Ttc... ORDERED BACK TO WORK

[Ms. Fit]

i also understood that there's a problem northbound at summerhill - so even the yonge line between st george and yonge/bloor (the horseshoe) was really slow.

ya that was slightly irritating.

also, why was the college street car so slow going eastbound yesterday afternoon?

i was at college and clinton when i saw 11....ELEVEN streetcars go by westbound (4 of which were bumper to bumper) before a a streetcar came eastbound. this was around 3pm.

 

[billy]

jeez, apparently there were 2 other "passenger injury at track level"s yesterday at coxwell and st. clair station.

the problems north of summerhill could be realated to signal problems experienced yesterday around that section.

 

[JESuX]

all i can tell you with a great deal of certainty, is that there was no power on the bloor/danforth line on either side, around 8:35am. i'm not sure if that's related to an injury at track level, but i'd doubt it. it seemed more like a mechanical/power issue.

 

[billy]

it's not uncommon to have the power cut when someone jumps or is on track level for whatever reason.

 

[Boss Hog]

ya too me an extra hour today. Honestly these shut downs at rush hour are getting a bit ridiculous.

 

[sugar]

It's taken me 45mins to get from Queen to Finch the past week (normally it's about 25mins) due to track repairs between Summerhill and Lawrence. It's driving me crazy.

 

[JESuX]

ya too me an extra hour today. Honestly these shut downs at rush hour are getting a bit ridiculous.

i used to walk to and from work, every day, for the past year and a half. since i moved, my stress level is through the roof every morning. it's gotten to the point where i'd rather walk home nearly an hour every day rather than deal with the BS on the subway.

if i try to get on at dundas station northbound anywhere from 5 to 5:15pm, GUARANTEED i'm waiting for at least four or five packed trains to go by before someone makes an inch for me to squeeze on, just to get to bloor.

i get home at almost the same time if i walk, vs taking transit.

 

[Boss Hog]

clearly the TTC has undergone some growth problems in the recent years. I don't remember being it as bad as this 3 or 4 years ago.

I hope they figure out how to deal with it SOON. Or else come winter when everyone is taking TTC again this is going to be shit.

 

[Bryce]

Im so glad I walk the 10min's to work everyday.

 

[MissBlu]

I dont get stuck in the morning to often as I am at work early...

But when the TTC is delayed due to a jumper, I just tell myself that I am doing much better then the jumper, driver, or anyone else who witnessed it.

Someone jumping is not a TTC growing problem.

 

[MoFo]

It took me 2 hours to get to work this morning.

Shuttle buses are leaving from Keele and St. George.

Is Bloor back up again?

Also, no streetcars on Queens Quay.

 

[Boss Hog]

I dont get stuck in the morning to often as I am at work early...

But when the TTC is delayed due to a jumper, I just tell myself that I am doing much better then the jumper, driver, or anyone else who witnessed it.

Someone jumping is not a TTC growing problem.

Actually the consistent overcrowding of streetcars, trains and buses and the people left standing there for the next 3 or 4 vehicles would indicate a growth problem despite the delays.

 

[JESuX]

clearly the TTC has undergone some growth problems in the recent years. I don't remember being it as bad as this 3 or 4 years ago.

I hope they figure out how to deal with it SOON. Or else come winter when everyone is taking TTC again this is going to be shit.

it's not really a new issue... it depends on which line/branch/route you take, really.

the queen streetcar, in my experience, along with the king and college streetcar, dufferin bus etc. have always been borderline intolerable with thier packed cars, and completely unreliable/sporadic arrivals.

it wouldn't be so much of an issue if there was some consistency. if you knew that the streetcar was consistently late, or took a while (or even the subway for that matter) you would be able to properly time when you'd need to leave the house. unfortunately, what i've found is that if you leave on time, you're always late regardless. if you leave late, you get there at the same time as if you left on time, and if you leave early, you're occassionally still going to get there late.

then there are other times when you buffer yourself, leave nice and early in case of a delay, and end up arriving at your destination fuck-early because you actually caught the ttc on a good day.

anyway, yeah, there are peak times and routes all over the city where it's an absolute test of patience to take transit. given the recent condo boom, and the bazillion* new residents in the core, i have no idea if the ttc even has a plan in place to accomodate them.

*actual statistic!

