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TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

AlbertHWagstaff said:
At least with the Flexity cars, they won't have to interact directly with passengers...
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Some people love that though.

However with new cars, you'll still be able to speak to the driver through the intercom. And they'll have to come out to deploy ramps, etc. I'd assume if the driver fails to respond to requests about directions, etc., they'd be disciplined.

It will be interesting to see how the social dynamics shift, as presumably there won't be as questioning the driver ... which always seems odd to me at a busy stop that you'd have a long discussion with the driver which streetcar to take, rather than your fellow riders you've been standing with for a while.
 
nfitz said:
Some people love that though.

However with new cars, you'll still be able to speak to the driver through the intercom. And they'll have to come out to deploy ramps, etc. I'd assume if the driver fails to respond to requests about directions, etc., they'd be disciplined.

It will be interesting to see how the social dynamics shift, as presumably there won't be as questioning the driver ... which always seems odd to me at a busy stop that you'd have a long discussion with the driver which streetcar to take, rather than your fellow riders you've been standing with for a while.
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I think it's a good thing for overall performance for the driver to focus on driving alone, not giving directions, passing out transfers etc.
 
I seen one of these on St. Clair today but couldn't see much of it, only the back because I was driving..

Also why does the National Post have such a vendetta against streetcars?
 
hawc said:
I had heard something along those lines. Someone told me once that that's where they store the actual body if someone dies because it's too distressing to bring it up through the station and they just put it in there till after closing and then bring it out. I'm sure that's not true.

Not to be too morbid, but would you hazard a guess at the number of fatalities on the system per month?
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They do have tools in there, it's true - shovels, body bags, backboard, cleaning agents, etc. - but they definitely don't store the body in there. There is a room at platform level on each platform that they will use to hold the body until the coroner comes by to sign the paperwork.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
hawc said:
Not to be too morbid, but would you hazard a guess at the number of fatalities on the system per month?
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It used to be about 2 a month on average but that's gone down since they installed the suicide help line/posters at every station. There are drivers that go their entire career without hitting anyone and other drivers that have had a a handful.

New York by comparison is 1 a week I think
 
Adjei said:
I seen one of these on St. Clair today but couldn't see much of it, only the back because I was driving..

Also why does the National Post have such a vendetta against streetcars?
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I don't think it's the Post specifically - they just put out a variety of opinions because any article will attract page views and responses. Kuitenbrouwer's take on it was that there's nothing particularly wrong with streetcars except for the way the network is operated and some of the less appealing individuals among the riders (which is also true of buses and subways). Hopper tried to argue that because Vancouver abandoned streetcars a long time ago in favour of trolley buses, Toronto should do the same. And Corcoran trotted out his usual batshit sophistry about how streetcars/LRVs are a giant leftist conspiracy to indulge in anachronism and make-work projects.
 
the lemur said:
Hopper tried to argue that because Vancouver abandoned streetcars a long time ago in favour of trolley buses, Toronto should do the same. And Corcoran trotted out his usual batshit sophistry about how streetcars/LRVs are a giant leftist conspiracy to indulge in anachronism and make-work projects.
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I hated these arguments. There are valid criticism that can be made, but the anachronism argument or the "other cities did it" arguments aren't convincing at all to me.

If a guy from Vancouver cares about learning from what other cities are doing they should look at being one of the only cities in the world using Skytrain technology, something that's worked out so badly in Toronto that we need to spend billions fixing it.
 
ehlow said:
I hated these arguments. There are valid criticism that can be made, but the anachronism argument or the "other cities did it" arguments aren't convincing at all to me.

If a guy from Vancouver cares about learning from what other cities are doing they should look at being one of the only cities in the world using Skytrain technology, something that's worked out so badly in Toronto that we need to spend billions fixing it.
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Corcoran's anachronism argument falls apart when you consider that pretty much every form of modern transportation is descended from something that is now obsolete, primitive, dangerous, impractical, etc. He even brought up the 'other cities did it' argument in support of eliminating streetcars, but said not a word about how so many cities have brought street railways back again!

Hopper argued that trolley buses weren't 'ugly' like streetcars but the photo accompanying the article showed a fairly unattractive trolley bus.

The Skytrain thing comes down to Vancouver using the latest generation vs Toronto being stuck with the early '80s stuff, though, right?
 
the lemur said:
The Skytrain thing comes down to Vancouver using the latest generation vs Toronto being stuck with the early '80s stuff, though, right?
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I think it also comes down to the milder weather in Vancouver, too. The Scarborough RT doesn't do well in snow.

In general, SkyTrain technology was forced on us in the 80s since it was being developed in Ontario and we needed to be the guinea pig before we could sell it. Something about not accepting food from a skinny chef.
 
aquateam said:
I think it also comes down to the milder weather in Vancouver, too. The Scarborough RT doesn't do well in snow.

In general, SkyTrain technology was forced on us in the 80s since it was being developed in Ontario and we needed to be the guinea pig before we could sell it. Something about not accepting food from a skinny chef.
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The Vancouver SkyTrain is still pretty new. I think they'll have more and more problems later on.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/skytrain-reopens-after-power-outage-1.2713685
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...gers-frustrates-rush-hour-commuters-1.2710776

In general it's not a good thing in the transit world to be the only ones (or one of the few only ones) using a given technology. They could've used automated elevated LRT instead of something no one else uses.
 
ehlow said:
The Vancouver SkyTrain is still pretty new. I think they'll have more and more problems later on.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/skytrain-reopens-after-power-outage-1.2713685
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...gers-frustrates-rush-hour-commuters-1.2710776

In general it's not a good thing in the transit world to be the only ones (or one of the few only ones) using a given technology. They could've used automated elevated LRT instead of something no one else uses.
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Well in this case it is human error and not aging infrastructure per se - but it identified a clear single point failure that propagated through the entire system. The unpredicted behaviour of riders opening the doors, get on the tracks and forcing the system to halt should also be looked into.

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
The unpredicted behaviour of riders opening the doors, get on the tracks and forcing the system to halt should also be looked into.
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Given the same behaviour happened on many trains, and the riders were able to find out through social media it would be down for hours, then the only question is why anyone is surprised that they did exit the vehicles.

The big question is why Translink didn't power down the 3rd rail quicker.
 
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