Bringing Back TTC Subway Garbage Bins

You know, I was JUST think that yesterday. I had to chuck a coffee cup, and walked along the entire platform - and didn't find a garbage bin. I was irritated!

I ended up leaving the cup on the train. Discreteely tucked it under the seat!

"Have other cities with subways managed to return bins to their track-level platforms?"

You'd also need to account for whether or not they allow food & drink on vehicles, as many cities don't.

@Jordan

Point taken. But there's a lot more to garbage than food and drink packaging.

If terrorist are able to plant bombs in the subway waste bins whos to stop them from planting them on the subways carts or station.
I'm sorry but i don't really see how thats the reason they were to get rid of trash can.

Thanks for making that point, Jordan. On a recent trip to Chicago, I noticed that food and drink are forbidden on the transit system. Perhaps that had something to do with how spotless it was?

Eating or having coffee on a bus/streetcar/subway is just plain gross.

@Patrick

I'm curious. What do you find is so gross about drinking take-out coffee on a bus/subway?

If they bring back the trash cans, look out. The Freedom Haters will drop dirty bombs, anthrax and who knows what else in them. Death to all infidels is their motto. And what better place to strike back at us evil doers than to blow up one of our shitty subways stations!

ps; Am I the only one who thinks the subway stations here look like public toilets?

Oh, how about starting with the coffee stain on my coat? Crowded streetcar. Somebody drinking her S-bucks over my lap, carelessly, while holding onto the pole.

And then there's the garbage...

The TTC used to use a garbage train to collect garbage from the various subway stations, but I think they abandoned the idea, in favour of surface collection by truck, after their garbage train was damaged by fire. You can't chuck a garbage bag upstairs as easily as down, so I wonder if that has something to do with the new garbage regime.

Those chubby, tiled garbage cans were kind of neat -- alas, a lot of 'em got ... landfilled? Sigh.

i was thinking about this on the weekend! we definitely need them back!!!

There is a major disappearance of garbage cans on track level but some still exist. Bloor Yonge station still has them on track level, but considering the amount of people that move through that station daily, I don't think they can forgo the idea.

And because of the number of people going through the station daily, it would be a prime target for terrorism...

I'm confused, why aren't there garbage bins at track level?

A big "boo," by the way, to the helpless muppets who can't carry their empty cups and wrappers around until they pass by one of the upper-level garbage bags. I mean, really. You could carry it when it was full, but the instant you're done with it all the muscles go out of your hands?

@Eric S. Smith

Very true, I mean they`re going to pass it at one point. It`s not like it`s completely out of their way.

I think they got rid of them to reduce their garbage budget, the line about them being in the collectors sightlines is rubbish, I can think of a dozen of them that are nowhere near where any collector can see them.

I took this photo a few weeks ago. I thought it was ironic that perhaps the staff had done this because they're also fed up with the mess.

I agree with Eric S. Smith, as well: people should be more considerate with their consumer habits.

But most of the subway stations are not dirty from liter but dirty from soot and dust which gets naturally blown through the system. Eglinton West is really, really dirty and so is Dupont Station. The corners are so thick with black dust it looks like there was a fire somewhere. How hard is it to just wash the floors once in a while? It's really a health issue.

I noticed bins on the Bloor-Danforth platform at Yonge today.

The TTC removed the garbage bins a couple of years back (I forget exactly when) after the bombing of the Tube in London in 2005, or at least that is what they said. The trash bins were removed due to the possibility of an explosive device being dropped in a bin at track level where large numbers of people gather during rush hour. The old trash bins were made of metal and would provide a lot of schrapnel if an explosive were to be detonated in a bin. The TTC proceeded to replace all trash bins on the mezzanine level of stations where the collectors are with the current trash bin incarnation, which are transparent and have as little metal as possible and would create very little schrapnel. Some of these trash bins are at track level at certain stations including St. George and Bloor stations on the Yonge-Univeristy-Spadina line but not on the Bloor line.

I think they should place the new bins at all levels in the system to reduce the amount of littering and the potential for track level fires when garbage touches the third rail. The removal of the trash bins does not remove the potential for someone to place a bomb in the subway. Are they going to remove the benches next so bombs cannot be left underneath? Or maybe they will remove seats on the TTC vehicles for the same reason?

Thanks @ Eric S Smith for the comment. Was going to point that out too.

@Joe: You found the energy to walk an entire platform to look for a garbage can, but couldn't make it up to station level? Sigh.

