[81-717]

The TTC at this point might as well shut the entire system down.

Line 6 is down (of course it is)
Line 2 is down from Kipling to St George and Woodbine to Kennedy
Line 1 is down from Eglinton to Bloor
Line 1 is also having planned shutdown between St. George and St. Andrew

Why even bother running any trains? Just go home.

I happened to be on Line 2 when they decided to halt all trains at Woodbine. Then rather than have the shuttle busses enter the bus bay, they decided to force everyone OUTSIDE during the blizzard and line up around the block….snow blowing in to everyone faces, freezing…..on top of that no shuttle busses….just one bus every 15 mins. Complete disarray….elderly people struggling, children crying.

I mean why do people i this city put up with this third world system. Heck, there are public transport systems in the third world centuries ahead of Toronto.

Shameful. Took my 4.5 hours to get home…….

Just as I got to the gym this morning, I was informed it'll be closing in 5 mins due to the weather (if only I'd gone an hour earlier). Went all the way there for nothing (only did 1 set to make it at least something). Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.

This is kind of a rare magnitude of snowstorm.

Just like not even a couple weeks ago, universities allegedly shut down for the first time in over 20 years. And this one's worse than the last one, so this would be the second universities shutdown in like 2 weeks!

I hate this shit weather. And I hate the sweltering summer heatwaves too.

 

[PL1]

The TTC at this point might as well shut the entire system down.

Line 6 is down (of course it is)
Line 2 is down from Kipling to St George and Woodbine to Kennedy
Line 1 is down from Eglinton to Bloor
Line 1 is also having planned shutdown between St. George and St. Andrew

Why even bother running any trains? Just go home.

I happened to be on Line 2 when they decided to halt all trains at Woodbine. Then rather than have the shuttle busses enter the bus bay, they decided to force everyone OUTSIDE during the blizzard and line up around the block….snow blowing in to everyone faces, freezing…..on top of that no shuttle busses….just one bus every 15 mins. Complete disarray….elderly people struggling, children crying.

I mean why do people i this city put up with this third world system. Heck, there are public transport systems in the third world centuries ahead of Toronto.

Shameful. Took my 4.5 hours to get home…….

"Record snowfall. What a useless city". Dude, WTF... Criticize when it's needed, but sometimes crap happens

 

[urbanclient]

Just like not even a couple weeks ago, universities allegedly shut down for the first time in over 20 years.

The news likes to hype things up. That was certainly not the first full shut down in 20 years, nor was it the first time university classes were cancelled for a snow day in 20 years.

Someone on St Clair West got 80 cm

There was already 5-15 cm on the ground where I am from the previous January 15th storm and light snow in the days after. I got about 25-30 cm more today. The person reporting 80 cm on St. Clair probably took the highest snow drift they could find, which is not the average for their neighbourhood, much less the city.

More than a half a meter of snow dumped over 18 hours ain’t business as usual anywhere.

For some areas sure, but the city average is not going to be over half a meter of snow. I'd bet it'd be closer to 30 cm. Remember everyone, there was already snow accumulated from before this storm.

Snowfall - Daily data for Toronto

Chart and data: Snowfall - Daily data (2 weeks) for Toronto for Toronto, Ontario, Canada

toronto.weatherstats.ca

The TTC at this point might as well shut the entire system down.

I hate to point out the obvious, but you know what lines and systems had no problem? The fully underground Line 4 Sheppard and the Montreal Metro. Maybe the Quebecois were onto something when they built their metro entirely underground. Then again, Montreal get's a lot more snow. Plus the snow sticks around due to lower temps.

 

[Northern Light]

The news likes to hype things up. That was certainly not the first full shut down in 20 years, nor was it the first time university classes were cancelled for a snow day in 20 years.

There was already 5-15 cm on the ground where I am from the previous January 15th storm and light snow in the days after, I got about 25-30 cm more today. The person reporting 80 cm on St. Clair probably took the highest snow drift they could find, which is not the average for their neighbourhood, much less the city.

For some areas sure, but the city average is not going to be over half a meter of snow. I'd bet it'd be closer to 30 cm. Remember everyone, there was already snow accumulated from before this storm.

Snowfall - Daily data for Toronto

Chart and data: Snowfall - Daily data (2 weeks) for Toronto for Toronto, Ontario, Canada

toronto.weatherstats.ca

I hate to point out the obvious, but you know what lines and systems had no problem? The fully underground Line 4 Sheppard and the Montreal Metro. Maybe the Quebecois were onto something when they built their metro entirely underground. Then again, Montreal get's a lot more snow. Plus the snow sticks around due to lower temps.
View attachment 711087View attachment 711088
View attachment 711089

I can tell you with certainty the average is over 30cm....but yes, 80 seems like either a wild exaggeration or a one hell of a localized fluke.

****

Over in the Olivia Chow thread I will briefly open the floor the floor to guesses on estimated City plowing completion and estimated snow bank removal. I expect this info will be public sometime tomorrow....

 

[JSF-1]

Maybe the Quebecois were onto something when they built their metro entirely underground. Then again, Montreal get's a lot more snow. Plus the snow sticks around due to lower temps.

Or you know its because they use rubber tire trains so they are susceptible to all the same problems cars encounter in weather like this (skidding on snow and ice in the winter, hydroplaning in the rain).

