City
TTC Subway Down Between Eglinton And Union on Yonge Line
Update (10:56am):
Although the subway was shut down for 45 minutes, visitors to the TTC's new (really expensive) web site would not have known because the service disruption read "There are no major disruptions at this time" for the duration of the service shutdown. A transit rider (and blogTO reader) has also told us that TTC an employee in a west end station wasn't able to confirm whether or not service was down or restored.
Following this morning's incident, I spoke with TTC spokesperson Brad Ross, who admits that there are deficiencies. "The TTC.ca web site is still relatively new, and there are still wrinkles to be sorted out," he explained, adding that effective and quick communication with riders is of utmost importance. He'll be discussing this technical glitch in a meeting with web/technical staff this afternoon.
When asked about how the TTC passes on information to employees in times of service disruption, Ross briefly explained the current, admittedly cumbersome method: when apprised of service disruption by transit control, a small team of supervisors must telephone all 69 stations to pass on the news to toll collectors. Addendum: In addition to attempts by supervisors to inform employees directly, all TTC staff are expected to listen to, and relay information from, publicly broadcast PA announcements that are made in all stations and on subways.
Update (8:03am):
Police are saying that a woman fell onto the tracks, and a train passed through (over her?!) without touching her. Count your lucky stars.
Update (7:43am):
Subway service has fully resumed, but figure in some extra time to account for the backlog.
Update (7:30am):
680news radio is reporting that a police investigation is underway at the Yonge/Bloor station.
Trains on the Bloor-Danforth line are skipping by the Yonge stop.
7:22am on Wednesday, September 17, 2008
"A section of the Yonge-University-Spadina Subway service is currently shut down from Union Station to Eglinton Station."
This includes service in both directions. Expect shuttle bus services to be in operation.
(Source)
Discussion
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But ultimately I don't care how they do it - the TTC just needs to get quicker at updating customers online and on the platforms/trains.
We tested the TTC RSS (they use feed43.com), and it updates about once every 15-20mins at best. This renders it relatively inefficient.
http://feed43.com/ttcstatus.xml
Why the ttc.ca front page doesn't propogate the RSS is a mystery to me.
http://www3.ttc.ca/RSS/Service_Alerts/index.jsp
Fortunately the choice of St George worked out but TTC routinely forgets that people travelling on one line DO need to know what's going on on the other, and that when a condition that has been announced on local radio/tv has cleared, it might be an idea to leave a notification of service resumption on the screen for say half an hour.
The next day, the subway still down past Warden, not a single announcement until the Subway had gotten to Warden and the operator informed the riders that they wouldn't be heading any further. A nasty surprise for those who hadn't heard the news about the derailment.
Asked the guy in the booth "is the yonge line running now"
he responds "I don't know"
WTF!
The TTC also needs to maintain a page where service disruption advisories persist for at least a few hours. When you are late for work because of the TTC, and your supervisor drives or takes the GO to Union and walks the PATH, it's nice to have some evidence to corroborate your explanation... especially when the delay is short enough (e.g. 15-20 mins) to make you late but not long enough to filter out to the media. Presumably they resist archiving this information publicly because it could be embarrassing?
That Yahoo news story isn't accurate. It was originally thought that the woman fainted, but that has since proved to be false.
You should complain to the TTC in regards to the treatment you recieved.
That makes my blood boil!!!!!!
I've always wondered why we don't have the small
fences like the Japanese subway stations.
https://wx.toronto.ca/inter/ttc/feedback.nsf/icomplaint