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Is Hume right?

OMG, I agree with a Hume column for the first time ever, I just caught a chill, was that Hell freezing over?

The TTC's problems have nothing to do with funding sources or congestion or anything else other than management constipation that doesn't see the need for change to address the fact that it is no longer 1946 out there.

Operators drive a route to suit themselves and management allows them to do so. How else to explain the wagon trains of 3 or more busses or streetcars nose to tail in none rush hour or weekend situations? You don't have to seek out this aberration, it is everywhere all day long. Fixing this is easy, allowing a few heads to roll has a salutary effect.
 
For all those that think the TTC sucks ... I dare you ... compare the suburban bus network to most other cities in North America ... its one of the best even with the reliability issues !

Downtown, I agree sucks ... the service is there, but the streetcar routes just can't handle the ridership as it is today.


The article is silly, its comes off as if he just came to this revelation today, while the TTC has suffered from the problems cites for years n
 
denfromoakvillemilton said:
Yes. That's another thing. This was considered to be among the top class even in the Lastman era. TTC was seen as the best. It' seems since about 2001 the TTC has gone downhill, maybe its because Toronto grew so fast, I don't know.
Click to expand...

Funding was cut. Expansion stopped. Thats what happened. It's an unfortunate situation.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Funding was cut. Expansion stopped. Thats what happened. It's an unfortunate situation.
Click to expand...

Well, that's kind of a banal answer. The more relevant question is: "why was funding cut?"; "why did expansion stop?" These are deep, meaningful questions. In the 1970s, the TTC was the pride of Metro Toronto - our showcase to the world, and something we spent a lot of money continuously improving and striving to be at the forefront of. Telling somebody in 1977 that the TTC would be cut and expansion would essentially stop for 30 years would be like finding out that Canada won't be sending a men's hockey team to Sochi in 2014. It would be perceived to be just such a wound to our pride and so out of step with our culture.
 
The TTC is an absolute embarrassment. Toronto is a massively wealthy city with a third world transit system. It's shameful and I appreciate the rhetoric from Hume.
 
Apparently, it was politics.

Subways Become a Political Hot Potato.

`North York Mayor Mel Lastman says the (Sheppard) route should be rejected because it would spell an end to many of the quiet, residential neighbourhoods lining Sheppard Avenue. Instead, he says, Metro should ease traffic congestion for commuters heading downtown by building a transit line next to the Don Valley Parkway.'

- Ross Laver
reporting on the political voices surrounding the rapid transit debate... in 1982.

Even before the TTC released its Network 2011 plan in 1985, these rapid-transit proposals were at the centre of significant political controversy. The Sheppard and Downtown proposals actually started appearing in 1982. The Downtown line was criticized for "focusing development pressure on the core (which) would violate Metro's strategy of decentralizing office growth and throw a wrench into North York's plan for a satellite downtown of office towers and high-rise housing in the Yonge Street-Sheppard Avenue Area". Even the technology caused controversy. With initial plans calling for the Sheppard and Downtown lines to be handled by ICTS vehicles, early reports of ICTS technical problems prompted suggestions that the proposals be delayed until after the Scarborough RT was opened and an assessment made of its strengths and weaknesses.
Click to expand...

A very interesting read.

As for agreeing with Hume, which I never do because he is uncritically into density and height without thinking of infrastructure, I am not impressed with him here either because this column reads like a quick toss after today's subway delay. He takes no responsibility for all his previous pronouncements on density without infrastructure support.
 
The TTC isn't perfect but for the vast majority of time it gets me where I want to go on time. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is. Byford has been great in addressing riders' issues but it also takes time for change to take hold. I don't remember former General Managers taking it upon themselves to give a public apology. It doesn't feel right to use today's unusually long delay on a major route to argue that the system is as broken as Hume states. It also doesn't help that the lack of alternate routes downtown means that one mess up on Yonge can screw over hundreds of thousands.
 
Lets take a look at the expansion projects of the time. The last major project that came in quick succession was the spadina extension, running from St. George to Wilson in 1978. We then got 2 minor extensions in 1980 with the B-D line getting extended one station in each direction from warden to Kennedy and Islington to Kipling. With the RT in 1985, Downsview in 1996, and Sheppard in 2002, we get to today. We are currently in the middle of the longest period without rapid transit expansion, which is 14 years. (Of course it will start to come in quick succession after that)

What caused this? Who knows. One could blame the rise of the automobile, the newfound dominance of the suburbs in the Metro government, or the Premier at the time. Premier can be partially discounted as we all know about the grand network 2011 plan, which essentially formed the backbone of transit planning until 2006, but lacked funding. The debt crisis of the 1990's might explain the problem a bit, but many other things also do.

Really, I think transit failed from a death of a thousand cuts. When something got proposed, there was no money. When there was money, there was no plan.

