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TTC: New Articulated Buses (In Delivery, Novabus)

On the plus side, even if headways are widened for awhile, as more artics are added to the system, they can increase the frequency. Much easier to run 60' buses efficiently every 3 minutes than 40' every 90 seconds.

On a side note, how come the 196 York University Rocket isn't on that list?! That route is begging for these buses. Both in terms of ridership and route design.
Maybe cause it is a couple of years away from being replaced by one of those fancy underground trains? ;)
 
OC Transpo has Presto readers at all 3 doors on artics. Now that they're pushing monthly pass users onto Presto (using period passes), the card readers are getting a lot of usage. I've also noticed a pretty significant decrease in the number of people using tickets compared to before Presto was introduced earlier this summer. At busy stops, a lot of the time it's a steady stream of people tapping Presto cards at the back 2 doors.
 
So TTC is just going to use these on regular routes? Mandatory front door boarding and all? LOL.

75% cost recovery ratio in 2012. Clearly, the TTC is not efficient enough.

On the plus side, even if headways are widened for awhile, as more artics are added to the system, they can increase the frequency. Much easier to run 60' buses efficiently every 3 minutes than 40' every 90 seconds.

Are you suggesting that 60 foot buses have twice the capacity of 40 foot buses? Even they did, that reduction in buses is only possible assuming that the buses travel at the same speed. And when a bus cames every 3 minutes or every 90 minutes, it's likely the boarding times will be twice as long. Which means more buses will be needed to maintain the same frequency.
 
So TTC is just going to use these on regular routes? Mandatory front door boarding and all? LOL.

75% cost recovery ratio in 2012. Clearly, the TTC is not efficient enough.



Are you suggesting that 60 foot buses have twice the capacity of 40 foot buses? Even they did, that reduction in buses is only possible assuming that the buses travel at the same speed. And when a bus cames every 3 minutes or every 90 minutes, it's likely the boarding times will be twice as long. Which means more buses will be needed to maintain the same frequency.

Actually that was a comment regarding how this is a start more than anything else. Even if capacity remains about the same at first, as more of these buses are added, the line's capacity will increase.

One of the many causes of bunching is that there are too many buses on a route to serve it efficiently. Once you have buses running buses more than every 4 minutes in mixed traffic, even the most insignificant delay can cause bunching.

One pessimistic way to think about it is that with artics, the buses come prebunched. Even if this is the case, it looks much better to see 2 buses arrive together than 3.
 
Actually that was a comment regarding how this is a start more than anything else. Even if capacity remains about the same at first, as more of these buses are added, the line's capacity will increase.

One of the many causes of bunching is that there are too many buses on a route to serve it efficiently. Once you have buses running buses more than every 4 minutes in mixed traffic, even the most insignificant delay can cause bunching.

Which is why Bathurst makes no sense. Routes 29 and 196 make a lot more sense based on that criteria.
 
TTC introduces new articulated bus

October 3, 2013

The Toronto Transit Commission today introduced the first of its new clean diesel low floor articulated buses. The TTC has ordered 153 new vehicles that will start entering service on the 7 Bathurst route this December. Total cost of the purchase is $143.7 million.

The articulated bus will result in a more reliable service, with a design capacity of 77 passengers, an increase of 45 per cent from the standard 40-foot bus. The new buses will also be more cost effective, as operating costs will be lower with fewer bus operators required.

The accessible articulated bus will be used on high demand routes, and will carry more passengers with fewer vehicles. Articulated buses have three doors, instead of two, making it faster for customers to board inside subway stations, and faster for customers to exit the bus at all stops.

The articulated buses will operate on the following routes:

- 7 Bathurst - first bus December 2013
- 29 Dufferin - first bus January 2014
- 36 Finch West - Spring 2014
- 63 Ossington - Summer 2014
- 6 Bay - first bus Summer 2014
- 85 Sheppard East - Fall 2014
- 53 Steeles Express - Fall 2014

All 153 articulated buses will be in service by January, 2015.

- 30 -

Media Contact: Corporate Communications, 416-981-1900, media@ttc.ca

Still don't understand why Bathurst first. According to the TTC FAQ, Bathurst isn't even in the top 10.

If anything, Jane St and Don Mills should get these; use these buses for the previous LRT plans that got canned.

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/spare/0011.shtml
504 King/508 Lake Shore - 57,300
510 Spadina/509 Harbourfront - 55,400
32 Eglinton West - 48,700
35 Jane - 44,400
39 Finch East/139 Finch-Don Mills/199 Finch Rocket - 44,000
36 Finch West - 44,000
501 Queen - 43,500
29 Dufferin - 39,700
506 Carlton - 39,600
25 Don Mills - 38,000
54 Lawrence East - 36,300
512 St. Clair - 32,400
505 Dundas - 32,400
60 Steeles West - 29,800
34 Eglinton East - 29,500
 
Why not just put these buses--every 5 minutes or it's free--on the King and Queen LRT routes? I've been finding bus service overall is the better way around Toronto. (Less walking to get to a stop, less time stopping and starting, speed is faster, moves through and around traffic easier, and my LTE signal works best:))
 
Umm... because King and Queen are getting light rail vehicles that are almost twice as long as an articulated bus?

