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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

Does anyone know what these are for?

I don't ever recall seeing them until recently, though maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Now that I have noticed them I have seen them all over the subway system, with most stations having three or four, some on platforms and some up in the mezzanine.
 

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Jonny5 said:
Does anyone know what these are for?

I don't ever recall seeing them until recently, though maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Now that I have noticed them I have seen them all over the subway system, with most stations having three or four, some on platforms and some up in the mezzanine.
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Cell phone coverage.
 
Jonny5 said:
Does anyone know what these are for?
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To be more precise, these are routers/antennae for both wi-fi coverage and cell service. They were originally just used for wi-fi, though of course WIND is now providing service through them as well.

I see this question asked VERY frequently in tons of places--people standing in stations, the TTC's twitter accounts, reddit.com/r/toronto, and even here--maybe the TTC should put a little sign on them saying what they are, or at least put a page on their website with a picture of one explaining what it is.
 
There seems to have been a stall in the roll out of this. A bunch of stations online before Pan Am, nothing since. The @TCONNECT twitter claimed on October 31 that Sherbourne and Castle Frank were going live on November 2. I just pinged them because I have yet to see that on my phone passing through those stations.
 
dowlingm said:
There seems to have been a stall in the roll out of this. A bunch of stations online before Pan Am, nothing since. The @TCONNECT twitter claimed on October 31 that Sherbourne and Castle Frank were going live on November 2. I just pinged them because I have yet to see that on my phone passing through those stations.
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To be fair, a LOT of things on the TTC, regional transit, and the region in general were done rapidly and in a bunch for Pan Am and have since been stalled--this is the nature of an event like Pan Am. I think easily the biggest one is Presto--they did a bunch of major downtown stations in a rush (Bathurst, Spadina, Museum, Osgoode, St Andrew, King, Queen) and since then there has been very little movement.

Keep in mind that the TTC, or really any transit agency or any division of the City's government, moves very slowly when not under a fast-approaching, firm deadline such as the games. In Presto's case, their current deadline for subway stations and buses is December 31st 2016, and that's not really a firm deadline because there's no pressing reason that it can't be January 2017 instead, it just happens to be a date they've picked. Not sure if a deadline has been set for WiFi/Cell installations or if there's even a plan that all subway stations will ever even have them as opposed to just major ones, but if there is I'd assume it's end of 2016 or 2017 similarly to Presto, and that's why we're seeing so little movement--a ton of installs just went live, and now the current deadline is very far off.
 
DSC said:
Did you read the Star story? The (really) offensive ad was removed and, BTW, the shelters are not TTC's, the Astral contract is with the City.
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Yes I read the article, and it took a complaint by someone to have the words removed. But the ad itself is still there if I'm not mistaken.
 
DSC said:
Did you read the Star story? The (really) offensive ad was removed and, BTW, the shelters are not TTC's, the Astral contract is with the City.
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Speaking of Astral's contract with the city, does anyone have any idea on when it ends? The street furniture seems to be deteriorating in quality as we go on through the years. The transit shelters they built in the past have been of pretty good quality and design, but now the design is laughable at best and provides very little protection from any kind of weather.

Additionally, the garbage bins are plagued with issues (poor step design, side panels coming apart, and bad chute openings just to name a few).
 
Per my note upthread, @tconnect responded to say Sherbourne is testing (and there is a secured Sherbourne-Test in the wifi browse list). Didn't see anything at Castle Frank. Doesn't take away from them giving duff info back in October though.
 
dowlingm said:
Per my note upthread, @tconnect responded to say Sherbourne is testing (and there is a secured Sherbourne-Test in the wifi browse list). Didn't see anything at Castle Frank. Doesn't take away from them giving duff info back in October though.
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Saw a construction announcement at the Old Mill subway stop. Construction from Nov through June 2016. Infrastructure for wifi and Presto.

Good news...if they are building out Presto to Old Mill by June 2016 other stations should not be that far behind.
 
I admit I loving the second gen Presto readers - they are far more sensitive and much faster. Once they have upgraded from turnstyles to faregates the throughput would be far higher.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I admit I loving the second gen Presto readers - they are far more sensitive and much faster. Once they have upgraded from turnstyles to faregates the throughput would be far higher.
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Indeed. I have a metropass myself, but one big plus to the sensitivity is when my sister visits the city, she keeps her card in her purse, doesn't have to fumble with it at all, the new readers have absolutely no problem reading it. The old TTC ones absolutely couldn't, the GO ones have maybe a 70% success rate.
 
Megaton327 said:
Indeed. I have a metropass myself, but one big plus to the sensitivity is when my sister visits the city, she keeps her card in her purse, doesn't have to fumble with it at all, the new readers have absolutely no problem reading it. The old TTC ones absolutely couldn't, the GO ones have maybe a 70% success rate.
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Once they enable debit/credit (which they are already sporadically testing) that become a dangerous game. What if the reader "sees" the VISA card first, and charges $3 instead of using the Presto card?

Even now, if it "sees" another card first, it returns an error, rather than opening the gates.
 
nfitz said:
Once they enable debit/credit (which they are already sporadically testing) that become a dangerous game. What if the reader "sees" the VISA card first, and charges $3 instead of using the Presto card?

Even now, if it "sees" another card first, it returns an error, rather than opening the gates.
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Let the errors happen, it's less dangerous than people taking 10 tries to get the damn first gen reader to read and create a backlog in a jammed station.

AoD
 
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