[Northern Light]

Conveniently, there's a website for that.

Toronto Transit Commission Rail Workcars - CPTDB Wiki (Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board)

The rollingstock in question from the page above:

Question of Dan: Are these adequate to purpose? That is to say, if a major snow even began late on Sunday, is this equipment sufficient to ensure Rush Hour service on Monday morning rolls out on schedule?

Historically, the TTC also cleared the tracks on any of its own routes, even when the tracks were located in a street - and so they had a decent sized fleet of plows and brush-equipped sweepers. This ended around 1973 or so.

Further question, should Dan humour me...........

Would there be any benefit to the TTC in having it resume this function? Could it do so any better/faster than City / contract crews?

***

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[Richard White]

Would there be any benefit to the TTC in having it resume this function? Could it do so any better/faster than City / contract crews?

I suspect it would need to be combined with the ability to immediately ticket and tow in order to be effective. You can plow the snow but if someone is parked in the curb lane or alongside a snowbank where will it go?

 

[T3G]

I suspect it would need to be combined with the ability to immediately ticket and tow in order to be effective. You can plow the snow but if someone is parked in the curb lane or alongside a snowbank where will it go?

Burying the car might be a rather effective way to scare people off from behaving like pricks in the future.......

 

[Kyle Campbell]

I suspect it would need to be combined with the ability to immediately ticket and tow in order to be effective. You can plow the snow but if someone is parked in the curb lane or alongside a snowbank where will it go?

I don't think that would require any new powers, they'd have a direct line to bylaw just like the city crews.

 

[rbt]

It's not usually. The snowblowers listed on the above page are equipped with rotating brushes that are designed to clean off the third rail.

Interesting. I've seen them shovelling Line 1 from the Imperial Street bridge, not far north of Davisville station, and assumed that was just the standard way of doing things. I guess it was because of the switches through that section.

 

[chrisw]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TorontoDriving/s/cyyYPpjfZf

5 stopped buses on hill, video at 2x speed.

 

[DSCToronto]

According to BlogTO (yes, I know - but there is a photo!), the TTC are preparing for the opening of lines 5 and 6 by putting stickers on bus stops about the replacemet buses used when/if they break down. SEE https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/02/new-signs-delayed-toronto-lrt-opening-soon/

It is somewhat typical of the TTC that they are ahead of themselves on this but changing regular stop information as routes change is never up to date. For example, all the stops on Wellington and York are still marked as stops as serving the 501 (only). Of course, that diversion ceased early last November and the 503 returned to its old route - still no mention of the 503 at the stops after 4 months!

 

[JBR]

According to BlogTO (yes, I know - but there is a photo!), the TTC are preparing for the opening of lines 5 and 6 by putting stickers on bus stops about the replacemet buses used when/if they break down. SEE https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/02/new-signs-delayed-toronto-lrt-opening-soon/

View attachment 633571

It is somewhat typical of the TTC that they are ahead of themselves on this but changing regular stop information as routes change is never up to date. For example, all the stops on Wellington and York are still marked as stops as serving the 501 (only). Of course, that diversion ceased early last November and the 503 returned to its old route - still no mention of the 503 at the stops after 4 months!

Eglinton and Finch LRT operator sign ups are taking place in March. Typically when opening a new line TTC does a minimum 3 board test phase/mock service. No opening date has been announced.

 

[smallspy]

So each T1 pair would also be separated to use the transfer tables?

Correct.

What about the TRs? In that case, what limits line 2 cars (both current and upcoming) to having to be 2-car sets specifically?

2 cars has always been the building block that the system has been built on - at least until the TRs. Consider that in the early years of the system that off-peak service was run with 4-car trains. Or that many versions of the DRL were to be equipped with 4-car trains of the then-existing H- and T- stock. The Sheppard line is still using 4-car trains.

Because of that, many of the areas in Greenwood, Davisville and Wilson prior to the expansion were designed around 2 car pairs. Storage, cleaning, maintenance - everything.

The rollingstock in question from the page above:

View attachment 633467

Question of Dan: Are these adequate to purpose? That is to say, if a major snow even began late on Sunday, is this equipment sufficient to ensure Rush Hour service on Monday morning rolls out on schedule?

I don't know much about the equipment, but my first inclination considering what we've seen happen over the past several weeks is that they aren't. Or, possibly more likely, is that the equipment is in no condition to perform the tasks required of it right now.

Further question, should Dan humour me...........

Would there be any benefit to the TTC in having it resume this function? Could it do so any better/faster than City / contract crews?

I don't think that there'd be any benefit to it. The City has a priority list of streets to be plowed and at what point and major transit routes are very high up there, behind only the expressways.

And unfortunately, I think Richard's also on point here - a road-based plow can at least avoid any vehicles that may not be parked fully against the curb. A rail-based one is subject to the same set of issues as any rail-based vehicle is.