 

[billy]

if i try to get on at dundas station northbound anywhere from 5 to 5:15pm, GUARANTEED i'm waiting for at least four or five packed trains to go by before someone makes an inch for me to squeeze on, just to get to bloor.

true, but the section between dundas and bloor always has packed trains. maybe not as bad as it is during rush hour but usually a tight squeeze. i take 2 subways (and a bus) to get home. i know when i travel between st.george and woodbine i am most likely not going to get a seat.

the trick on the yonge northbound line south of bloor is to wait for the last car of the train. everyone wants to get on the top cars because they know the stairs out and to the BD line are at the top of the platform.

really, there isn't much they can do about it. they can't add more trains since for safety purposes there must be a certain amount of space between one train and the next. since the gaps between those particular stations is fairly short it leaves even less space for extra trains.

 

[billy]

the queen streetcar, in my experience, along with the king and college streetcar, dufferin bus etc. have always been borderline intolerable with thier packed cars, and completely unreliable/sporadic arrivals.

keep in mind that these are all downtown routes. the streetcars are battling against taxi's, delivery trucks, general traffic, emergency vehicles AND they can only go where the track takes them.

you may have read in the paper a few months ago that the TTC and the city plan to run a test on king west for a few months making a section of it almost car free.

 

[octo]

for fucks sake

how does a medical emergency shut down service between ossignton and chester?

then the power went out at spagina

then there's no service between keele and chester. what the shit is going on?

i had to be at presentation this morning at 9. when i realised i had to take a shuttle bus i got out of the subway and chilled out at a starsbucks with other digruntled commuters.

i'm back home

 

[Beer babe]

thanks Alex!

 

[JESuX]

keep in mind that these are all downtown routes. the streetcars are battling against taxi's, delivery trucks, general traffic, emergency vehicles AND they can only go where the track takes them.

you may have read in the paper a few months ago that the TTC and the city plan to run a test on king west for a few months making a section of it almost car free.

oh, there's always an excuse as to why service is shitty... the issue being that it's only going to get worse as the population increases and there's seemingly nothing they can do about improving service.

 

[SlipperyPete]

they can't add more trains since for safety purposes there must be a certain amount of space between one train and the next. since the gaps between those particular stations is fairly short it leaves even less space for extra trains.

Right now, the signalling system in place on the subways is a fixed-interval system. That is, the tracks have zones; if you're a subway driver leaving one zone and entering the next, and there is another train in that zone ahead of you, the signal will automatically be red until the train in front of that train has cleared that zone.

Other cities use a variable-interval system, that is facilitated by computers (and probably the internets). Basically, each train is computer-operated, and is aware of where trains in front and behind it are; with that knowledge, trains could run closer together, adding capacity to put more trains on the tracks.

A major hurdle for this is the fact that trains currently run with two TTC staff on board; one driver and one door-operator. Implementing computer-controlled subways would put 50% of subway operators out of a job, something the union obviously opposes fiercely. Despite the cost of implementing such a system, savings would be realized by not having to pay such a volume of staff.

I read an article about this in Spacing last year....I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[octo]

thanks Alex!

thanks for what? merging a new thread about something that just happend, with an old multi page thread?

if i would have checked the board after the merge and seen this thread i wouldn't have gone to the trouble of sifting through an old thread to see if the new posts had any relevancy.

meanwhile there's another thread about what happened this morning down the page.

bah

i'm in such a bad mood

 

[billy]

I read an article about this in Spacing last year....I'll see if I can dig it up.

i look forward to reading it.

 

[Beer babe]

thanks for what? merging a new thread about something that just happend, with an old multi page thread?

if i would have checked the board after the merge and seen this thread i wouldn't have gone to the trouble of sifting through an old thread to see if the new posts had any relevancy.

meanwhile there's another thread about what happened this morning down the page.

bah

i'm in such a bad mood

crankypants! this thread was made so we WOULDN'T have a million other threads...you'd get all your info in one spot.

crawl back into bed and and have some more snoozies. that'll help ya!

 

[MoFo]

Parts of St. Clair West Station is closed btw. Subway is accessed through Metropass turnstiles (w/ staff watching) and streetcars are again being boarded on the street.

 

[sweetbabu]

I didn't know what was going on this morning.
Got off the northbound university line to switch to eastbound bloor line at St. George. When I got to the bottom of the stairs the eastbound train had no power and was just sitting there while the announcement said that eastbound trains are leaving from the westbound platform. I made sure the next station was Bay just cuz I didn't trust it.

 

[SlipperyPete]

i look forward to reading it.

I was wrong; it was on Steve Munro's site

http://www.stevemunro.ca/?p=264


Another great site:
http://transit.toronto.on.ca/index.shtml