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TTC: Transit City Bus Plan
- Thread starter W. K. Lis
- Start date
W. K. Lis
Superstar
The real problem with Toronto's Express buses is that they don't really get "priority" at traffic light intersections. They seem to have to stop at each minor intersection, because the light is against them. Any "priority" is to delay the green, but sometimes the "delay" happens to go with the cross traffic instead.
Step one: get real "transit" traffic lights, like they have in Europe or even in some states down south.
Step two: use them as designed, no other traffic, with or cross, moves when transit has the priority.
Step one: get real "transit" traffic lights, like they have in Europe or even in some states down south.
Step two: use them as designed, no other traffic, with or cross, moves when transit has the priority.
nfitz
Superstar
It stops where it makes sense to stop. I don't recall any intersecting bus routes at Sasamat for example.
Unlike many express routes in Toronto, it has major destinations at both ends. UBC and the Skytrain so there's little reason for it to go non-express.
Something similar on Don Mills between Don Mills and Pape/Donlands station would make sense.
ssiguy2
Senior Member
I think you are right about Sasamat but it's due to being close to UBC and is very much a student ghetto for UBC and UBC is the next stop. Only reason it doesn't have a major bus route is because is borders the UBC Endowment Lands, it's a logical exception.
An articulated bus is about $800k so for the $85 million Toronto just got nailed for on SRT due to it's incompetence, Toronto could have 100 articulated B-Line type buses already on the roads offering reliable rapid transit.
An articulated bus is about $800k so for the $85 million Toronto just got nailed for on SRT due to it's incompetence, Toronto could have 100 articulated B-Line type buses already on the roads offering reliable rapid transit.
nfitz
Superstar
Sasamat and West 10th a student ghetto? There's a couple of small apartment buildings near there, but are there that many students in them? The houses on West 9th and West 11th are massively expensive, starting at about $2 million each. When I wonder around the neighbourhood, I don't see a lot of students, and none away from West 10th.
So reliable that a lot of people in Vancouver are pushing to replace the B-Line with the exact same technology that the SRT is using.
"Exact same" is a bit of an exaggeration. That's like saying an iMac circa 1997 is the exact same as an iMac circa 2013, because they share the same name and are made by the same company.
There have been obvious improvements made between the ICTS used on the SRT and the ICTS currently being used on the Evergreen Line, which will be the same tech used on any UBC extension of the Evergreen Line.
nfitz
Superstar
And yet Mark I vehicles (the model we currently use on the SRT) would be running under West 10th ... well if they actually build it before they fall apart.
And if we instead spent a much smaller sum to upgrade to the new vehicles that BC is using, the SRT would also be using the same vehicles as would West 10th in the 2030s.
I was just pointing out that the phrase "exact same" is factually incorrect. "Newer version of" would be a more appropriate term. There is no denying that the ICTS technology has evolved since it was first implemented on the SRT.
nfitz
Superstar
It's not factually incorrect. You could literally pick up an SRT train, fly it to Vancouver, and it would run on the line there.
I suppose it's not the exact same vehicle that runs there, because we don't fly them back and forth across the country ... but surely that's getting into angels on pin heads territory.
Just because the tracks themselves are still able to run older trains doesn't mean that the technology, specifically in the cars themselves, haven't improved immensely. You could still run a Gloucester Subway car on the TTC subway tracks today. Does that mean that Gloucester car and the Toronto Rockets are technologically equal? Of course not! The technology has evolved since then. Because the system is backwards compatible to handle older cars means nothing.
nfitz
Superstar
Sure, but that's not my point. I was just pointing out the irony that BC wants to replace the B-Line with Skytrain ... and we might have to replace our Skytrain with an express bus!
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I don't think that is on the table. come the end of september, if the Harper Government hasn't provided funding (which considering the fact that Harper is now proroguing government until october, it is highly unlikely) it will revert back to the LRT option.
Voltz
Senior Member
I don't think this subway nonsense will die that easily, council could just soften their demands and start preliminary work on the EA with their own funding, pushing the deadline for funding off until around the next election, and of course everyone will screaming out for subways to get themselves elected.
Ah gotcha. Yeah it is pretty sad when Vancouver is upgrading that corridor and changing the SRT to a BRT, despite my fondness for BRT, in this case would definitely be a downgrade.
I've said it before somewhere else, but I hope that this is what will ultimately happen:
1) The Feds pony up nothing.
2) The Province steps in and says to Council "we will give you the extra money, provided that a) you endorse Metrolinx' revenue tools, and b) the extra money comes from those revenue tools".
This would put Ford in the ultimate bind. He would either have to support revenue tools, or watch his subway dream die. If the revenue tools do get supported, then Toronto has its funding for the DRL as well.