Actually that was a comment regarding how this is a start more than anything else. Even if capacity remains about the same at first, as more of these buses are added, the line's capacity will increase.

One of the many causes of bunching is that there are too many buses on a route to serve it efficiently. Once you have buses running buses more than every 4 minutes in mixed traffic, even the most insignificant delay can cause bunching.

One pessimistic way to think about it is that with artics, the buses come prebunched. Even if this is the case, it looks much better to see 2 buses arrive together than 3.

Artics are one way to solve bunching if they have an all-door boarding scheme for the whole route. Otherwise, because of the increased boarding times, I think think artics are actually more prone to delays, which result in bunching, based on my experience with 19 Hurontario. IMO, mandatory front door boarding is the primary cause of bunching for both articulated and 40 foot buses on routes with extremely high ridership, and pretty much every bus route in Toronto has extremely high ridership.
 
Umm... because King and Queen are getting light rail vehicles that are almost twice as long as an articulated bus?



Artics are one way to solve bunching if they have an all-door boarding scheme for the whole route. Otherwise, because of the increased boarding times, I think think artics are actually more prone to delays, which result in bunching, based on my experience with 19 Hurontario. IMO, mandatory front door boarding is the primary cause of bunching for both articulated and 40 foot buses on routes with extremely high ridership, and pretty much every bus route in Toronto has extremely high ridership.

Too bad we can't get turnstiles so that people will exit through the rear doors only. It's ridiculous to see able-bodied people trying to exit a bus (or streetcar) through the front door when there are obviously a crowd of people trying to get on through the front door.

I always use the rear doors to exit. Even with kids and a stroller, I used the rear doors to exit.
 
Still don't understand why Bathurst first. According to the TTC FAQ, Bathurst isn't even in the top 10.

If anything, Jane St and Don Mills should get these; use these buses for the previous LRT plans that got canned.

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/spare/0011.shtml
504 King/508 Lake Shore - 57,300
510 Spadina/509 Harbourfront - 55,400
32 Eglinton West - 48,700
35 Jane - 44,400
39 Finch East/139 Finch-Don Mills/199 Finch Rocket - 44,000
36 Finch West - 44,000
501 Queen - 43,500
29 Dufferin - 39,700
506 Carlton - 39,600
25 Don Mills - 38,000
54 Lawrence East - 36,300
512 St. Clair - 32,400
505 Dundas - 32,400
60 Steeles West - 29,800
34 Eglinton East - 29,500
There is no doubt that 32 Eglinton West is the busiest bus route. There are some people who had to skip a few buses intentionally at Eglinton station, because the buses are too crowded (and some are left behind), even if it means waiting an hour before a not-so-crowded bus arrives. Even worse, construction for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is creating more delays (but at least the Crosstown LRT would ameliorate this substantially once complete).
 
The only problem with 32 Eglinton West is the multiple branches peeling off in the middle of its route - there are three that operate during weekday rush/middays - the 32A (Skymark), the 32C (Trethewey) and 32D (Emmett). Route 34 has no regular branches except the rush hour extension to Kingston Road. Route 7 has no scheduled branches either, Route 29 just has the scheduled 29A Tycos short turn (with the closure of the Dufferin Street bridge that ended the CNE grounds branches).

Increased headways for larger vehicles are one thing on a single route, but multiple branches makes it a bigger deal at the ends, one thing if a bus comes every 6 minutes instead of every 4 minutes (where frequencies are such artics might make sense, rather than on Bathurst), but with branches, could be a bus every 18 instead of every 12 minutes.

With only one rush hour branch and very high peak and midday frequencies, Dufferin makes a lot of sense. Don Mills too, it has no branches (not counting the 81 Thorncliffe Park "branch"). Jane only has branches at the far north end of the route, so it makes sense too.
 
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The only problem with 32 Eglinton West is the multiple branches peeling off in the middle of its route - there are three that operate during weekday rush/middays - the 32A (Skymark), the 32C (Trethewey) and 32D (Emmett). Route 34 has no regular branches except the rush hour extension to Kingston Road. Route 7 has no scheduled branches either, Route 29 just has the scheduled 29A Tycos short turn (with the closure of the Dufferin Street bridge that ended the CNE grounds branches).

Increased headways for larger vehicles are one thing on a single route, but multiple branches makes it a bigger deal at the ends, one thing if a bus comes every 6 minutes instead of every 4 minutes (where frequencies are such artics might make sense, rather than on Bathurst), but with branches, could be a bus every 18 instead of every 12 minutes.

With only one rush hour branch and very high peak and midday frequencies, Dufferin makes a lot of sense. Don Mills too, it has no branches (not counting the 81 Thorncliffe Park "branch"). Jane only has branches at the far north end of the route, so it makes sense too.

32 Eglinton West and 34 Eglinton East has and will have construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. There would be too many detours along Eglinton Avenue during the construction period making the articulated buses too much of a hassle to handle.
 

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