TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[max]

Anyone have a link to a TTC/City Roads site with diagrams and/or description?

Next best thing, Steve Munro has a slide deck from a 2016 city presentation posted here: https://stevemunro.ca/2016/02/26/ttc-streetcar-track-plans-2016-2020/

It includes phasing, though given the age may no longer be accurate.

 

[steveintoronto]

Next best thing, Steve Munro has a slide deck from a 2016 city presentation posted here: https://stevemunro.ca/2016/02/26/ttc-streetcar-track-plans-2016-2020/

It includes phasing, though given the age may no longer be accurate.

Dates are way off, but the diagrams and detail are exquisite. NOW I can follow the text for the changes.

Great reference!

I can see much more of what Drum was describing now on the Roncey/Queen intersection, the removal of the King to Queensway road slip *and tracks* and the resultant much simpler two way intersection and light sequence as a result.

Here's even a better and more complete yet source of pics, diagrams, cross-sections and other tasty after dinner treats:
https://swanboatsteve.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/17ecs-ti-05sp-kick-off-design-presentation.pdf

 

[DSC]

Next best thing, Steve Munro has a slide deck from a 2016 city presentation posted here: https://stevemunro.ca/2016/02/26/ttc-streetcar-track-plans-2016-2020/

It includes phasing, though given the age may no longer be accurate.

The TTC issues these "5-Year Plans" every year at budget time and Steve usually posts them. Many projects move forward a year each time they issue one! They will post the 2019-2024 plan with the 2019 budget documents in early 2019.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Meanwhile, over in Andy Byford's new stomping grounds, New York City...

See link.

Could real leadership be around the corner?

MTA Chairman Joe Lhota resigned on Friday, after just 16 months atop the nation’s largest transit system.

Governor Cuomo appointed Lhota in June of last year, just as the subway crisis was becoming a national embarrassment (for him). Lhota carried the governor’s water, never criticizing his de facto boss publicly and, instead, harping on Mayor de Blasio to help fund subway repairs. Lhota ignored challenges of the governor’s making — such as the fact that the state is still $7.3 billion short on its contribution to the MTA’s current capital plan.

Lhota’s full-time job as chief of staff of the NYU-Langone hospital system gave him little time to advocate for the transit system. Instead, Andy Byford, whom Lhota hired as buses and subways chief in January, emerged as the MTA’s most forceful advocate. That left the rest of the system, including the crumbling Long Island Rail Road, without a champion.

When he came on as chair, Lhota said his goal was to get the agency back on track. He declared “Mission Accomplished” in his resignation statement: “The Subway Action Plan was developed in my first month at the MTA and it has successfully arrested the subway’s decline,” he said.

That assessment is not totally wrong: The subways have in fact posted improving numbers in the last few months, but the $836 million subway action plan — introduced way back in July 2017 — isn’t why.

“They’ve seen basically one or two months of better numbers,” said Jon Orcutt of TransitCenter. “You couldn’t point to anything earlier this year that showed that one year of the subway action plan was making an impact.”

Meanwhile, any straphanger can tell you that whatever Lhota may have accomplished wasn’t enough. On Friday alone, signal problems forced the MTA to stop M train service altogether — and caused delays on even more lines, Gothamist reported. Incidents of that sort continue to be a regular occurrence.

The chief accomplishment of Lhota’s tenure, Orcutt said, was hiring Andy Byford, the man tasked with restoring the city’s subways and buses to their former glory.

In Byford, Lhota and Cuomo found someone who knew how to fix a transit system and, perhaps more importantly, could be a neutral advocate for the agency trusted by everyone — including Cuomo’s political adversaries. Even as they hit Cuomo for letting the subways crumble, both primary challenger Cynthia Nixon and Republican gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro praised Byford. Mayor de Blasio has also expressed confidence in Byford’s leadership.

But the MTA faces a credibility problem that extends far past Byford’s perch at New York City Transit. The Long Island Rail Road has struggles not unlike those facing the subways. MTA capital projects across the board continue to go over-budget and past their deadlines.

“One of the things that did not happen in the last few years sufficiently was clear accountability about how money was spent, including the money the city has contributed to the MTA,” de Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on Friday morning.

He’s right.

Byford has been able to advocate for the subways and buses while taking responsibility for the challenges they face. The next chairperson must do that for the entire agency, advocates told Streetsblog. Otherwise, state legislators will be loath to provide it with badly needed funding or pass congestion pricing.

“We need somebody who’s going to get out there and talk about what’s changing inside the MTA,” said Nick Sifuentes of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “The next chair needs to tell a new story about the MTA, or it’s going to be brutally hard to get the resources from Albany.”

“The politics that the MTA chairman needs to be playing are the politics of getting the funding that the MTA needs, not the politics of weighing in on the squabbles between the city and the state.”

One thing is certain: another part-time chief executive won’t cut it.

“The MTA badly needs a full-time CEO. It’s a humongous, sprawling enterprise,” said John Kaehny of the good-government group Reinvent Albany. “It’s the biggest state government entity. If you said the head of the state DOT was working full-time as a dentist, people would think you’re completely crazy. It’s a massive job.”

