City
The TTC status page actually works!
The page ain't getting any prettier, and today's entry might best be filed under "no s***, Sherlock," but after navigating my way through the haze of mystifying buttons on the TTC.ca front page and finding my way into the service advisory, I was reasonably heartened to see that the page might actually be counted on tomorrow to tell me whether or not I can get to work. In the meantime, I'm going to build a snow fort and call it "Transit Control."
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But it doesn't even tell you which stations are affected. Shouldn't it say, for example, that shuttles are running between Xstation and Ystation, with stops at Zstation? That would be far more useful.
This is the first time I have seen that page accurately indicating a service disruption; I imagine it's because they've had 20 hours to post a message.
It appears that with sudden emergencies such as power failures, "unauthorized person on track", etc. it's best to still tune into the radio.
A section of the Scarborough RT service is currently shut down. Shuttle buses are in service.
A section of the Bloor-Danforth Subway service is currently shut down from Victoria Park Station to Warden Station. Shuttle buses are in service.
So how efficient are they at removing these advisories after the problem has been rectified? This could potentially cost them paying customers if they aren't quick in this regard.
Also, they now have two separate service disruptions listed but only one place to mark the time and date so now new visitors wouldn't know when the first incident was posted.
It would be hilarious if they forgot to switch this back to good when the system's running again.
I actually think they *should* leave advisories on the page after they're cleared, but with a time/date stamp and an obvious note that the problem has been resolved.
If I'm 30 minutes late for work because I had to take a shuttle bus instead of the subway, I'd like to have something to point to by way of "proof" once I'm at work.
Of course, maintaining a clear public record of all the times your service was unavailable is probably seen as bad PR... but it could be very helpful.
I get the sense that this page is manually updated. Instead, it should be dynamically updated based on some computerized status system, but who knows if the TTC even has such a thing (or, if they do, that it's sufficiently hackable).
Well, according to this system the Scarborough RT has been offline for over 6h. How can we check to see how accurate it is?
I'm inclined to believe the RT situation is real. That system simply cannot stand snowfall of this magnitude; it gets twitchy after about 5 cm.
It doesn't need to be pretty. Pretty doesn't matter. In fact, Web design altogether is pretty much irrelevant.
It needs to be an RSS feed. Just get us the information. Web designers is standing by, each with a different purpose for that information. They'll be the ones to worry about pretty -- not you, TTC.
You know what would be awesome? If the TTC had a Twitter account to announce service disruptions too. Of course, if they had an RSS feed, I could just create that Twitter account.
Well, the system works - I got the "no major disruptions" message this morning and headed off to work. Of course, "no major" doesn't seem to cover "everything east of Vic Park is slow as all getout because our system can't handle Toronto weather" but I still got to work in about double the usual travel time.
[sarcasm]Great! Now all the 2.48 million Toronto residents have to do is check that web page every time they intend to use the city's transit service.[/sarcasm]