[turbanplanner]

I agree, it's frustrating because on the subway they try to coordinate multiple work projects to fit within a closure window but on the surface they can't seem to coordinate in a similar fashion. A different symptom of this coordination problem was when overhead wiring projects were not done when nearby intersections closures guaranteed empty tracks only to have track reopenings delayed until wiring work could be finished, the one that immediately springs to mind is King from Dufferin to Roncesvalles during the KQQR work.

I feel like if byford was still here they'd be better at explaining things. The public doesn't realize how much of a mess the utility companies make of projects, I remember Toronto hydro's vault kept carleton closed for months longer than needed since it wasn't on the planes but discovered when digging.

You think that's bad? You should see the King West stretch @ Liberty Village.

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/s

LMAO surprised nobody is offorading there. I'm happy though they're finally repaving a bunch of downtown that hasn't been touched in decades!

 

[kotsy]

I feel like if byford was still here they'd be better at explaining things. The public doesn't realize how much of a mess the utility companies make of projects, I remember Toronto hydro's vault kept carleton closed for months longer than needed since it wasn't on the planes but discovered when digging.

LMAO surprised nobody is offorading there. I'm happy though they're finally repaving a bunch of downtown that hasn't been touched in decades!

Not just repaving, but replacing streetcar tracks from Dufferin to Shaw!

 

[evandyk]

Line 2 was down for quite a while this morning due to a fire at Yonge and Bloor, and I’m hearing of another closure this afternoon due to fire?

 

[Richard White]

Line 2 was down for quite a while this morning due to a fire at Yonge and Bloor, and I’m hearing of another closure this afternoon due to fire?

God I hope not!

The issue this morning was related to a fire which would not stay out. They put it out, only for it to start up again hence why the subway went out twice.

I ended up hoofing it from Broadview to St George rather than wait for a shuttle.

 

[drum118]

Design Services for Hillcrest Streetcar Maintenance and Storage Facility

 

[Northern Light]

The TTC's 5-year Service and Customer Experience Plan is on the agenda of next week's TTC Meeting:

https://cdn.ttc.ca/-/media/Project/TTC/DevProto/Documents/Home/Public-Meetings/Board/2024/May-16/4_5-Year_Service_and_Customer_Experience_Action_Plan.pdf?rev=14646c37575f4ecc95486d5ea92b7ade&hash=BE2A7B606BA6A21EFA828EA8C3F4E395

There's a lot going on there and I will, at this point only post a sample of things and will encourage others to deep dive.

Here's the fiscal bit, which gives you an idea of what may be coming, subject to funding, and when:

That * Subject to Funding * statement becomes much clearer w/the next graphic, which shows funded/unfunded based on this year's approved budget:

^^^ Above is in millions of 2024 dollars

Fleet:

A very few select slides:

* there is a single mention of more washrooms elsewhere in the report.

There ya go UT a quick skim of 177 pages for you.

In a separate post later, I will provide some thoughts and dissection.

 

[evandyk]

I ended up hoofing it from Broadview to St George rather than wait for a shuttle.

I would have grabbed a bixi if I was on my own, but unfortunately I had a five year old in tow.

 

[dowlingm]

We could reduce the unfunded bus number by continuing to buy some hybrids instead of insisting on all orders being electric prior to 2028 (2040 minus 12 year lifespan)

 

[nfitz]

The TTC's 5-year Service and Customer Experience Plan is on the agenda of next week's TTC Meeting:

Oh joy - they'll restore pre-Covid streetcar service in 3 years. #TTCFail

 

[Northern Light]

That works. Its not the service summary; but it has similar info in it.

Lets see what's notable: (I looked for improvements of 2M or greater in the headway.........there isn't much there)

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That's exactly what I was just about to make note of. While there are certainly cases where there are some improvements (ie: Service on the 95B York Mills having service hours extended); a lot of this is just service reallocation, or service being temporarily increased due to vehicle storage constraints (ie: 301 Queen).

The fact that they still wont improve service on either Line 1 or Line 2 is a joke. During the mid-day periods its common to see trains on both lines being crammed due to inadequate headways, and dont even get me started on the early afternoon rush-hour where service is a joke and trains on both lines are packed to capacity.

So in saying all that, when is Rick Leary going to be fired?

Steve Munro now has his take on this up............and he's no more charitable than any of us have been; he stopped one step short of saying the Mayor is actively spreading a lie w/the hype over service increases, but he is clearly not amused; and I don't blame him!

Service Improvements That Aren’t

Today, May 12, the TTC implemented many changes to its services as detailed in my previous article. TTC Service Changes Effective May 12, 2024 Earlier in the week, on May 7, the Mayor Chow and…

stevemunro.ca

We need to get the mainstream media to pick up on Steve's piece here and get a mic in the face of TTC Chair Myers and the Mayor.

 

[Amare]

Steve Munro now has his take on this up............and he's no more charitable than any of us have been; he stopped one step short of saying the Mayor is actively spreading a lie w/the hype over service increases, but he is clearly not amused; and I don't blame him!

Service Improvements That Aren’t

Today, May 12, the TTC implemented many changes to its services as detailed in my previous article. TTC Service Changes Effective May 12, 2024 Earlier in the week, on May 7, the Mayor Chow and…

stevemunro.ca

We need to get the mainstream media to pick up on Steve's piece here and get a mic in the face of TTC Chair Myers and the Mayor.

