TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[Streety McCarface]

I fully agree that popular and overcrowded routes should get more buses and be the priority, but does downtown need more buses? Or does downtown already have enough routes (streetcar/bus) to be walkable and adding more is just a waste of buses, even when overcrowding gets better?

Downtown needs more streetcar routes, traffic is too high for buses. Funds would be better spent on increasing the number of flexities the city is to receive, and build, necessary infrastructure to reinstate a parliament and maybe a church or Coxwell streetcar.

 

[Steve X]

For the 145 Humber Bay Express, it would be better to just shuttle people to the GO station and let them take the Lakeshore West line. It will be cheaper (with the upcoming fare reduction), more convenient and bus resource efficient than running the 145 into downtown.

 

[muller877]

http://www.junctioneer.ca/rev-canad...ice-and-paramedic-who-park-at-city-buildings/

I expect that the TTC will come next.

The big question is why is Toronto paying this on behalf of the employees. I have seen several private industry instances where the cost is born by the employee. The most recent one that is public is GM (or Ford...I forget) did not calculate the taxable lease benefit of a car correctly and CRA insisted that each employee paid the difference.

And on a go-forward basis I hope that there is not some bump in their salary to cover the taxable benefit either. Be like the rest of us and take transit to work and there will be no taxable benefit!

(and if someone says night time...I will call them out. The TTC should be catering to people on shift work and if we are stuck on the Vomit Comet so should municipal employees)

 

[Filip]

http://www.junctioneer.ca/rev-canad...ice-and-paramedic-who-park-at-city-buildings/

I expect that the TTC will come next.

The big question is why is Toronto paying this on behalf of the employees. I have seen several private industry instances where the cost is born by the employee. The most recent one that is public is GM (or Ford...I forget) did not calculate the taxable lease benefit of a car correctly and CRA insisted that each employee paid the difference.

And on a go-forward basis I hope that there is not some bump in their salary to cover the taxable benefit either. Be like the rest of us and take transit to work and there will be no taxable benefit!

(and if someone says night time...I will call them out. The TTC should be catering to people on shift work and if we are stuck on the Vomit Comet so should municipal employees)

Just as an example of the callousness of public sector employees - when work began on the Queensway streetcar reconstruction, a car lane was blocked off heading westbound which caused a backup of traffic every day well into Parkdale (Lansdowne usually). Why was this lane taken away? For the workers to park of course, not for equipment or actual construction activity...

For the 145 Humber Bay Express, it would be better to just shuttle people to the GO station and let them take the Lakeshore West line. It will be cheaper (with the upcoming fare reduction), more convenient and bus resource efficient than running the 145 into downtown.

Lots of ifs and maybes here. The bus is here and should not be cancelled until commensurate investments are made. Ie: until Park Lawn GO is operating, keep the bus. The Mimico shuttle as envisioned will likely barely be used. You are getting penalized from transferring to GO from the TTC, you are dropped off a 5 min walk away from the station AND (my favourite part) the route doesn't even go into HBS. It goes down Park Lawn and back west on Lake Shore.

 

[ShonTron]

Just as an example of the callousness of public sector employees - when work began on the Queensway streetcar reconstruction, a car lane was blocked off heading westbound which caused a backup of traffic every day well into Parkdale (Lansdowne usually). Why was this lane taken away? For the workers to park of course, not for equipment or actual construction activity...


Lots of ifs and maybes here. The bus is here and should not be cancelled until commensurate investments are made. Ie: until Park Lawn GO is operating, keep the bus. The Mimico shuttle as envisioned will likely barely be used. You are getting penalized from transferring to GO from the TTC, you are dropped off a 5 min walk away from the station AND (my favourite part) the route doesn't even go into HBS. It goes down Park Lawn and back west on Lake Shore.

They're contractors, not necessarily public sector employees. But yes, the practice of creating a construction zone in the name of contractor parking does tick me off. Legitimate work vehicles are one thing - if they have to be used for construction - but private vehicles owned by workers? Park legally like everyone else.

 

[Kitsune]

The 143 (Thats the beaches Express) is usually no or maybe 1 or 2 seats left. I've even seen it packed on a few occasions.

 

[Megaton327]

The 143 (Thats the beaches Express) is usually no or maybe 1 or 2 seats left. I've even seen it packed on a few occasions.

