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Bloor Station - New Crowd Control Measures

EFSF Jaburo said:
you wouldn't need to emphasize safety if you had PSDs
Plus, you'll need ATC before you can install PSD which will take forever for the TTC.
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you mean Auto-Train Control? I've forgotten saying this before mentioning about PSD.

Plus I don't think anyone in TTC board might even think about TVM.
 
you wouldn't need to emphasize safety if you had PSDs
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Hong Kong's MTR has PSDs and platform attendants (during rush hour). They're mostly there to stop people from blocking the doors.

3336012915_786c90a89d_b.jpg
 
Ugh... Even though they're raise safety, Platform doors sure are hideous.... even though ones that are half the height of the ones pictured above.

I guess I'd rather give up safety than looks when it comes to Platform doors..
 
I saw the setup on the Bloor platform on my way downtown this morning, and I wasn't impressed at all. TTC staff standing behind caution tape, safety cones, and a myriad of foam board signs.

Looks more like a picket line than a "crowd control measure", and I bet the unionized workers have some experience with that. Just missing the oil drum with burning firewood and the coffees in hand.
 
I experienced it this morning; and frankly, I found it to be more of a disaster than what it meant to remedy--the lack of available platform circulation space doesn't help matters; but, really. Herding the commuters like slow-moving cattle and turning it into a waiting-for-a-CN-Tower-elevator affair? That's ridiculous.

And to be honest, the general mass of commuters is at fault, too; doesn't anyone know how to move forward? Why are they obligated to just shuffle along, especially in pressure-cooker situations like this? Get some momentum going on behalf of everyone else...
 
I didn't think it was too bad - if it continues the way it was today (lately) I don't think it's worth it though.
 
Having ushers doesn't solve the problem when the fundamental bottlenecks and crowd control techniques are not employed.

The major reason why it takes so long to board isn't so much because there are too many people. It's how people line up and get into the train. First of all, mark the floors with lines showing where the doors will open. The trains are supposed to stop at around the same spot when they pull into the station. I recall there are signs underneath the platform that the driver will see mark where to stop. Once the lines are shown, people will line up orderly and board far quicker. Now, a whole mass of people rush along the platform edge to the nearest door, creating much chaos and delays.

Once people start lining up, exiting passengers will not have to fight through a big glob of humanity to leave the train, and incoming passengers can quickly board. Once the lines get too long, people will automatically move to the back of the train, which is where the ushers can come in to help.

It would also help if the trains are interconnected as well. Then the crowds can even themselves out within as it moves out of the station.
 
They also use those colored round panels on the walls, trains always stop on the red Panel.

we'll have interconnected trains very soon :D
 
hkskyline said:
Having ushers doesn't solve the problem when the fundamental bottlenecks and crowd control techniques are not employed.

The major reason why it takes so long to board isn't so much because there are too many people. It's how people line up and get into the train. First of all, mark the floors with lines showing where the doors will open. The trains are supposed to stop at around the same spot when they pull into the station. I recall there are signs underneath the platform that the driver will see mark where to stop. Once the lines are shown, people will line up orderly and board far quicker. Now, a whole mass of people rush along the platform edge to the nearest door, creating much chaos and delays.

Once people start lining up, exiting passengers will not have to fight through a big glob of humanity to leave the train, and incoming passengers can quickly board. Once the lines get too long, people will automatically move to the back of the train, which is where the ushers can come in to help.

It would also help if the trains are interconnected as well. Then the crowds can even themselves out within as it moves out of the station.
Click to expand...

The new rocket solves problem #2

and as for markings on platforms, TTC trains seem to stop wherever they feel like depending on the conductor's mood.
 
Steve Munro has a long article about his observations of the experiment:

http://stevemunro.ca/?p=2924

Generally very positive, and early indications are that they have squeezed in up to 10 to 15% more trains through the station because of experiment. That's more capacity than adding the 7th car would give them, for a lot less money!
 
Although I wrote that I wasn't too impressed with the setup of the crowd control measures, I think the idea of spreading passengers out evenly along the platform is something that is needed at other station in the system.

Other stations where this could be used...

1. Dundas and Queen stations, to move passengers away from the turnstiles and toward the ends of the northbound platform.

2. Sheppard-Yonge Station (Sheppard subway) - encourage passengers to move away from the stairs from the YUS platform, to the west end of the platform and board the last two cars of eastbound trains, which are usually less crowded than the first two.

3. Kennedy Station (Scarborough RT) - get passengers to move to the west end of the platform and board the last car on the train.

4. Scarborough Centre - move passengers to the west end of the narrow westbound platform, away from the stairs and escalators that everybody uses to get between the trains and the main station entrance (GO Bus terminal, Scarborough Town Centre, Civic Centre) and the bus platform.
 
The problem I can foresee with Dundas, Queen, King, etc is that the platforms are pretty narrow... if you split the boarding and disembarking passenger flows it'd be single file in each direction.
 
Where people board and disembark the trains depends greatly on where they're located in relation to the nearest exit point at their end-point stop. Crowd control at one station means nothing if someone's forced to then backtrack from one end of the platform to the other when they arrive at their stop. The only solution I forsee is the introduction of walk through access articulated trainsets (already in the works) whereby passenger loads can be evenly distributed once aboard the trains. For someone in a hurry dashing up the stairs at B-Y to see that their train has already arrived at the platform, they will want to board as quickly as possible lest get left behind. No manner of ushers will change that way of thinking.
 
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