The newly elected Democratic state senate could be instrumental in ensuring that, or they could pass the buck to Cuomo as they did when he appointed Lhota last year: The state senate received and approved the appointment in mere hours. A “confirmation hearing,” if you could call it that, took place via video conference at around midnight. Lhota’s controversial board membership at the Madison Square Garden Company, whose 21,000-seat arena is a key impediment to improving Penn Station, never even came up.

“We would have loved a full-time, committed Joe Lhota, but a half-time and fully compromised Joe Lhota had to go,” Kaehny said. “It’s a good opportunity for the Democratic majority in the senate to finally hold real hearings.”

 

[Richard White]

So I was sipping on my Quad Espresso this morning and saw one of those ads for the "please offer me a seat" buttons and cards.

It gets me thinking, how many people actually use these buttons and cards. I think I've only seen one person in the past year with one.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

So I was sipping on my Quad Espresso this morning and saw one of those ads for the "please offer me a seat" buttons and cards.

It gets me thinking, how many people actually use these buttons and cards. I think I've only seen one person in the past year with one.

View attachment 163525

I wonder if people don't want to get them because they don't want to draw attention to themselves. That and people may not want to get one so they don't end up starting an argument with someone. It's the old problem that you don't really know why a particular person needs a seat.

 

[Richard White]

I wonder if people don't want to get them because they don't want to draw attention to themselves. That and people may not want to get one so they don't end up starting an argument with someone. It's the old problem that you don't really know why a particular person needs a seat.

I recall a tweet to TTChelps months ago where someone ranted about not getting a seat despite having the button. The helpful reps plainly stated that is a request to give up their seat and not a demand (like a cripple, octogenarian or the heavily pregnant). It may be that the campaign was one of those things that is good in theory but in practice not so much..

 

[DSC]

I recall a tweet to TTChelps months ago where someone ranted about not getting a seat despite having the button. The helpful reps plainly stated that is a request to give up their seat and not a demand (like a cripple, octogenarian or the heavily pregnant). It may be that the campaign was one of those things that is good in theory but in practice not so much..

I think the posters are actually quite well done as they remind all of us that some people have a real need for a seat and we should keep our eyes open to offer one! A pregnant person or someone with a cane should really not need a button to advertise their condition/need.

 

[PinkLucy]

I was offered a seat twice within a couple of minutes the other day. First time that's happened in years. Maybe I was looking particularly old and frail that day or something, but it was nice to experience even though I didn't need a seat. Far too often I see a little old lady or someone with a cane or a heavily pregnant woman standing while people studiously avoid looking at them.

 

[nfitz]

I think the posters are actually quite well done as they remind all of us that some people have a real need for a seat and we should keep our eyes open to offer one! A pregnant person or someone with a cane should really not need a button to advertise their condition/need.

Absolutely! Though most people seem to bend over to give up seats if they are aware. If there's an issue, it's more likely people too engrossed in their book or mobile to notice. I was really surprised when I used to carry a baby in a carrier, how I'd have to reject so many seat offers if I wanted to stand (sometimes it was just easier!) - and on the rarer occasions I absolutely needed to sit carrying a sleeping child, people just melted out of my way.

I'd be really surprised if someone who needed a seat couldn't get one if they asked. Sometimes though it's tough to tell. I went through a spell recently where I had some balance and feinting issues - and it wasn't particularly evident looking at me ... though for the most part, I wasn't travelling at peak, so seating never became an issue.

Far too often I see a little old lady or someone with a cane or a heavily pregnant woman standing while people studiously avoid looking at them.

Gosh, I just don't see that. Now, I do tend to sit at the back of streetcars and buses, where such folks are less likely to get to. But so often I see people giving up seats - particularly for children who are more likely to get that far back.

 

[Richard White]

I'd be really surprised if someone who needed a seat couldn't get one if they asked. Sometimes though it's tough to tell

Therein lies the problem. In our very litigious society I would not be surprised if someone took offense to being presumed disabled leading to an argument.

 

[drum118]

Nov 11
You finally can see out the south side widows at Kipling Station. Various windows have the hoarding removed for them to see daylight again.

Next time GO trains are on Detour for the lakeshore, you can watch out the windows to see them.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Therein lies the problem. In our very litigious society I would not be surprised if someone took offense to being presumed disabled leading to an argument.

It is pretty obvious most of the time. And I am fairly confident (99%) that there is at least one person sitting on the blue seats who doesn't need it.

AoD

 

[Richard White]

You can't sue someone for giving you a seat.

AoD

No but you can certainly cause an argument by wrongfully assuming someone is disabled. Just because someone is dumber than a sack of door knobs does not mean they are mentally challenged.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

No but you can certainly cause an argument by wrongfully assuming someone is disabled. Just because someone is dumber than a sack of door knobs does not mean they are mentally challenged.

I am mainly referring to physical disabilities (limb loss, blindness, etc), aging and pregnancy here - not whether they have Down's Syndrome. It is really a weak argument for not giving up one's seat.

AoD