What annoys me about the removal of the track-level bins is that in many cases there aren't any upper-level bins within the fared zone - for example, at the South end of Lawrence Station there are no bins between the collector booth and the track. What that means is there is no place to ditch your bus transfer. The result is that many people (me included) shove the transfer into the collector booth slot so that the collector can dispose of it. This leads to yelling by the irritated collector, who then demands a 5% raise to compensate for his post-traumatic stress, etc.

I know it's just a little piece of paper and I'd have to simply carry it until I leave the TTC premises and find a garbage bin, but really how hard is it to provide a simple garbage bin just inside the fare collection area for transfers?

You know what they should have? A place ON TRAINS to put newspapers when you're done with them, so other people can pick them up and read them.

This might prevent them from being strewn on the floor, and have htem read more than once.

People are slobs, that's the biggest part of the problem. No personal responsibility, or respect for public facilities. Sure, there should be more garbage cans, but that still wouldn't stop the jerks who pitch everything onto the floor of the subway cars. I say bring on an eating and drinking ban (although how the hell that would be enforced is beyond me)!

With TASERS (bro). ;)

I second the eating/drinking ban. Washington's metro doesn't allow food either. Set a high fine (say $200) and publicize it really well. Then let everyone know when people get caught and have to pay up. The public will get the idea.

"Some of these trash bins are at track level at certain stations including St. George and Bloor stations on the Yonge-Univeristy-Spadina line but not on the Bloor line."

Being a frequent traveler to Kipling, I'm 100% sure they have it there as well.

Yeah there is one at Kipling. Directly outside of the staff/controller room.

I wonder if the workers near that Kipling garbage can get danger pay. They should take it to the union ;)

It's true that the problem is not really the bins; it's the people. Put bins on the platforms, and people will still be too lazy to walk to them if they're standing more than three steps away.

I wish public littering was punishable by stuffing the litter up the litterer's... sigh, never mind.

Toronto doesn't have enemies, bring back out garbage bins please.

At least our garbage gets shipped south of the border to a country that does have enemies. lol

It could be worse.

Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

http://wcbstv.com/local/machine.guns.subway.2.707398.html

"I second the eating/drinking ban. Washington's metro doesn't allow food either. Set a high fine (say $200) and publicize it really well. Then let everyone know when people get caught and have to pay up. The public will get the idea."

No way man. Too many stories of asshole transit cops harassing people for walking into the subway carrying a cup of coffee and arresting children for having a box of french fries.

We should all just make an effort to be polite and considerate when it comes to food and drink on the TTC, instead of regulating the hell out of the issue.

God knows we can't have real garbage cans on the Terrible Transit anymore... Omar from al-Qauda might stuff a dirty bomb in one, and then what? The resulting explosion would send discarded TTC transfers, Tim Hortons coffee cups, and well-read issues of Metro and 24 flying everywhere.

All sarcasm aside, I take my trash and recyclables (TTC transfers, plastic bottles) home with me for recycling. What ever happened to the garbage containers the TTC had on buses and streetcars a couple of years back? I guess the drivers protested having to do anythiing other than drive, although they used to sell tickets, make change, give directions, and actually be helpful many years ago.

The best solution for the time being: if you don't have a TTC garbage bag nearby, take your trash with you instead of treating public transit like the floor of your filthy apartment: there are plenty of trash containers on Toronto's streets.

I don't fancy a food ban, because then my eating and drinking has to revolve around the arrival and speed of TTC vehicles. Streetcar ten minutes late in February? Now you get to enjoy the added insult of having to ditch the coffee or tea you've bought to keep warm when the thing finally deigns to show up. And what's the boundary between "food" and "groceries"? May I transport take-out? Will I have to risk a belligerent moron howling "No eatin' onna bus!" when I try to pop in a cough drop? Gum? Would we be permitted bottled water on an uncooled vehicle in summer?

Nuts to that.

At Metronauts the TTC said another reason why they don't put the bins down there (besides the terrorism thing) is because newspaper and stuff gets onto the tracks and can actually cause fires.

This is where the bins ended up at: Tommy Thompson park.
http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/archives/photos_objects/050923_1311.shtml

Toss your garbage anywhere, even on the tracks.

If TTC can't provide trash bins, then too bad for them.

Wonder when the TTC will get to clean their washrooms too? There's garbage in there... Guess they save money on toilet paper and soap. The idiots.

Shame on you, to the nerd that 'manages' the TTC. You suck big time. You have no idea what leadership is all about. There's enough proof of that!