Every year at budget time, there are many arguments about the coming year’s budget, fares and subsidy. Inevitably this concentrates on the current year just completing and the new year to come. Looking back over several years provides more context and is worthwhile in assessing where Toronto’s transit operations might go from here.
Finance
TTC Service Changes for January 2013
The TTC will make a small number of service changes in January 2013 that will reduce service on a few routes during underutilized periods. This change is required because the service improvements in fall 2012 overshot the budgetary mark, and the January 2013 service budget does not cover all of the additions.
Improvements to the budgeted weekly hours are planned later in 2013:
Budget Scheduled November 2012 161,990 163,772 January 2013 163,148 163,242 March 164,763 September 166,289 October 166,799 November 167,119
The numbers above do not include service provided to compensate for construction projects.
Metrolinx and the Auditor General (Updated)
Updated December 14, 2012 at 1:40pm:
Additional information regarding Presto and Metrolinx’ response to the Auditor General’s report has been added at the end of that section in this article.
Original post from December 13:
The Auditor General of Ontario released his Annual Report on December 12, 2012, and it includes a section on Metrolinx. For those of us who have wrestled with the secrecy of Metrolinx, some of the information and recommendations in this report are a breath of fresh air.
Metrolinx’ overall reaction to the report is much of the same boilerplate about the wonderful job they are doing and how important they are to the region. In some cases, Metrolinx dodges the questions raised by the Auditor in a way familiar to anyone who has ever attended one of their press conferences.
The report should be read in the context of March 31, 2012, the end of the period to which the audit applies.
Metrolinx Meeting Wrapup — December 2012
The Metrolinx Board met on December 5, 2012. Most of its business was conducted in private, an unfortunate habit of this provincial agency, but some items emerged on the public agenda.
I have already reported on the “Next Wave” of transit projects and the amendments proposed for The Big Move regional plan. In other news …
Metrolinx Updates The Big Move, Announces Priorities for Phase 2 Projects (Updated)
Updated December 6, 2012 at 11:20 am:
A warmed over version of the Board of Trade presentation was given to the Metrolinx Board by President & CEO Bruce McCuaig at the Board meeting on December 5. There were a few clarifications of note:
- The list of “Next Wave” projects will not be nailed down until the February 2013 Board meeting following a round of public consultation.
- That consultation will also include a review of the proposed amendments to The Big Move and yet another round of talks about potential revenue tools. The meetings will probably take place in January at 12 public round tables, as well as a 36-member “Residents’ Reference Panel” doing “deep dives” into the issues at weekend sessions. This process will report back to the Board in spring 2013. (There is no info about how the 36 “residents” will be selected for the panel.)
- It is likely that construction of the Downtown Relief and Yonge Extension subway projects would take place concurrently with Yonge to Steeles opening at roughly the same time as the DRL from Downtown to Danforth. “Phase 2” of each project would follow. At this time there is no commitment to going north of Danforth or to any specific route either through downtown or through the east end of Toronto. This will be the subject of an Environmental Assessment for the project.
- The goal of TBM was described by McCuaig as having 75% of GTAH residents within 2km of rapid transit at their origin or destination. That “or” is an important distinction I don’t remember hearing before. It’s child’s play to have lots of people close to rapid transit at one end of their trip — anyone who works in major centres within Toronto or lives along a subway, LRT, BRT or GO line will qualify. The more difficult target is to have such access at both ends of the trip because “convenience” is meaningless if only one end is well-served.
- In an apparent contradiction to the implied 1/3 local funding described in the Star’s article about Mississauga having second thoughts on the LRT project, McCuaig said that we cannot look at traditional federal/provincial/municipal financing models. Presumably the Investment Strategy will address this problem.
The actual timing of the Next Wave projects varies depending on which document one reads or how one parses the announcements.
- In the Next Wave handout (linked later in this article), this is described as a 15-year, $34-billion project.
- The spend rate implied by another part of the same handout is only $1.2b/year, and this translates to a 28+ year timeframe.
- Metrolinx, in an email responding to this article and my concerns about the status of projects such as the Eglinton LRT to the Airport, said that there would be a “Third Wave” in 2025.
- At the press briefing following the Board meeting, McCuaig confirmed that for the “15 year plan”, year zero has been reset to 2012. This implies that TBM’s original 15 year timeframe is now stretched to roughly 20. Moreover, McCuaig hinted that projects started within the next 15 years may not finish by then.
- Despite all of the delays, the year 2031 is still the target for completing all of The Big Move.
In previous discussions of the Investment Strategy, Metrolinx has included an allowance for operating the new facilities as they come into service. This is missing from the $34b of the Next Wave, but will have to be incorporated into the IS discussions. Moreover operating costs are ongoing while capital are one-time.
In all of this discussion it was amusing to listen to Metrolinx talk about revenue tools, code for the very things some politicians in Toronto find utterly unacceptable preferring to imagine that pools of private capital are available at little or no cost.
