City
New TTC Bus and Streetcar Shelters Finally Erected
TTC bus and streetcar shelters finally got a facelift today.
About to get on the Queen streetcar just east of Landsdowne, I noticed a maintenance crew busily working at the spot previously occupied by a bus shelter that had been noticeably absent in recent weeks.
The new bus shelters are an extension of the TTC Next Train Arrival program announced last month that will bring us information such as when the next TTC vehicle is to arrive to the streets of Toronto. The displays on the new shelters will also feed us information on delays, helping us make decisions like "Should I wait for the next vehicle, take a cab or walk instead?"
I asked one of the workers how long it takes to put up the new shelter and he said "about an hour." He told me they had just completed a section along Dundas and are working on the entire city's new shelters.
"Eventually, we'll have LED screens on poles or built into all-new shelters that will show the expected time and physical location of the next vehicle," said TTC Chair Adam Giambrone at the launch of the One Stop Network initiative last month.
Implementing this sort of plan is long overdue. But just in time for the inclement weather ahead. It may take a little more time before all the new technology such as a digital readout announcing the arrival times of the next two surface vehicles, but it's coming soon to a TTC route near you.
Getting on the streetcar, it took me past the Dufferin stop, where the old shelter hadn't even been taken down yet. I wondered when they'd get to that stop. And how they decided which areas needed new shelters first.
Is there a ghost shelter spot in your neighbourhood awaiting a fancy new shelter to be erected? What do you think of the new TTC bus shelters?
Photos by Roger Cullman.
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They've had them out here in the east end for at least a month now on at least a few bus routes.
I first noticed them along the entire length of Victoria Park (not exactly the best neighbourhood). They installed shelters at every single stop, regardless of if there was a shelter there prior.
They didn't appear to have the 'next bus arrival' signs installed yet however.
It snowed in Newfoundland yesterday. Let's hope they beat the snowy weather here too. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would hate being caught in a snowfall waiting for a bus or streetcar where no shelter exists.
Will they also be able to tell us if the next vehicle is going to receive orders to short-turn and dump us off on a rainy corner up ahead?
On a more serious note, this technology would be greatly appreciated, but I have to say that Vancouver has had this running for probably 8 years now.
It would be pretty silly if a shelter couldn't do just that.
There's only two sides of it that seems to be covered.
Also I think the ads may not be aimed at TTC patrons waiting for the bus but to drivers and people walking past.
About an hour yes... all at once.. no.
They have been spending 30 minutes to put up the roof and ad part, then come back for the side panels two weeks later.
This is what HCU is talking about above.
I've also noticed several incorrectly labeleld shelters. Including one at Dundas and Belwwods that says "Dundas Street"
So they are coming back to finish putting the sides of the shelters? I waiting under a new one yesterday in the rain that only had the roof and thought it was finished... needless to say, I wasn't sheltered from the rain at all without sides.
commitmenttoquality@outdoor.astral.com
I fell to the ground due to unsafe circumstances. There is a 1 foot rise on the concrete base which wasn't taped with safety tape
Where the hell are the walls? I have seen many with just one wall and two posts holding up the other side. Maybe they aren't complete (try Dupont and Dundas W, among others) but they've been like that for awhile. Come winter, with snow, the bitter wind and sometimes rain, these "shelters" are going to be useless. They were clearly designed by someone who has not waited for up to an hour for the TTC on a cold, blustery night.
Tons of the new shelters show street names that do not match the announced stop on busses/streetcars. (For example, two or three in a row on Eglinton eastbound, east of Bayview).
This is confusing.
The TTC has got to be the most mismanaged company in the country, operating at over a million dollars a day losses, so no matter what they do, things only get worse. The TTC supplement it's screw ups by increasing the fares and the average rider gets stuck paying the price!
What a joke!!
I was involved in car accident a few years back, where a car drove into on of the old brown bus shelters, the car struck one of the corner posts and it was stopped dead in it's tracks, if it had been one of the new shelters the people standing there would have been killed, as the car would have gone right through the shelter with nothing stopping it. I was one of those people standing in the shelter and thank God the shelter's corner post stopped the car.
So use these shelters at your own peril, the city & TTC is so desperate for money that they are putting the public's safety second to making money. They are giving company's carte blanche over our city for a few buck's.