[thenorth]

Another thing to keep an eye on is whether or not the trains are still crawling through intersections, or operating slowly mid block. Any word on improvements there?

 

[hw621]

Yes

Is this the video in question (I recommend watching at 2x to 4x speed)?

I counted it stopping at 10 red lights.

That said, west of Mivlan Rumike Station, I counted only one red light (at Albion Road). The remaining nine red light stops were all east of Mivan Rumike.

So I would hypothesize that signal priority was only active on the western half of the line, at least in that video.

This is the one. I just watched the first 15 to 20 minutes. That's why I didn't see many Rd lights. Besides red lights, it seems that the train (street car) was also faster than Line 5.

 

[thenorth]

Transmania did a video on the line. The ride was 40 minutes and it seems that the LRV rarely waited at red lights.

There is a transit signal priority trial at select intersections as of today. A friend did the trip in 39 minutes.

Is this the video in question (I recommend watching at 2x to 4x speed)?

I counted it stopping at 10 red lights.

That said, west of Mivlan Rumike Station, I counted only one red light (at Albion Road). The remaining nine red light stops were all east of Mivan Rumike.

So I would hypothesize that signal priority was only active on the western half of the line, at least in that video.

Assuming my hypothesis is correct, getting down to 34 minute (which was what MX expected during planning), or even 30 min end-to-end runtimes seems entirely plausible. West of Mivlan Rumike it was a very smooth and quick ride.

Yes

This is the one. I just watched the first 15 to 20 minutes. That's why I didn't see many Rd lights. Besides red lights, it seems that the train (street car) was also faster than Line 5.

Here’s some quick maths on the average speed of the train, on the portion that presumably has signal priority implemented (Westmore to Milvan):

The train departed Westmore Station at 11:38 AM

The train arrived at Milvan Rumike at 11:52 AM

That’s 12 minutes to travel 4.7 km

Average Speed: 23.5 km/h

Now, if we extrapolate those speeds across the portion that presumably doesn’t have signal priority implemented (Milvan Rumike to Finch West), it will take 14 minutes to travel the 5.5 km.

So, between Westmore to Finch West, total travel time on the signal priority enabled line would be 26 minutes.

Note that this analysis intentionally excluded the excruciatingly slow curve between Humber College and Westmore. That portion of the trip took 3 minutes to complete (11:34 to 11:37). So if we include that portion in the above analysis, the extrapolated trip time for the fully signal priority enabled line will be 29 minutes.

 

[canucks2030]

Transmania did a video on the line. The ride was 40 minutes and it seems that the LRV rarely waited at red lights.

Are we sure the video was not edited? Many have points out in the video comments some edits impacting time and I think this also. But great news if the line making improvements. For 10KM should be under 30 minutes but considering everything, any time saving a “win”.

 

[thenorth]

Are we sure the video was not edited? Many have points out in the video comments some edits impacting time and I think this also. But great news if the line making improvements. For 10KM should be under 30 minutes but considering everything, any time saving a “win”.

Yes, the video edited out some of the stops. But I got the timings based on the time shown on the clocks in the train and on the station platform.

 

[APTA-2048]

Some more details: transit priority (green light before turning vehicles) is set up at Milady, Pearldale, and Duncanwoods.

 

[turbanplanner]

Remember, when they took out the minor stops in Etobicoke to speed up the journey, ridership estimates significantly decreased.

When was this?

 

[thenorth]

Some more details: transit priority (green light before turning vehicles) is set up at Milady, Pearldale, and Duncanwoods.

How did you verify this? Not doubting you, just curious.

Also, is that an exhaustive list of where TSP is active, or just a subset?

 

[yurt2022]

If TSP gets this line consistently down to 40 minutes that would be good.

Then we can look at speeding it up further by 5-10 mins by increasing speed, removing limits at intersections/stations, retraining operators, etc.

 

[APTA-2048]

How did you verify this? Not doubting you, just curious.

Also, is that an exhaustive list of where TSP is active, or just a subset?

This was part of a notice shared with operators of Line 6 that I was able to see. It sounds like it’s preliminary (I’d have to read the whole thing again), but those three intersections were the ones mentioned.

That being said, would be cool to see someone catch this in action.

 

[Rainforest]

You raise a good point about having some trains running full route length while the underground sections doing a short-turn. The problem, is that such a system would significantly raise operational costs. When a system is automated, it doesn't cost a cent more to run a train every 2 minutes than every 10 except for electricity. By separating the 2 lines, the underground portion could be automated IF it has exclusive ROW on the tracks. You can't have an automated train run on the same tracks as a manually controlled one. This means that labour costs for the increased service would rise significantly. Considering how the TTC are terminally bitching about how little money it has, it should be automating lines where possible.

It is true that automated lines incur lower labour costs. And, perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to that component when designing the future lines.

That said, the saving in labour cost will be relatively small in comparison with the total Line 5 operating cost, and even smaller compared to all other manual labour costs at TTC (think all the buses and all the legacy streetcars, that will never get automatic unless the technology improves to the point where it can handle on-street operations).

Therefore, a relatively minor saving in operating costs doesn't look like a good reason to arbitrarily split one of the major lines, and definitely inconvenience a lot of riders.

 

[Bojaxs]

It is true that automated lines incur lower labour costs. And, perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to that component when designing the future lines.

That said, the saving in labour cost will be relatively small in comparison with the total Line 5 operating cost, and even smaller compared to all other manual labour costs at TTC (think all the buses and all the legacy streetcars, that will never get automatic unless the technology improves to the point where it can handle on-street operations).

Therefore, a relatively minor saving in operating costs doesn't look like a good reason to arbitrarily split one of the major lines, and definitely inconvenience a lot of riders.

Automation isn't just about reducing labour costs. It also reduces the impact of labour strikes on riders.

 

[Rainforest]

Automation isn't just about reducing labour costs. It also reduces the impact of labour strikes on riders.

I wouldn't be so sure. They still have a control centre with personnel, right?

 

[yoshirocks702]

This was part of a notice shared with operators of Line 6 that I was able to see. It sounds like it’s preliminary (I’d have to read the whole thing again), but those three intersections were the ones mentioned.

That being said, would be cool to see someone catch this in action.

I also noticed this yesterday when i was out and about, it looks like the left turn signals happens after the light turns red now.

 

[T3G]

Automation isn't just about reducing labour costs. It also reduces the impact of labour strikes on riders.

Absolutely phenomenal...!!!

"We don't want labour strikes so we'll remove the employee altogether, removing a decent, respectable option to make a living which are slowly but surely disappearing under the rise of AI. The rich will run off with all the cost savings that the average joe will never see, but at least we got to stick it those entitled would-be drivers, how dare they want decent working conditions!"