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TTC: Streetcar Network

allengeorge said:
I was in Boston recently and noticed some bus stops with two-piece E-ink displays. One part had next stop information and the other had service information related to that stop. I thought it was an excellent use of technology, and something Toronto should strongly consider, even knowing that retrofitting thousands of stops is a long-term process (maybe we could start with the routes most prone to service diversions?)

Maybe the above idea wouldn’t work because of vandalism; I did notice far, far less homelessness and vandalism in Boston, and a far better quality and upkeep of public spaces than Toronto, so…

EDIT: at the end of the day, relying on individual employees to take pride in their work appears to be a fools errand in large organizations. Far better to automate (some) things and remove humans from the loop entirely.
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Instead of a full roll out of it, put them first in prominent areas that are generally vandalism free and/or well monitored.
 
Speaking of vandalism it’s a shame we don’t punish anti social behaviour at all!

Every screen smashed out for months though they’re changing them slowly. I believe some were at pioneer village as well
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Northern Light said:
Once again, another worldly UT'er providing a great example of something in print.......but failing to show what he's talking about........... I shall fix.

Here's a link to the MBTA (Boston's Transit Authority) digital signage project:

Digital Signage | Projects | MBTA

Official website of the MBTA -- schedules, maps, and fare information for Greater Boston's public transportation system, including subway, commuter rail, bus routes, and boat lines.
www.mbta.com www.mbta.com

From the above:

View attachment 566621

Great sign, but, quick skim of the service frequency may yet show the TTC has some nominal strengths...........

Now for the one over the subway entrance:

View attachment 566622

They also have this version:

View attachment 566623

Toronto vandalism is no worse than Boston, and other cities have digital signage, you can build it quite sturdy.
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Thank you - you’re right: a picture is worth a 1000 words, and I should have taken some effort to add some pics to my post.

FWIW, I saw version 2 and 3, and was particularly impressed by 3, which I thought was a great application of e-ink. Version 1 is very similar to what the MTA uses in NYC.

What was great about all displays is that they were extremely legible, and had no advertising (unlike Toronto, where it seems like the primary purpose of displays on subway platforms is as a CP24 delivery device, with transit information secondary.)

As to vandalism, all I can say is that I saw little to none in the parts of Boston I visited, and in general all the public spaces seemed far better maintained than those in Toronto. Even the garbage bins weren’t overflowing :)
 
DSC said:
Unfortunately, automated systems do not maintain themselves. Those pesky humans will always be involved, even if only as servants to their electronic masters!
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Yes - but the fewer failure point there are, the better.

There could be many reason why an individual transit worker doesn’t remove the previous signage; they:

* don’t care
* don’t know what to remove
* don’t have the equipment to remove it
* don’t have the time to remove it

Given any (or all) the above reasons and all the individual transit workers and stops involved, a central system makes changes less clutter-y.
 
mind_the_gap said:
In honour of @just east of the creek's venture into my homeland, I thought I'd crosspost this from CPTDB here:

Some recent goings on in Helsinki (Finland)...
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Source

Left to right, heritage trams 339, 12 and 150 were secretively sent off to the scrapyard. 339 had been fully restored with private money in the early 2000s.

Then this happened,
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Car 9 now faces the same fate as those above, along with trailer 505, which can't be pulled by other cars. Someone apparently forgot to lock the door.

The TTC (Toronto) is not alone in not cherishing their heritage fleets.

On a positive note,
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A new eastern orbital tram line (13) is now in testing. It will form an important 4.5km (2.8mi) link between Helsinki's second biggest train station (Pasila), the metro/subway (Kalasatama), and a future light rail line (Nihti). Photos can be found here: 1 / 2.


This I found amusing - apparently the underground loop detectors used for tram signals can be so sensitive that a person standing above in steel safety shoes can activate a false "go" signal.

Ps. Enjoy my country @just east of the creek!! If you get a chance, take the train to my hometown Tampere for a more authentic experience. Bring me back some Hesburger ;)
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Its a nice, easy and frequent system to ride. With priority at the lights, which is really an advantage over Toronto. On narrower streets, you encounter the same issues at lights. but the car volumes are lesser to begin with. On wider streets, most of the lines are physically separated from the traffic and run at the same speed between stops. Easy to use and enjoyable to use. And funnily enough, you do not see much 'art' applied anywhere in Helsinki.
 
And in honour of your country, which reminds me a lot of this country, this was my first visit outside of the months Dec through March. What a difference!!! I gather the weather has been extraordinary for this time of the year, and for the past week - sunny and warmish - but no matter, it was great. Grabbing the trolley downtown after work, wandering round the lower town....very, very nice livable city with attention to detail!! And enjoyable to visit. It’s A Marcus Gee ride from the airport and an easy commute. You just have to get used to the extended hours of daylight!
 
mind_the_gap said:
^ Hearing from you made my day!!! :D

This popped up in my feed a few days ago:


Toronto already does this well!
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This is off topic, but I am curious. How are their BYD buses? I know they bought a lot of them. And I’m curious because of all the issues we’ve had with ours.
 
I didn't realize the TTC is redoing the rails from Coxwell to Upper Gerrard, May 27-June 7. (Edit to add: only the corner, probably 100 m of track, both directions)
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Photos from today:
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PL1 said:
I didn't realize the TTC is redoing the rails from Coxwell to Upper Gerrard, May 27-June 7.
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The major work I've seen is only the curve from Coxwell to Upper Gerrard that's been failing for a while. I don't know why they didn't do it during last year's closure.

I think they are doing other spot repairs too - they replaced the tracks at the westbound Bowmore stop, but that only took a couple of days last week. I haven't seen anything on Lower Gerrard though, so I'm a bit puzzled why they aren't detouring down Coxwell instead of using Broadview/Parliament.

The Upper Gerrard track was all replaced in 2006 - but they stopped at exactly where the excavation is starting now. By chance I have a picture of this below, as I used to live overlooking this intersection.

I'm curious how old the track on the curve, and on Coxwell between the Lower Gerrard and Upper Gerrard intersections are.

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