For those of you who collect variants on the subway map, here is the version that was published as part of the report to the Commission last week.
Many people seem to come to this page innocently looking for the real subway map. It can be found on the TTC’s website.
January 2007 does not bring much in service changes beyond the return of streetcars to St. Clair west of the Spadina Subway. Buses will continue to run east to Yonge Street until, it is hoped, the middle of February.
The RT will continue to operate with buses on Sundays to allow testing of the new RT signal system. As a regular user of this line, I am looking forward to it actually working on those cold mid-winter days (which surely will be here eventually) when the old system regularly froze up.
There are several minor changes in running times and a few added trips here and there, but nothing major in improved service. Current expectations are that we won’t see anything significant until the fall when sufficient operators, buses, and budget headroom will, in theory, be available.
Meanwhile, the list of services that should be improved or operated, but are not due to funding and other constraints, continues to grow. Continue reading
The first full meeting of the new Moscoe-less TTC took place on Wednesday. Nothing was particularly astonishing. Like all first meetings, we watched as the newcomers found their way around the agenda and the complexity of what’s going on. One can only hope that new Commissioners will learn to address issues rather than making speeches.
To his credit, the new Chair Adam Giambrone stayed on top of the agenda and moved business along as briskly as possible without visibly throttling debate. A few delicate interventions framing the sense of the meeting in a motion rescued us all from interminable rambling.
Meanwhile on the agenda: Continue reading
In a truly breathtaking display mixing unrelated subjects in one press conference, Howard Moscoe has embraced Automatic Train Operation (ATO) as the salvation of much that is wrong with the TTC. A chicken in every pot (provided that you have a Metropass) will follow soon after.
You can read about Moscoe’s scheme on the Star website: TTC Eyes Driverless Subway. Continue reading
A comment in my review of David Miller’s platform triggered a technical discussion about this issue. To segregate this from the thread on Miller himself, I have moved the relevant information here. If you plan to add to this issue, please do so here.
The issue was previously reviewed in this post.
I made the comment:
Mayor Miller claims that we will improve capacity on the Yonge line by 40% through new trains and signalling. Running the trains more frequently will require changes at Finch Station (probably a northerly extension) to allow for faster turnarounds, and will definitely require some changes on the Spadina line (currently planned as part of the York U extension). Don’t plan to see those empty, uncrowded trains until a decade from now, at least.
This provoked various responses: Continue reading
We hear a lot from subway advocates about the need for an ongoing project to expand the subway system. Leaving aside the question of how we will pay for it, what would we actually see for our efforts?
The building rate proposed is two km/year. If we were going to build west from Yonge Street and we started today, it would be late 2010 before we reached Jane Street, late 2014 to reach the western boundary of the city, somewhere like the airport for example. Every penny we could scrounge would go into that line, and by 2015 we would still have big transit problems in most of the city. This assumes we start tomorrow, and we all know that nothing will happen for at least two years while we debate where the line will go, design it and get EA approval.
If we are serious about expanding the transit network in a meaningful timeframe, we have two choices:
Mayoral hopefuls and other subway advocates need to be honest about the costs and benefits of their plans. The two km rate was once floated by Rick Ducharme, back when we actually thought that would cost $200-million or so. The Sheppard Subway, our most recent project, was 6 km long and cost us almost $1-billion not including the vehicles that were purchased separately. Even allowing for the huge expense of the junction at Yonge Street, $200-million hasn’t bought two km of subway for a long time.
I will return to the issues involved in building LRT in a future post and will incorporate many of the comments that are stacked up in feedbacks from various readers that have accumulated in my inbox.
Profound thanks to the many readers who commented on this item! Based on all this feedback, not to mention my own preferences, the list of new station names is almost complete. Here’s what it looks like now:
Bloor-Danforth East:
Scarborough Junction, Massey Creek, Dentonia Park, East Toronto, North Beach, East York, Linsmore, [Donlands], Ελλας, Riverdale, Playter, [Castle Frank, Sherbourne]
Bloor-Danforth West:
Roy’s Square, Yorkville, Rochdale, Lowther, The Annex, Willowvale, [Ossington], Brockton, [Lansdowne], West Toronto, Parkside, [High Park], Swansea, Baby Point, [Old Mill], Kingsway, Montgomery, Six Points
Yonge:
Finch’s, Willowdale, Lansing, Hogg’s Hollow, Muir Gardens, Rebellion, Belt Line, Avoca, North Toronto, Crescent, Roy’s Square, Rainbow, Carlton, O’Keefe’s Lane, City Hall, Melinda, Royal York
University/Spadina:
[St. Andrew], Osgoode Hall, [St. Patrick], Taddle Creek, Planetarium, Rochdale, Lowther, Casa Loma, Wells Hill, York, Viewmount, [Lawrence West], Arc en Ciel, Downsview, Wilson Heights.
I am amused that we have two “rainbows” one in each official language. Moreover, the one formerly known as Wellesley has the most boring decor on the system. Just imagine what a few inspired decorators could do!
The original post and comments follow below. Continue reading
The Transit Commissioners have forwarded a letter from another of Toronto’s long-time transit advocates, Philip Webb, to their staff for study. The nub of Webb’s proposal is that the TTC should stop trying to conduct maintenance a few hours at a time in the middle of the night and simply close down sections of the subway for a day or two on weekends when necessary. Continue reading
In between many screenings at the Film Festival, I took the opportunity to write up the TTC’s Capital Budget presentation from August 30. The information here is a combination of the TTC staff presentation, remarks by Ted Tyndorf, Chief Planner for Toronto, and my own opinions. This is intended mainly as a view of the most recent TTC thoughts on the subject.
Here are the high points:
I will take up the issue of where we should go next with transit planning in a future post, likely over the weekend. Meanwhile, the gory details. Continue reading
The Final Report of the Scarborough RT Strategic Plan came up for discussion nearly at the end of a very long Commission meeting on August 30. This was preceded by a long presentation on the Capital Budget, approval of the Bombardier subway car order and a moving deputation by the wives of two workmen seriously injured by on-the-job carbon monoxide poisoning. Lengthy debate was unlikely. Continue reading
Steve Munro 