter Witts, later PCCs, that are half the length.

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This project is long overdue because the extra capacity is needed for streetcars to be delivered over the coming year. The situation is compounded by the loss of capacity at Russell Carhouse where major reconstruction is still incomplete. The TTC has improved overnight streetcar service as a means of “storing” surplus cars, although this has the added benefit of generating new riding and providing more convenient service for users of the night routes.

The Hillcrest project will be done in two phases allowing it to begin carhouse operation before the planned end date in 2029.

The eastern portion of the shops will be converted so that tracks run through from north to south. The current arrangement is oriented south to north, and most car movement within the building uses a transfer table to shift cars between the entry at the east side of the building and stub tracks further west.

The views below look west along the transfer table runway from the east side of the building in 2012 when CLRVs were the dominant form of vehicle. The runway will be filled in, and tracks which are now separated by it will be connected to provide a through route.

And here are views in earlier days showing the transfer table itself, and Peter Witt 2894 undergoing restoration for Tour Tram service. (This car is now at the Halton County Radial Railway Museum.)

Tracks around Harvey Shops will be reconfigured to provide a clockwise loop rather than the counter-clockwise arrangement now in place. Most of the storage area will be east of the building replacing some employee parking.