City
TTC putting $6-million into service improvements
Right on the heels of taking a significant lead in yesterday's poll regarding what annoys Torontonians the most, the TTC is announcing a series of service improvements. Is there a connection? Absolutely not, but I thought I'd indulge the fantasy for a millisecond. Still, it's pretty good news, even if it's not much money in the grand scheme of things. And, really, this probably the type of customer service improvement that riders are most interested in (rather than, say, the hiring of a Customer Service Officer).
Given that bus service levels are also returning to normal after summer reductions, it's tough to pinpoint exactly which increases are to be implemented because of overcrowding problems. But, according to Adam Giambrone's announcement tweet (lead image), the TTC is putting $6-million into the improvements.
Although there is again some ambiguity over the term of this investment, an exchange between @larrylarry and Giambrone (@Adam_Giambrone) resulted in the latter's claim that it would be over the remaining three months in 2010.
The list of routes involved is rather extensive, but here's a list of those specifically receiving service improvements (be they seasonal or related to crowding issues): 11 Bayview, 17 Birchmount, 24 Victoria Park, 26 Dupont, 28 Davisville, 34 Eglinton East, 42 Cummer, 44 Kipling South, 45 Kipling, 52 Lawrence West, 53 Steeles East, 54 Lawrence East, 58 Malton, 60 Steeles West, 76 Royal York South, 77 Swansea, 79 Scarlett Rd, 84 Sheppard West, 86 Scarborough, 87 Cosburn, 94 Wellesley, 100 Flemingdon Park, 102 Markham, 106 York University, 109 Ranee, 165 Weston Rd North, 168 Symington, 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket, 196 York University Rocket, 509 Harbourfront.
You can visit the TTC website for more information on the changes to the routes above.
I'm currently trying to find out if its possible to ascertain which of these routes is getting additional service (rather than a seasonal increase), and will update this post if/when I find out.
Update (September 3, 7:00 p.m.)
The TTC has released a bit more information on the service upgrades including the times when service will be improved on the routes in question. Here's the link.
Discussion
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Nothing angers a rider more than short turns.
Top Tip: Work for one of these.
Greg: Prices on housing near subway lines go up specifically because they're near subway lines, not the other way like you're thinking.
I would love to see them north of bloor more often(i've never seen one north of bloor, but maybe they exist?) as to keep routes like the 32, 34, 7, 63, and other high volume routes stick to their operating schedule
Eglinton is such a hard route to manage because of the traffic. Buses get backed up all the time, short turns are needed because people going the other way won't have any service whatsoever.
Another major problem on Eglinton is parked cars, which cuts the capacity of the road in half. There really needs to be more hours and enforcement of NO STOPPING zones on Eglinton. 7am-9am and 4pm-6pm is no longer enough. Toronto's Rush is much longer than that. Getting violators towed away faster for blocking bus lanes would help too. There's always the idiots that think the law doesn't apply to them because they have to get coffee, causing a massive logjam.
Eglinton will see a tremendous improvement with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which is underground and will act like a subway for much of its route.
All of the TTC problems will be solved once these idiots can actually be held accountable for either their actions or their lack of action.
Don't they do this "service upgrade" every fall? i.e. when school resumes?
I always though they scaled back for the summer months, then restored service in the fall. I'm not sure this is an Upgrade, so much as a Resuming of Normal Service.