TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[M II A II R II K]

TTC buses to get Wi-Fi, but don’t fire up your tablets yet

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...t_wifi_but_dont_fire_up_your_tablets_yet.html

The TTC will begin installing the technology to make its buses and streetcars Wi-Fi capable in 2016.Although transit officials are promising better service as a result, it doesn’t necessarily mean commuters will be able to browse the Internet.

The Wi-Fi capability is part of the $95-million computer-aided dispatch automatic vehicle location system (CAD/AVL) that will replace the 1970s system the TTC uses to communicate with bus and streetcar drivers, according to a report before the TTC board on Tuesday. The technology is considered crucial to making the TTC’s surface routes more reliable by alerting the control rooms that track vehicle movements to buses or streetcars that are veering off-route or off-schedule, said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

“It allows you to see exactly where every bus is, where it’s going, how far off its schedule it is. It allows us to really manage routes much more effectively. Route supervisors can see exactly what a bus is doing or if it’s been sitting too long at a particular location,” he said.

.....

 

[ehlow]

TTC buses to get Wi-Fi, but don’t fire up your tablets yet

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...t_wifi_but_dont_fire_up_your_tablets_yet.html

The TTC will begin installing the technology to make its buses and streetcars Wi-Fi capable in 2016.Although transit officials are promising better service as a result, it doesn’t necessarily mean commuters will be able to browse the Internet.

The Wi-Fi capability is part of the $95-million computer-aided dispatch automatic vehicle location system (CAD/AVL) that will replace the 1970s system the TTC uses to communicate with bus and streetcar drivers, according to a report before the TTC board on Tuesday. The technology is considered crucial to making the TTC’s surface routes more reliable by alerting the control rooms that track vehicle movements to buses or streetcars that are veering off-route or off-schedule, said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

“It allows you to see exactly where every bus is, where it’s going, how far off its schedule it is. It allows us to really manage routes much more effectively. Route supervisors can see exactly what a bus is doing or if it’s been sitting too long at a particular location,” he said.

.....

That's good, hopefully that makes their route management better.

Wifi for customers on surface vehicles isn't really necessary since most people have data plans and cell networks work.

 

[P23]

When I lived in Ottawa the screen next to the driver displayed a large numeral that showed how many minutes ahead/behind schedule they were. I think it actually turned red if it exceeded 3 minutes or something. I always wondered why Toronto didn't have such a seemingly simple system for managing scheduling and headways? I guess it might have something to do with Ottawa using newer comms technology? Anyone know?

 

[W. K. Lis]

When I lived in Ottawa the screen next to the driver displayed a large numeral that showed how many minutes ahead/behind schedule they were. I think it actually turned red if it exceeded 3 minutes or something. I always wondered why Toronto didn't have such a seemingly simple system for managing scheduling and headways? I guess it might have something to do with Ottawa using newer comms technology? Anyone know?

They do. Ask the driver next time to show you the display.

 

[rbt]

TTC buses to get Wi-Fi, but don’t fire up your tablets yet

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...t_wifi_but_dont_fire_up_your_tablets_yet.html

"But so far, plans to find a cellphone provider haven’t panned out."

I know they're small, but I thought Wind was on-board with subscribing to these access points?

 

[scamander24]

When I lived in Ottawa the screen next to the driver displayed a large numeral that showed how many minutes ahead/behind schedule they were. I think it actually turned red if it exceeded 3 minutes or something. I always wondered why Toronto didn't have such a seemingly simple system for managing scheduling and headways? I guess it might have something to do with Ottawa using newer comms technology? Anyone know?

I know MiWay has the same system. It would greatly help increase the reliability of the system, although in my experience the TTC provides service that is so frequent that schedules are pretty much useless, so I'm not sure how it would work in practice.

MiWay has a lot of other things too. At every stop, the speaker outside the front door says the name of the route so that visually impaired people can distinguish different buses. The drivers of MiWay buses also press a button every time a rider comes in the bus and doesn't pay using PRESTO. I guess this is to keep a count of riders in the bus that are using transfers/paper tickets, and forcing drivers to stay in the bus when letting riders in.

This is a huge contrast to how TTC operates their buses, I remember taking the 47 everyday from Yorkdale Station, and the bus driver would park the bus next to the bus stop (outside any fare-paid zone), leave the door open for riders to enter, and go to Tim Hortons for 10 minutes to get coffee, allowing anyone to simply walk into the bus without paying a fare. I once absent-mindedly walked into the bus forgetting to show my metropass to the driver, and she never noticed or even looked at me. The TTC should definitely learn from their neighbouring transit system.

 

[P23]

They do. Ask the driver next time to show you the display.

Hah, I had no idea. It certainly doesn't seem to have any effect on said schedules or headways.

 

[nfitz]

Hah, I had no idea. It certainly doesn't seem to have any effect on said schedules or headways.

If you watch some of the drivers, they are a lot slower then they are a bit positive, and are trying to rush when they are a bit negative.

You can see the same thing that is shown on the display in the bus/streetcar (it's that box with the screen that sits near the farebox) if you access the NextBus data using the Transee website. For example for the 25 south at Don Mill station - http://doconnor.homeip.net/TransSee/Predict.php?a=ttc&stop0=25|14145 and go to settings and select "Show scheduled arrival time". Right not you can see that the first bus arriving is running about 6 minutes late, and the rest are generally on-time (which isn't surprising at mid-day near the start of the route). For another example, the 504 east at Yonge - http://doconnor.homeip.net/TransSee/Predict.php?a=ttc&stop0=504|3070 the first streetcar is currently 6 minutes early (they must have short-turned it into service recently) and the next 4 are 10 to 25 minutes late ... at that point, there is not much point trying to catch up ...

 

[APTA-2048]

Hawker 6, hits the sticks by apta_2050, on Flickr

TTC bids farewell to the H6 class. The posters were a nice little touch.

 

[BB ON]

Farewell Trip by BB ON, on Flickr


Parting Message by BB ON, on Flickr


Well Worn by BB ON, on Flickr

 

[M II A II R II K]

I know they'll be selling off pieces of the train, too bad they couldn't sell whole train carriages.

 

[M II A II R II K]

And plus you can still ride an H6, in Ankara!

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Wow. I did not know that.

I don't know how I feel about this. It's as if I've just discovered that the H6 has been cheating on Toronto for the past 30 years. Good thing we got divorced

 

[drum118]

H6 final run

http://youtu.be/Ls8SUw7PD-w

http://youtu.be/b2wmipqna84

[video=youtube_share;s0abQuwFq0A]http://youtu.be/s0abQuwFq0A[/video]

 

[M II A II R II K]