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The reasoning that I heard from a driver is that they get stuck on railway crossings during the snow.

Not sure how much I believe that, though, because one would think that this would be a problem at all railway crossings, not just the ones on Finch, and the artics certainly have not been removed from any other route. If it is true, it would be in typical TTC fashion to ruin the service completely due to the 4 days of snow we get yearly, rather than banning the artics from going out in snowstorms or doing a switch-a-roo with some non problematic route during same
 
T3G said:
The reasoning that I heard from a driver is that they get stuck on railway crossings during the snow.

Not sure how much I believe that, though, because one would think that this would be a problem at all railway crossings, not just the ones on Finch, and the artics certainly have not been removed from any other route. If it is true, it would be in typical TTC fashion to ruin the service completely due to the 4 days of snow we get yearly, rather than banning the artics from going out in snowstorms or doing a switch-a-roo with some non problematic route during same
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My point too - I frequent Kennedy a lot for my commute and routes such as 129/904 still utilise artics. In 939's case the 94 series still seem to be used.
 
nfitz said:
Alternatively, take another route. 505 to Dundas TTC. Though starting at Broadview might be crowded. You could always walk down to Gerrard and take the 506; or backtrack to Pape and take the 72/506 - they'd still be useable; I'm surprised at how many riders don't try alternatives when the subway is down.
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I commute with my son on Line 2 and the 505 is our backup when the subway goes down. It takes about an extra half hour to get from Broadview to west of Spadina, at which point you can go back up to Bloor on Spadina, Bathurst or Dufferin, depending on where you're going (there are other options, but not with 5 minute service frequencies, which is my minimum requirement for trusting a route). We've done it a bunch of times out of necessity (probably less than 5 in a year) and last Friday just for fun. He likes the long way.
 
kvvoyage said:
Noted an increased presence of non-artic buses on the 939 recently - has something gone wrong with the LFSAs that are usually assigned or just an allocation change?
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Due to a number of incidents over the past several months at the level crossings along the route, along with an extreme over-abundance of caution, it was decided to remove all articulated buses from the route permanently. This decision was taken prior to the snow flying - there have been no issues with the buses operating in the snow.

For the January board, they basically returned the service to how it was before the artics were scheduled. For the March board, they are increasing rush hour service by another 20+% over that number.

Dan
 
TTC certainly had no problem operating the Orion III on the 39E Finch Express back in the days and on the 85 too when they still had the at grade crossing. Perhaps traffic wasn't as bad back then with cars trying to cut in front of the bus while they wait for a long enough space to clear the crossing in a traffic jam.
 
Why would an artic get stuck at a rail crossing where a regular bus wouldn't? It's not like a big truck with a long trailer with low ground clearance getting stuck at a crossing where the road slopes before and after the tracks, causing the trailer to scrape the ground and the wheels to lose contact with the ground. Transit buses (including artics) don't have a long enough wheelbase (the bendiness of artics and the extra axle cancel out their increased length) or a low enough ground clearance for this to happen. Not to mention the crossings in question (Steeles Finch East, Finch West YorkU Busway) are generally flat. Wicksteed is a different story.
 
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81-717 said:
Why would an artic get stuck at a rail crossing where a regular bus wouldn't? It's not like a big truck with a long trailer with low ground clearance getting stuck at a crossing where the road slopes before and after the tracks, causing the trailer to scrape the ground and the wheels to lose contact with the ground. Transit buses (including artics) don't have a long enough wheelbase (the bendiness of artics and the extra axle cancel out their increased length) or a low enough ground clearance for this to happen. Not to mention the crossings in question (Steeles Finch East, Finch West YorkU Busway) are generally flat. Wicksteed is a different story.
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It has nothing to do with getting stuck.

There were, however, about a dozen level crossing incidents - things like the gates getting contacted by vehicles, vehicles getting caught under gates, or vehicles operating through crossings with the lights going but before the gates come down - in the space of two weeks this past fall on Finch and the Finch busway, and several of them involved artics. This in part led to the TTC's new rules around operating through level crossings.

It was also decided that it would be helpful to get the artics off of Finch, as being slower to take off than the 40 footers that they would be more susceptible to accidents if an operator is trying to accelerate from a stop at a level crossing (ignoring the fact that the rule above which has just taken affect, and means that buses no longer need to stop at gated level crossings).

Dan
 
On the 38 today and the driver stopped at Midland & Ellesmere to walk into Tims for a cup of coffee - excuse my lack of knowledge as I'm only in Toronto for uni, but is this allowed? It's happened a few times at the exact same place so I thought I'd point it out.
 
kvvoyage said:
On the 38 today and the driver stopped at Midland & Ellesmere to walk into Tims for a cup of coffee - excuse my lack of knowledge as I'm only in Toronto for uni, but is this allowed? It's happened a few times at the exact same place so I thought I'd point it out.
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Sure it happens sometimes if routes do not end at a place with facilities. It was damned cold today, give the operator a break.
 
kvvoyage said:
On the 38 today and the driver stopped at Midland & Ellesmere to walk into Tims for a cup of coffee - excuse my lack of knowledge as I'm only in Toronto for uni, but is this allowed? It's happened a few times at the exact same place so I thought I'd point it out.
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Very common as a lot of routes are long with nothing at either end to get a drink or take a bathroom brake if the washroom is only at one end. On hot days, drivers need to drink more as well refill their water bottle. This happens on other systems as well.

Some driver inform the riders what they are doing before getting off.
 
kvvoyage said:
On the 38 today and the driver stopped at Midland & Ellesmere to walk into Tims for a cup of coffee - excuse my lack of knowledge as I'm only in Toronto for uni, but is this allowed? It's happened a few times at the exact same place so I thought I'd point it out.
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Yes but he is suppose to announce to the bus what he is doing. Not just walk out leaving everyone stranded in the darkness but they often get confronted or stalled with questions, so some avoid saying anything.
 
Apologies for my lack of knowledge and if I sounded like I was complaining, but as Steve was saying I've been walked out upon multiple times absolutely confused about what was going on. Nice to know as it's happened a few times.
 
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reinventingthewheel said:
This happened a couple times to me in Mississauga about 10 years ago, completely unannounced that the route 44 driver was feeling a bit peckish.
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I have it happen to me a number of times in Mississauga on various routes with some drivers informing the riders about the delay while others say nothing. Same on other systems. Yes drivers should inform the riders. It is still common today to see a driver stop off at the Tim's.

The same thing for sitting at stops up to five minutes and this is caused by a number of things. Driver has a lead foot, lack of riders being pickup, most of all, the schedule has been padded because drivers complaining there isn't enough runtime.
 
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