North American Transit System Ranking

[W. K. Lis]

All that stuff costs money, and it isn't the culture at the TTC that is preventing it, it is the culture at city hall.

...and the province, ...and the federal government. Being the least subsidized means not being able to experiment or research. You can only show something new if you spend money first on research.

Why do we have cell phones nowadays, unless some company "wasted gravy" first on research.

 

[nfitz]

Ottawa has the third highest per capita ridership in Canada. I would say top 3 is Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa.

Really? Other than heading into downtown Ottawa, I've found the Vancouver system much better to travel around the city.

 

[rbt]

Hell, they didn't even have any internal concept of customer service until some kid snapped a photo of a collector resting his eyes and the image went viral!

FYI, this gentleman died within a year of that event due to a medical condition he had for quite a while. That is, he was sick when that photo was taken and probably should have been on sick leave (paid) but opted to work light-duty instead.

 

[Electrify]

All that stuff costs money, and it isn't the culture at the TTC that is preventing it, it is the culture at city hall.

True, but many of these issues not only predate Rob Ford, but predate Harris as well. For example, monthly passes have always had a much higher break even point compared to other cities, even when the province was funding the system in the 70s and 80s.

More recently, getting stations fitted with debit and credit card readers could have been done easily during the Miller years, and should have been set for when 10 tokens began to cost more than $20.

 

[ssiguy2]

Really? Other than heading into downtown Ottawa, I've found the Vancouver system much better to travel around the city.

Getting around Vancouver is a relatively straight forward affair made better by the complete integration of the system and many cross town routes. Metro Vancouver and the province have also done an excellent job of coordinating all road upgrades to include HOV and BRT lanes so the routes are not only fast but very reliable. Also, unlike Toronto which has a myriad of systems and endless transfers and different fares that require a high-speed internet connection to figure out, Vancouver's system is very easy to negotiate and ridiculously easy to figure out fares and routes.

 

[nfitz]

Also, unlike Toronto which has a myriad of systems and endless transfers and different fares that require a high-speed internet connection to figure out, Vancouver's system is very easy to negotiate and ridiculously easy to figure out fares and routes.

Well let's not go to far. I never quite figured out where I could get off at Boundary Road not to trigger an extra fare for going into the next zone ... and why it didn't apply at all times of the day ...

 

[Wrenkin]

Vancouver's system is also much more radial than Toronto's. Getting downtown is easy but the "perpendicular" routes between suburbs (that intersect the routes headed toward downtown) can be quite infrequent. So I'd say it's integrated to a purpose. Since I never shared that purpose it was awkward.

 

[doady]

Doesn't Ottawa have an integrated system too? At least if you count Ontario only.

 

[King of Kensington]

Interesting piece on what might have been:

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/subway/5111.shtml

 

[ehlow]

Interesting piece on what might have been:

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/subway/5111.shtml

The same plans debated over and over throughout the decades.

I've always found it weird that they wanted the Eglinton Subway from Allen Rd to Mississauga, and not through central Eglinton which is dense residentially and commercially.

At least we have two lines under construction, so something will be built!

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

The same plans debated over and over throughout the decades.

I've always found it weird that they wanted the Eglinton Subway from Allen Rd to Mississauga, and not through central Eglinton which is dense residentially and commercially.

At least we have two lines under construction, so something will be built!

Y and E was not big like that back that then. Plus people thought the University section could handle the load from the airport. Not the case today. Ideal, Eglinton would be built from the airport to Kennedy, as you can see I am the biggest advocate for this is it would be a true crosstown linking the entire city together.

 

[ehlow]

Y and E was not big like that back that then. Plus people thought the University section could handle the load from the airport. Not the case today. Ideal, Eglinton would be built from the airport to Kennedy, as you can see I am the biggest advocate for this is it would be a true crosstown linking the entire city together.

Oh common, in the 80's Yonge & Eg probably had more people than Eglinton from Allen Rd to Mississauga . A lot of the apartment & office buildings there were built in the 60's and 70's.

Yeah Airport to Kennedy would be awesome, a 30km line!

 

[TheTigerMaster]

We're more than two thirds the way to that 30km line.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Oh common, in the 80's Yonge & Eg probably had more people than Eglinton from Allen Rd to Mississauga . A lot of the apartment & office buildings there were built in the 60's and 70's.

Yeah Airport to Kennedy would be awesome, a 30km line!

Y and E was big as an office centre, but even today the Eglinton West bus ridership is larger then the east. But I guess Jane to Eglinton captures that. And it would be awesome. I plan to advocate this for the rest of the year offline too.

 

[ehlow]

Y and E was big as an office centre, but even today the Eglinton West bus ridership is larger then the east. But I guess Jane to Eglinton captures that. And it would be awesome. I plan to advocate this for the rest of the year offline too.

Eg west bus includes Allen Rd to Yonge though, which the subway would not have covered.

Also, when looking at bus ridership for Eg east vs west, it's difficult to analyze because Lawrence East and other bus routes like Leaside also run on Eg East. Not saying it's incorrect that West is busier, I'm just pointing out that multiple bus routes run on east Eg besides 34.