I like to believe we are re-entering the golden age of transit expansion though, with 20km of RT coming online in the next 7 years (and much more LRT and BRT), and possibly another 20km down the road (or, erhm, tracks) if the transit tax gets approved. Our system is being modernized, and billions being sunk in to dig ourselves out of the hole we have made. When the dust settles in 2020, the city will be transformed, and I am hoping the dust never settles. The current projects barely make up for our stagnant transit growth, but to continue with our network expansion and to build a truly great transit network we need to keep the funding flowing and the shovels in the ground. I hope we never again drop below yearly openings of transit expansion, (which begins this year BTW with several BRT openings) and that transit in the GTA has a bright future. (And it does if things keep going the way they are going)
 
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Remember, folks, that Hume's piece was in part triggered by some catastrophically unexplained signal failure on the Yonge line this morning--that is, the commuter's version of Rogers internet going down for hours at a time. And compounded by a perfect negative storm of other issues: track reconstruction on Queen across from City Hall, a colligion on Bay beneath the Gardiner that led to further domino traffic disruptions, etc...
 
innsertnamehere said:
I like to believe we are re-entering the golden age of transit expansion though, with 20km of RT coming online in the next 7 years (and much more LRT and BRT), and possibly another 20km down the road (or, erhm, tracks) if the transit tax gets approved. Our system is being modernized, and billions being sunk in to dig ourselves out of the hole we have made. When the dust settles in 2020, the city will be transformed, and I am hoping the dust never settles. The current projects barely make up for our stagnant transit growth, but to continue with our network expansion and to build a truly great transit network we need to keep the funding flowing and the shovels in the ground. I hope we never again drop below yearly openings of transit expansion, (which begins this year BTW with several BRT openings) and that transit in the GTA has a bright future. (And it does if things keep going the way they are going)
Click to expand...

Unless the Conservatives somehow get in power. They'll cancel every useful, badly needed transit project south of Steeles.
 
Is the TTC awful?.................of course not. The service is frequent, the system safe, and has very good night service compared to most other cities.

For Toronto the issue is not so much money as how it's spent. The province is spending $9 billion yet the amount of rapid transit getting built is shockingly small. The TTC and Metrolinx refuse to take advantage of already existing rail, road, and hydro corridors for reasons no one can explain. The hydro corridors are BRT waiting to happen but instead the TTC wants non-rapid LRT at many times the price and far longer and more disruptive to build.

When I go back to Toronto it always deresses me how the city has almost exactly the same subway map as it did when I was in university in the mid 80s. Now you compare that to Vancouver which has gone full speed ahead with SkyTrain with 70km of new line in less than 30 years and it is faster, more reliable, and cheaper to run. They don't pay someone $40/hr to make sure the door close all by themselves. For the TTC manderines who call it a safety measure I can only assume they have never taken an elevator.

I just got back from Mexico City {I had a wonderful time} and there is a city that puts transit first. Not only a very large Metro system but they only charge 25 cents a ride for unlimited travel on it. Even more impressive if the huge system of bus-only lanes along all the major roadways and streets that have been converted into bus-only streets creating a truly rapid transit BRT system in a city of 25 million with unbelievable traffic problems. The streets are clogged beyond belief for most of the day but the buses sail thru on their own lanes. They didn't widen streets for bus ROW but simply took lanes away from the cars........a REAL transit city.

They also didn't make their BRT & Metro system with so many stations to make sure that grandma doesn't have to walk more than 100 meters to get to her hairdressers. People who need that service take the many local buses but the BRT and Metro are for people who need real rapid transit and not for "great city building". Transit, including the buses, really is faster than driving which is why so many take it.
 
Hipster Duck said:
Well, that's kind of a banal answer. The more relevant question is: "why was funding cut?"; "why did expansion stop?" These are deep, meaningful questions. In the 1970s, the TTC was the pride of Metro Toronto - our showcase to the world, and something we spent a lot of money continuously improving and striving to be at the forefront of. Telling somebody in 1977 that the TTC would be cut and expansion would essentially stop for 30 years would be like finding out that Canada won't be sending a men's hockey team to Sochi in 2014. It would be perceived to be just such a wound to our pride and so out of step with our culture.
Click to expand...

Things went downhill for the TTC when the provincial government after 1995, under the PCs and Mike Harris (Common Sense Revolution), downloaded costs that the province used to pay for, including parts of the operating subsidy of the TTC. The Harris government cut funding of major urban infrastructure projects all across the province, not just Toronto, upon assuming office.

The capital budget for the TTC was also cut, big time. Fares for the TTC went up, to compensate the lose of the operating subsidy from the province. Routes were cut and/or reduced. The Eglinton Subway construction was stopped and filled in.

Slowly, the TTC is improving, but it takes time. The Big Move is helping. However, more support from the higher levels of government is needed, not just short-term token support, but real long-term, sustained support.
 
den:

Yes. That's another thing. This was considered to be among the top class even in the Lastman era. TTC was seen as the best. It' seems since about 2001 the TTC has gone downhill, maybe its because Toronto grew so fast, I don't know.
Click to expand...

The system was heading for the same breaking point in the late 80s by ridership - only getting an unexpected reprieve as a result of the deep recession in the 90s, from which we really didn't fully recover from until now. There are certainly enough blame to lay around for everyone to have a piece, but ultimately it's a lack of investment that really got us into the trouble we're currently stewing in.

AoD
 
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