The presentation materials from the Board meeting are not yet online, but the hard copy version comes under the unhappy title of “The Big Move In Action”. Deleting only one space would give a good description of the treatment of project schedules for Transit City by Queen’s Park. The presentation ends with a page titled “Keep the wheels moving” and a picture of a stone wheel and hammer. Ontario makes a lot of claims for its triumphs in transportation technology, and I can’t help wondering if this is an early product of the Ontario Transportation Development Corporation.
I mention this because Metrolinx appears to have embraced a new, quaint graphic style for their Big Move and Union Pearson Express websites.
TTC 2013 Budget Update (Update 2)
Updated November 30, 2012 at 5:00 pm:
The City of Toronto budget papers released yesterday include Budget Analyst Notes for the Operating and Capital Budgets.
These are different in format from the TTC versions in that they are cast in a standard reporting layout for City budgets and concentrate on the financing of the TTC from the City’s point of view. All expenditures have a “gross” and “net” version with the difference made up by various revenues such as fares and subsidies from other governments. That difference represents what the City must raise from its own resources (although some of this actually originates externally).
TTC November 2012 Meeting Wrapup
At its November meeting, the TTC considered various matters other than the 2013 budgets on which I have already reported.
New Commissioners
The new “citizen” members of the TTC were sworn into office: Maureen Adamson, Nick Di Donato, Alan Heisey and Anju Virmani. Ms. Adamson was elected Vice-Chair of the Commission under a new Council-approved structure where the Vice-Chair is chosen from the citizen member ranks. At this point we know little of where the newcomers will take the Commission beyond background articles such as one in The Star.
Although they may claim to be focused on customer priorities, whether this will survive the political onslaught of budget constraints and the organizational morass of “TTC culture” remains to be seen. Commissioners tend to catch a “TTC disease” when it becomes easier to defend what the TTC has done and the official management outlook than to ask difficult questions, publicly, about how things could be better. At least there is a CEO in place whose goals lie in improvement, not in justifying more of the same.
Services Changes Effective November 18, 2012 (Updated)
A few changes will be made to TTC service in November 2012.
Corrected Nov. 7, 2012 at 11:35 am: Route 504 King trippers which appeared to be a service increase are actually only a TTC correction to a previous error in their Service Summary.
502 Downtowner
Service will return to McCaul Loop operating on the same headways but with one fewer car during peak and weekday midday periods.
29 Dufferin
Service will return to Dufferin south of Queen when work by Toronto Water and TTC track replacement have finished.
504 King (Corrected)
Although this is not mentioned in the service change memo, the Service Summary shows three more CLRV trippers in the AM peak than on the October schedules. This extends the period of 2′ headway eastbound to downtown by 12 minutes (a total of 19 trippers rather than 16 on a 4′ headway).
Correction Nov 7: Scott Haskill at the TTC advises that these trippers existed in previous schedules, but were not included on the Service Summary. Therefore, there is no net addition to service.
45 Kipling
The late evening 11 minute headway will be extended to midnight to relieve crowding, and a new northbound trip from Kipling Station will be provided at about 2:20 am. These changes are on the weekday schedules only.
103 Mt. Pleasant North
All service now operating on a 15′ headway with 2 buses will be changed to run on a 20′ headway to “improve reliability”. The change includes adding six minutes of driving time and four minutes of layover to each trip.
Affected periods are weekdays all day to mid-evening, Saturday and Sunday daytime. Service at other times remains at 30′.
510 Spadina
Streetcar service returns between Spadina Station and King Street with a bus shuttle from King to Queen’s Quay.
Streetcar headways will be:
Period Weekday Saturday Sunday AM Peak 2'30" Midday 1'53" PM Peak 2'00" Early Morning 6'00" 15'00" Morning 2'30" 2'50" Afternoon 2'00" 2'10" Early Evening 2'15" 2'30" 6'00" Late Evening 6'00" 6'00" 6'00"
Bus shuttle headways will be 6’00” at all times except early Sunday morning when they will be 10’00”.
Streetcar service will return to Queen’s Quay & Spadina on December 23, 2012 using the same schedules as in May 2012. Service to Union Station will not resume until late spring 2013.
165 Weston Road North
Weekend service to Canada’s Wonderland ends.
TTC Capital Budget 2013 Part IV: Subway Infrastructure
This is the final installment in my review of the TTC 2013-2022 Capital Budget.
TTC 2013 Capital Budget Part III: Streetcar Fleet and Infrastructure (Updated)
The 2013-2022 Capital Budget includes plans for the conversion of streetcar services from the existing CLRV/ALRV fleets to the new low-floor light rail vehicles (LFLRVs), related projects to bring the infrastructure up to the required standard for the new fleet, and continuing system maintenance.
Updated Nov. 4, 2012 at 8:30 pm:
The headway shown for LFLRV operation on Queen was incorrectly calculated in the spreadsheet. This has been fixed.
Steve Munro 