City
TTC to Scrap Queen Streetcar Split
After a month-long experiment last fall, TTC staff have revealed what many riders already knew: splitting the Queen streetcar route led to even more delays.
The pilot project on the often-criticized 24 km route involved westbound streetcars turning back at Shaw and those heading eastbound looping back around Parliament. With an overlapping section between these two intersections running a total of 4 km across the majority of the downtown core, the hope was that bunching on the route would be reduced.
As it turned out, splitting the route actually led to a 90 per cent increase in the overall number of short turns, and a whopping 223 per cent swell during rush hour.
Because such short turns require passengers to get off one streetcar and board another, they're particularly disruptive to commute times.
Instead of a split route, the TTC plans to stick with a system known as Step Forward, which has already been implemented along the 501. The primary feature of the Step Forward program is that supervisors are able to replace operators (rather than the streetcar that they're driving) at the conclusion of their shift. Although difficult to believe, operators used to be tied to their vehicle, which necessitated that it be taken out of service when their shift was finished, regardless of its location along the route.
Unsurprisingly, adopting this change resulted in the reduction of short turns. But it's not really new. When implemented in 2007, Step Forward cut afternoon short turns to 9.7 per cent, down from 32.5 per cent, while those in the morning were reduced to 4.1 per cent, down from 13.9 per cent.
Despite the fact that 501 split worsened travel times, some were encouraged by the TTC's willingness to experiment. As one of the most crucial arteries in the city, improvement of the Queen St. route should remain a top priority.
Thus far, Step Forward has been the most successful strategy for reducing gaps along the 501. But it would be a shame if the failure of the latest experiment was cause to throw in the towel. Surely, there must be more aggressive measures than Step Forward that can be explored?
Photo by votreceinture, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Discussion
33 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
*cough* Union Contract *cough*. . .
Are they on break? A half hour for lunch? Just lazy and slow at getting back to their vehicle? Regardless, there is something wrong with this system. It pretty much guarantees bunching and screws up the traffic on that section of Queen St as well.
They really need to come up with a system that allows drivers to take breaks without screwing up the entire system. The smart thing would be to drop the one driver to one streetcar thing and carefully plan and stagger breaks so when one driver is supposed to go for one, someone takes his streetcar over for him/her then when they get back, they take over the next person's streetcar for their break and continue on with that one.
Except that requires organizational skills which the TTC has illustrated they do not have.
As someone who travels from the east to the core on the 501, I would rather know the streetcar is turning on Parliament or not (then board accordingly), instead of getting on a Neville Park bound car and get randomly ejected (at least once a week) at Connaught or Kingston Road.
By jove, that's just crazy enough to work!
Holy shit, the fact that this is a new idea to them just goes to show you the level of thought that the TTC is operating on. It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.
keven on January 19, 2010 at 1:08 PM , replying to a comment from Nexus
When someone works overtime, they have to be paid overtime. It's called basic employment law and you don't need to be part of a union to be protected under it.
"22. (1) An employer shall pay an employee overtime pay of at least one and one-half times his or her regular rate for each hour of work in excess of 44 hours in each week or, if another threshold is prescribed, that prescribed threshold. 2000, c. 41, s. 22 (1)."
You're normally lucky if they give you a block's notice.
When someone works overtime, they have to be paid overtime. It's called basic employment law and you don't need to be part of a union to be protected under it.
-------
Uh, no.
I can name dozens of my friends who work crazy hours but it's just part of the job. There ain't no overtime for me or them. Love it or leave it.
Know anybody that works in advertising?
We clowns are salaried.
We work nights, weekends, go away for days/weeks on commercial shoots.
We log all those hours and they're billed to the clients.
I could log a 60-70 hour week but NO OVERTIME IS PAID TO ME.
Our contracts say shit like "will perform duties as required bla bla bla" that, I guess, circumvents the whole overtime thing altogether.
Uh. Not.
There's nothing more aggravating than being a block away from Queen St. on your way to catch the car, seeing the streetcar go by in the distance, and thinking, "Oh, no big deal, another will be along shortly." And it is--10 seconds later, so you miss both.
It was pretty obvious that the split didn't improve the bunching. But making it worse? Brilliant.
overtime laws are somewhat difficult to enforce, especially if your job doesn't require you to "time in" and "time out". If they do, it's much easier to enforce, obviously. Even then, you see a lot of people who don't get paid overtime. I've worked 70 hour weeks back to back, with the verbal agreement I'd just take time off when the assignment was done. It happens...
I think that both the fact that its the law, as well as the fact there is a strong union there to enforce it, are both very important in this case.
As for the actual discussion at hand: ugh. I had to cab the other day because I was freezing.. a woman at the stop told me three had just passed back to back while I was in the grocery store. Better service would be lovely.
be replace on his streetcar at the end of his
shift. The vehicle would remain in service with
the new operator.
It's surprising to think that the operator is now
attached to his/her vehicle and that the vehicle
would be taken out of service at the end of the
operator's shift.
*90% is a made up number, point is majority of people in this city do not work under these conditions.
I am sympathetic to the views I have seen expressed elsewhere to the effect that the TTC (either change-resistant operators or higher-ups, or some unholy combination) seemed to be sabotaging this little experiment from the beginning because they saw it as meddling initiated by outsiders...
... but as usual, comments here degenerate into union-bashing from the word go. Way to be constructive, Toronto.
on a side note. it takes me 30-45 mins to get to ossington from windermere using the streetcar. the actual travel time is 15mins. to WAIT for a streetcar 15-30 mins!!! F***!!! writing this makes me upset. i always leave my house at the same time but i never get to work on time. its either im early, exactly on time, or late! i never knew that the TTC can be so unreliable. it was better when i used to live in sauga and had to drive all the way to work. another fact: i thought moving closer will mean that i can sleep in... NOT! i wake up at the same damn timeas before when i used to drive from sauga! F***!!! thats all. thanks for reading my rant.
Maybe you should form a union.
The reason the 501 sucks so hard is because of TTC guys wanting to take breaks?
Am I understanding this correctly?
That's a nice idea, but non-public employees don't really have that luxury any longer. Too easy to outsource overseas, and all that.
http://wp.me/pIDFN-4i
TTC's real problem is its fixation with streetcars in the first place, when there should be another subway line. But even if the streetcar went below ground while in the downtown core from Parliament to Shaw, it would vastly improve service. But this is a whole other matter..
And about the TTC drivers taking breaks WHILE driving; I see this on the 501 a bit (although less in recent years), but there's one driver who always gets off to grab a piece of pizza around 5:30-6:00 just before the Sorauren stop. It usually takes him anywhere from 2-5 minutes, and he's on his way. This is one of the busier sections of the streetcar ride, outside of downtown, and backing up traffic even further is.. uncalled for.
And I've seen the streetcar stop a few times around Niagara to jump off and grab a bite as well.. blocking the lane, and of course, cars were parked on the right. So the entire side of the road was cut off.. nice. The Dufferin Bus drivers are also very guilty of stopping at a convenience store frequently, allowing 2-4 other buses to actually pass them, while they're inside buying whatever can't wait.
Complain, complain.. but at least I don't have to live with the split.
It's a nightmare of overcrowding, short turns, long waits and bunching.
this system they've outlined, plus more streetcars and less turning seems to be the solution.