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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
T3G
Senior Member
What, like the bus network is any more reliable??? They may have better on time performance, but they're just as vulnerable to traffic and bunching up...
generalcanada
Senior Member
Mihairokov
Senior Member
Anyone who ever used the old transitway in Ottawa can attest to buses being great until they meet enough traffic and other buses.
An easy solution to have the streetcars become more reliable and quicker is to simply remove cars from in-and-around downtown sites during World Cup. It's not as if the hundreds of thousands of soccer fans coming to Toronto are going to be driving here. King cars have no issues making good time despite red lights because they're not sitting waiting for cars ahead of them (usually).
Most people coming here from abroad are going to be used to walking in urban areas. The walk from King down to BMO through Exhibition GO is not a long one.
T3G
Senior Member
I would sooner assume it's because many of the bus drivers drive like maniacs, and don't give a fig about comfort, or, in most cases, their schedule either. If you leave the terminal 10 minutes early and hit a 10 minute traffic jam halfway down the line, of course your on time metrics are going to look better.
Amare
Senior Member
Sorry to say this, but I wouldnt mind having hundreds of tourists walking out on the streets on Lake Shore, Queens Quay, etc in the middle of some rain storm in the summer because of this city's traffic mess, and the mess that is the TTC.
It seems like embarrassment is the only way that forces the city and TTC do get their collectives heads out of their @)$$(* to make significant changes to transit in this city. Asides from that, the politicians and transit officials are pretty much asleep at the wheel not doing a lick of anything to improve operations.
Actually having tourists come into the city presents great opportunities at publicly embarrassing the TTC into doing the following:
^It's sad that I just to do the job of a group of people who are actively getting paid to run the TTC, but yet these same people are sitting on their hands twiddling their hands and not doing a damn thing to change/improve the TTC. All the above points require very little/next to no amount of capital $ to make.
It seems like embarrassment is the only way that forces the city and TTC do get their collectives heads out of their @)$$(* to make significant changes to transit in this city. Asides from that, the politicians and transit officials are pretty much asleep at the wheel not doing a lick of anything to improve operations.
Actually having tourists come into the city presents great opportunities at publicly embarrassing the TTC into doing the following:
1) Ridding the TTC of their idiotic 10km/hr streetcar special trackwork rule
2) Ridding the TTC of their 20km/hr signalized intersection rule
3) Ridding the TTC of stop/proceed streetcar operating rules
4) Ridding the TTC of the 10km/hr streetcar rule under bridges and low overhead clearance areas
5) Removing outstanding speed restricted zones that are in place for no reason (ie: Queen's Quay streetcar portal @ Bay St)
6) Upgrading the damn streetcar switching network
7) Updating ATC on the Yonge-University line so trains stop faster, and travel through certain stretches of track faster
8) Firmly implementing policies (ie: not short turning) which regularly space out buses, to not have them run in packs
^It's sad that I just to do the job of a group of people who are actively getting paid to run the TTC, but yet these same people are sitting on their hands twiddling their hands and not doing a damn thing to change/improve the TTC. All the above points require very little/next to no amount of capital $ to make.
DSCToronto
Superstar
Not sure why having tourists embarrass the TTC is likely to be anymore effective than citizens (taxpayers) or local politicians embrrassing them ourselves. Of course, the real problem is that they seem impervious to shame!
Northern Light
Superstar
A whole slew of you seemingly commented on this piece:
https://globalnews.ca/news/11661819/toronto-world-cup-streetcar-plan/ that DRUM posted.....
But apparently didn't bother to read it first....... sigh.
The primary focus was that they were looking at subway-style scheduling on Bathurst and Spadina in particular, (every 4M or less) and did they have everything in place to do that, to move the large crowds. They have the vehicles, they have the operators...........what the story discusses is that there are power grid issues on Bathurst.
From the above:
And (quoting Josh Colle)
So 4 flexities sitting in one power block would cause............???
Lets hear from @smallspy on that.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11661819/toronto-world-cup-streetcar-plan/ that DRUM posted.....
But apparently didn't bother to read it first....... sigh.
The primary focus was that they were looking at subway-style scheduling on Bathurst and Spadina in particular, (every 4M or less) and did they have everything in place to do that, to move the large crowds. They have the vehicles, they have the operators...........what the story discusses is that there are power grid issues on Bathurst.
From the above:
And (quoting Josh Colle)
So 4 flexities sitting in one power block would cause............???
Lets hear from @smallspy on that.
DSCToronto
Superstar
I seem to remember they had a power grid problem on Bathurst last year when they tried to send too many diversions along it last year.
evandyk
Senior Member
I remember this because my wife, who does not pay attention to this stuff, listened to the news one day and was like "You mean the TTC doesn't know how much electricity it needs for the streetcars it's running?!?!?!?!"
evandyk
Senior Member
Sauga89
Active Member
Also,
Where are these vehicles and drivers coming from? Are they planning on paying drivers overtime? Pulling vehicles from other routes? Deferring maintenance to have every vehicle available?
(EDIT: Some of the games are in rush hour, so I doubt the answer is just running peak service at non-peak times.)
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Northern Light
Superstar
I can't speak to how many operators are trained to drive streetcars who are surplus to routine service needs; but there is spare fleet, even in rush hours, The TTC is quite capable of fielding an extra two dozen for FIFA, in rush hours. (from a fleet perspective).
I believe they do have some wiggle room in terms of operators available, overall, because, in theory, they should have saved several operating positions with the opening of Lines 5 and 6. But how many of these are available to work streetcars I don't know. Current, near constant shuttle buses for Line 6 will also be eating into the surplus.
PL1
Senior Member
I guess swapping the fuse with a couple of pennies won't work /s
Amare
Senior Member
It seems to embarrass them enough, because they either barely look into resolving issues with the network unless there is a big influx of people who come into the city.
One illustration is the overhead power upgrades along Queens Quay in late 2024 during the Taylor Swift concert, which made the TTC get their heads out of the gutter to ensure they could at least restore 509 service ASAP to accommodate all the influx of people coming into the city. I can assure you that had it not been for that, they would've dragged the project longer.
TTC says 509 Harbourfront streetcar work won't impact Taylor Swift concerts
Buses are set to replace the 509 Harbourfront streetcar between Union Station and Exhibition Place starting Sept. 3.
toronto.citynews.ca
Another perfect illustration is what @Northern Light points out below. Apparently (to my knowledge) it's only now that the TTC evaluating capacity limits of the overhead along Bathurst. From the sounds of it, this is something they were not looking into before and the World Cup has them spinning their wheels.