In the peak direction, I assume. I'd guess it has 0 or 1 passengers in the counter peak direction as it heads back to pick up more peak direction passengers. Also, no seats left is very empty by TTC standards in the peak period/direction, many routes have vehicles at a crush load full of standees. That makes it on average, between two trips, anywhere between about 1/3 and 1/2 full depending on whether it's just full in terms of seats or also standees. That's a tremendously lower fraction than many other routes.

 

[Kitsune]

In the peak direction, I assume. I'd guess it has 0 or 1 passengers in the counter peak direction as it heads back to pick up more peak direction passengers. Also, no seats left is very empty by TTC standards in the peak period/direction, many routes have vehicles at a crush load full of standees. That makes it on average, between two trips, anywhere between about 1/3 and 1/2 full depending on whether it's just full in terms of seats or also standees. That's a tremendously lower fraction than many other routes.

Yes - however the fare capture (double fare) has the return trip built into it. Further, if they adjusted the route to include southcore I bet these express routes would see a uptick in usage.

 

[Leo_Chan]

Yes - however the fare capture (double fare) has the return trip built into it. Further, if they adjusted the route to include southcore I bet these express routes would see a uptick in usage.

Why did they decide to charge double the fare for the Downtown Express Routes anyways? Was the point to only allow people who can afford it to avoid the subways? I really think it should be the other way around, but not half the fare of course.

 

[Filip]

Why did they decide to charge double the fare for the Downtown Express Routes anyways? Was the point to only allow people who can afford it to avoid the subways? I really think it should be the other way around, but not half the fare of course.

Well a) to recapture the bus heading back empty

But the 145 Humber Bay Express was made just to give residents another option to get downtown.. And currently (and for the foreseeable future) will be the only direct way to get downtown.. For somewhere that is 10km from the downtown core.. Embarrassment.

 

[Steve X]

Why did they decide to charge double the fare for the Downtown Express Routes anyways? Was the point to only allow people who can afford it to avoid the subways? I really think it should be the other way around, but not half the fare of course.

Otherwise it would be too expensive to operate the service. The was done in the early 90s were there was a recession. There was a plan a few years back to remove the double fare from the NS routes (141, 142 and 144) to relief Line 1 but ultimately there was no resources to even operate it.

By removing the double fare, more people are likely going to take the bus but the bus will still run empty the other way. They don't want an in service bus to be polluting the environment with nobody on it when it could be carrying someone somewhere else.

 

[Leo_Chan]

Otherwise it would be too expensive to operate the service. The was done in the early 90s were there was a recession. There was a plan a few years back to remove the double fare from the NS routes (141, 142 and 144) to relief Line 1 but ultimately there was no resources to even operate it.

By removing the double fare, more people are likely going to take the bus but the bus will still run empty the other way. They don't want an in service bus to be polluting the environment with nobody on it when it could be carrying someone somewhere else.

Electric bus pilot for downtown routes then?

 

[amnesiajune]

Otherwise it would be too expensive to operate the service. The was done in the early 90s were there was a recession. There was a plan a few years back to remove the double fare from the NS routes (141, 142 and 144) to relief Line 1 but ultimately there was no resources to even operate it.

By removing the double fare, more people are likely going to take the bus but the bus will still run empty the other way. They don't want an in service bus to be polluting the environment with nobody on it when it could be carrying someone somewhere else.

Buses can't have any real impact on subway crowding. It would take 20 buses to equal the capacity of one subway train.

I think they want to remove double-fares because of how much money those buses lose. It would cost very little to remove the double-fare, since they currently only recover 15-20% of their cost. They're the worst example of the TTC's complacency habit, although to their credit the current plan is to finally get rid of them a few years from now.

 

[Filip]

I don't think those buses should be removed until appropriate investments are made to make it a non-issue.

For the premium express buses that follow the subway line - get rid of them.
For the premium express buses that supplement abysmal service - keep them.

As I said, for the past 2 years, the 145 Humber Bay Express is the only direct service from HBS to downtown. This will change as of June, but the 501 will be closing its western leg once more for Roncesvalles intersection reconstruction shortly after. The TTC has told us HBS will likely not have streetcar service resume regularly until the early 2020s.

To make rider experience even worse, they decided to terminate the 501L bus at Queensway and Ellis. At least with Roncesvalles you had the option to take various other routes once the bus terminated, but now you're stuck. It is very poor planning and adds a lot of time to people's commutes.

And now you want to get rid of another way for us to get downtown? Please.

 

[innsertnamehere]

The TTC isn't planning to eliminate the express buses until the early 2020's, don't worry. It's more of a long term thing after additional services have been supplemented.