According to BlogTO (yes, I know - but there is a photo!), the TTC are preparing for the opening of lines 5 and 6 by putting stickers on bus stops about the replacemet buses used when/if they break down. SEE https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/02/new-signs-delayed-toronto-lrt-opening-soon/

View attachment 633571

It is somewhat typical of the TTC that they are ahead of themselves on this but changing regular stop information as routes change is never up to date. For example, all the stops on Wellington and York are still marked as stops as serving the 501 (only). Of course, that diversion ceased early last November and the 503 returned to its old route - still no mention of the 503 at the stops after 4 months!

They've been putting up the new stickers since December.

With a couple of thousand stops that need to be changed, they can't well do them all overnight, right?

Dan

 

[Richard White]

And unfortunately, I think Richard's also on point here - a road-based plow can at least avoid any vehicles that may not be parked fully against the curb. A rail-based one is subject to the same set of issues as any rail-based vehicle is.

Ouch.

 

[crs1026]

I don't think that there'd be any benefit to it. The City has a priority list of streets to be plowed and at what point and major transit routes are very high up there, behind only the expressways.

As of yesterday I encountered bus stops where only the narrow path to the front door had been cleared, the path to the rear exist doors was trampled but had never been cleared. And "cleared" meant shovelled once, leaving an inch or so of snow or slush which was clearly about to freeze as the temperatures dropped. And all the spaces in between - around shelters, benches etc - never touched.

While I would leave "plowing" to the city's priority list, there needs to be more dedicated clearing of the areas around bus stops on all routes. This may have to wait until the plows have moved the snow to the roadside - no point in clearing the stop only to have the plows fill in again - but it has indeed been enough days since the last major snowfall to expect all stops on the system to be "open for business"..

- Paul

 

[evandyk]

As of yesterday I encountered bus stops where only the narrow path to the front door had been cleared, the path to the rear exist doors was trampled but had never been cleared. And "cleared" meant shovelled once, leaving an inch or so of snow or slush which was clearly about to freeze as the temperatures dropped. And all the spaces in between - around shelters, benches etc - never touched.

While I would leave "plowing" to the city's priority list, there needs to be more dedicated clearing of the areas around bus stops on all routes. This may have to wait until the plows have moved the snow to the roadside - no point in clearing the stop only to have the plows fill in again - but it has indeed been enough days since the last major snowfall to expect all stops on the system to be "open for business"..

- Paul

This was true even of the streetcar stops at Bay and King for the entire week following the storm.

 

[smallspy]

As of yesterday I encountered bus stops where only the narrow path to the front door had been cleared, the path to the rear exist doors was trampled but had never been cleared. And "cleared" meant shovelled once, leaving an inch or so of snow or slush which was clearly about to freeze as the temperatures dropped. And all the spaces in between - around shelters, benches etc - never touched.

While I would leave "plowing" to the city's priority list, there needs to be more dedicated clearing of the areas around bus stops on all routes. This may have to wait until the plows have moved the snow to the roadside - no point in clearing the stop only to have the plows fill in again - but it has indeed been enough days since the last major snowfall to expect all stops on the system to be "open for business"..

- Paul

While the City has done a very good job of clearing the roadways, and a decent-to-good job of clearing the sidewalks, they have done a far worse job of bus stops and intersections. At least they have caught up with the intersections, but a with so many of the bus stops not being done properly it really feels as if they've given up.

Which is interesting, as they did a very good job after the very first snowstorm that we had this winter. I noted that even before the snow had stopped falling that they'd cleared the full length of the bus stops in many locations in mid-town and Scarborough.

Dan

 

[Steve X]

The problem is they plough the sidewalks first (which is in theory good) but then the road ploughs created all the snowbanks blocking all the intersections. Plus some of the sidewalk ploughing was rushed leaving tire tracks with half a foot of snow. Many major roads still have snow blocking half the curb lane slowing down buses and creating traffic. They really need some accountability.

 

[nfitz]

While the City has done a very good job of clearing the roadways, and a decent-to-good job of clearing the sidewalks ...

Not in my district. There are still streets here that are waiting for the first pass of the sidewalk plow, almost 2 weeks after the storm. Most people have shovelled, and even those that only dug a narrow path have had it widen sufficiently with the melt (perhaps not for a wheelchair). But there's still treacherous spots out there, that are only going to get worse now the temperature drops.

I was following PlowTO in the first week after the storm, and most of the sidewalk plows never left the yards at Eastern. (good grief, I just checked now, and 4 to 8 hours ago, they seem to have covered all our street again, EXCEPT the icy treacherous block I was walking on).

I did see one city crew digging out stops, while they were snow blowing the banks on Woodbine - but on Gerrard I saw residents digging them out 10 days after the storm.