 

[zang]

Just in case anyone was ready to continue dismissing this volume of snow, note that Toronto got the brunt of this storm, and Environment Canada's predictions were nearly spot on.

Toronto City Centre got 56cm; Pearson 46cm.

 

[Northern Light]

Ok.....last night, I was willing to accept the once in a decade snowfall for some of the TTC's extraordinary issues.............but several hours after the snow stopped............this seems excessive:

The buses on roads w/steep hills, sure, I get it......

If they didn't quite get every rail segment finished....sure.

Why are buses running into St. George? There's a turn around at Ossington, and there to St. George there's no outdoor track.

Otherwise, it appears they've been unable to clear even one section of outdoor track. In 8+ hours?

 

[Jonny5]

Ok.....last night, I was willing to accept the once in a decade snowfall for some of the TTC's extraordinary issues.............but several hours after the snow stopped............this seems excessive:

View attachment 711101

The buses on roads w/steep hills, sure, I get it......

If they didn't quite get ever rail segment finished....sure.

Why are buses running into St. George? There's a turn around at Ossington, and there to St. George there's no outdoor track.

Otherwise, it appears they've been unable to clear even one section of outdoor track. In 8+ hours?

My best guess is the shuttles are doing a loop covering Kipling to St. George and then continuing east to Yonge to cover the outage on Line 1 north to Eglinton, then they are turning around and going all the way back to Kipling.

Or it's a typo.

 

[urbanclient]

Or you know its because they use rubber tire trains so they are susceptible to all the same problems cars encounter in weather like this (skidding on snow and ice in the winter, hydroplaning in the rain).

The point is they intentionally made it underground to winterproof the system. Montreal choosing Parisien rubber tire tech had nothing to do with them deciding to make the whole system underground....

"Then again, Montreal get's a lot more snow. Plus the snow sticks around due to lower temps." This is me being an apologist for the TTC.

Places with harsher winters like Moscow, Helsinki, Stockholm, Harbin have much stronger winter hardening relative to their climate.
Toronto has worse winter transit reliability than colder, snowier cities, because its winter hardening is disproportionately weak relative to its climate.

Winter should be the reference condition, not a degraded mode like in Toronto. This applies to everything from the vehicles to the trackside infrastructure.

 

[smallspy]

Why are buses running into St. George? There's a turn around at Ossington, and there to St. George there's no outdoor track.

I believe that the overnight and weekend closures for the past couple of weeks have been due to work on the third track at Ossington.

The point is they intentionally made it underground to winterproof the system. Montreal choosing Parisien rubber tire tech had nothing to do with them deciding to make the whole system underground....

No - they, and specifically Drapeau, intentionally chose rubber tires in order to make the system more Parisien. That then forced the choice to keep the system entirely underground.

Dan

 

[evandyk]

We certainly got over 50 cm at Bloor and Dufferin. We shoveled our walkway twice, and each time it was short of 30 cm, but not that short. With the winds, we have a drift on our balcony that is 114 cm deep.

I went in to the office, of course. No subway issues between Dufferin and downtown, other than minor delays. The PATH was a little bit busier than your usual Friday, but my office is totally dead.

I totally get that yesterday was a giant cluster-F*CK for everybody, including the TTC. But they had all night to get things working. It stopped snowing at 7 p.m. in most of Toronto.

 

[urbanclient]

That then forced the choice to keep the system entirely underground.

Are you absolutely sure conventional wheels would've been >0% not underground?

Perhaps you're more familiar with the logical A->B->C.

Just in case anyone was ready to continue dismissing this volume of snow, note that Toronto got the brunt of this storm, and Environment Canada's predictions were nearly spot on.

Toronto City Centre got 56cm; Pearson 46cm.

I mostly take back what I said about ~30cm.

I am reading comments online that the north got less snow, whereas those closer to the lake go hammered pretty hard 50-60 cm or more in Toronto.

I'm not even sure I got more snow than January 15th TBH, but that could just be a very localized observation. For reference, I got ~30cm on the 15th, which was more than the rest of the city (on average?)

Maybe this map is wildly inaccurate?

 

[txlseries4]

I believe that the overnight and weekend closures for the past couple of weeks have been due to work on the third track at Ossington.


No - they, and specifically Drapeau, intentionally chose rubber tires in order to make the system more Parisien. That then forced the choice to keep the system entirely underground.

Dan

Very anecdotal but yesterday when I got on the subway at Ossington I saw a worker on the tracks walking east into the tunnel, and once on board and the doors closed a prerecorded message played, saying something like “sorry for the slower speed there is track work in this zone”

 

[Northern Light]

I mostly take back what I said about ~30cm.

I am reading comments online that the north got less snow, whereas those closer to the lake go hammered pretty hard 50-60 cm or more in Toronto.

I'm not even sure I got more snow than January 15th TBH, but that could just be a very localized observation. For reference, I got ~30cm on the 15th, which was more than the rest of the city (on average?)

Maybe this map is wildly inaccurate?
View attachment 711115

46cm at Pearson recorded

56cm at Billy Bishop.

 

[evandyk]

56 at Queens Park as well, which suggests that a large swathe of downtown Toronto got that. That looks right for our place. I have no idea where all the snow on the parking side of the street, or in the laneway, will go. I doubt I'll be able to get my car out for a few days.