Unfortunately the media already drank the cool-aid and has already portrayed it as a service increase, so it's pretty much too late to make it seem like it's anything different than what it really is. That's unless some media outlet's investigative team decides to dig into how inadequate the TTC's "service" has been these days.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

Steve Munro now has his take on this up............and he's no more charitable than any of us have been; he stopped one step short of saying the Mayor is actively spreading a lie w/the hype over service increases, but he is clearly not amused; and I don't blame him!

Service Improvements That Aren’t

Today, May 12, the TTC implemented many changes to its services as detailed in my previous article. TTC Service Changes Effective May 12, 2024 Earlier in the week, on May 7, the Mayor Chow and…

stevemunro.ca

We need to get the mainstream media to pick up on Steve's piece here and get a mic in the face of TTC Chair Myers and the Mayor.

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

TTC Management (including Rick Leary) hides and deceive the Board by hiding data or spinning data in a way to make it all is happy-go-lucky with the system. When it is clearly not. In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

 

[Northern Light]

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

The Mayor's office is not is not unfamiliar with Steve Munro, and many others who could and would provide some objective advice, some even for free, and more for pay, which that office can fund.

No excuses.

Also, I have a day job and its not in transit, and yet I have no difficulty reading the service summary, I don't understand why it would be too complex for some. Be that as it may, its easy to provide a straight-line directive. "Improvement shall be definied as a shorter wait time for vehicles as experienced by the rider"

What concerns me here is how much the mayor's office and the chair's office knew this was a load of @#$@.

If they did and put it out anyways, that's awful; but it might actually be worse if they're as obtuse as you suggest.

In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

Now this just isn't accurate, the TTC (the Commission) is very much controlled by the Mayor/City; and that Commission does have hiring/firing power over the TTC CEO and can claim additional senior hiring/firing authority should it wish.

If the Mayor's office would like a list of legally sufficient reasons to terminate Mr.Leary's contract I'd be only too happy to oblige.

Its a choice not to exercise the power available to one's office.

Let''s add, that if they really wanted to avoid a nasty, open fight w/Leary, they could just buy out his contract, that would be 'mint' from his point of view, and I would contend very much undeserved; but to the City its hardly a rounding error and it would be worth every penny to get good quality management installed.

 

[DSCToronto]

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

TTC Management (including Rick Leary) hides and deceive the Board by hiding data or spinning data in a way to make it all is happy-go-lucky with the system. When it is clearly not. In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

Yes, of course Councillors (and civilian TTC board members) cannot know anything but some of them DO seem to know nothing. I am not in transportation but can understand at least some of the Reports they get and if they ever used the TTC themselves they would know that the whole system is VERY poorly managed! I think the current crew of Board members MAY be a bit better than normal, Dianne Saxe seems to ask good questions and the new Chair (Myers) also seems to be more on top of things than some I have seen.

 

[DirectionNorth]

The Mayor's office is not is not unfamiliar with Steve Munro, and many others who could and would provide some objective advice, some even for free, and more for pay, which that office can fund.

No excuses.

Also, I have a day job and its not in transit, and yet I have no difficulty reading the service summary, I don't understand why it would be too complex for some. Be that as it may, its easy to provide a straight-line directive. "Improvement shall be definied as a shorter wait time for vehicles as experienced by the rider"

What concerns me here is how much the mayor's office and the chair's office knew this was a load of @#$@.

If they did and put it out anyways, that's awful; but it might actually be worse if they're as obtuse as you suggest.

By their own standards, it's technically^1 the truth. Lies, damned lies, and statistics, as they say.

It is definitely fair to say that someone at the City, whether that be TTC staff, Rick Leary's office, or Chow's office, made the decision to intentionally mislead the public on TTC service.

Now this just isn't accurate, the TTC (the Commission) is very much controlled by the Mayor/City; and that Commission does have hiring/firing power over the TTC CEO and can claim additional senior hiring/firing authority should it wish.

If the Mayor's office would like a list of legally sufficient reasons to terminate Mr.Leary's contract I'd be only too happy to oblige.

Its a choice not to exercise the power available to one's office.

Let''s add, that if they really wanted to avoid a nasty, open fight w/Leary, they could just buy out his contract, that would be 'mint' from his point of view, and I would contend very much undeserved; but to the City its hardly a rounding error and it would be worth every penny to get good quality management installed.

It's probably more accurate to say that they don't care.

Even though there (may be) are legitimate reason(s) to fire Leary, I'd suggest that they let him go quietly anyways, unless it's really egregious. An open fight would be really nasty, and IMO, the last thing a new (and hopefully competent) CEO needs hanging over their head right after taking over. ^2

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

Agreed. Quality transit commentary is so difficult to come by these days. I don't think @Steve Munro is active here anymore, but this work is appreciated.

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^1 if you squint really hard and ignore the statistics that actually matter to transit users
^2 the only danger is that the press questions the reasons for paying Leary that sum, which would require the (volume of) evidence that he was performing poorly. Politically, Chow can do this now, and spin the hiring decision as "something John Tory did," but won't be able by next year. Now's the time.