Toronto Transit System: The 300 Blows

I have written about the experience of taking the Number 300 crosstown "Blue Night Special" bus on Sunday morning here in Toronto, home of high mindlessness and moral wrecktitude, before, but it wasn't until this morning that I heard four angry people shouting at the bus driver at once.

The bus was "short turning". If you don't know what that means, I'm disgusted, but I will explain. A bus "short turns" when, due to some unforseen circumstance like a blockage in the route or a surfeit of passengers due to a breakdown of another bus, that has caused passesngers to pile up at some point along the route, the bus "short turning" will not go to the end of its route. Instead it will go part way, unload all its passengers, and then turn back to start collecting passengers heading in the other direction.

Short turning happens frequently in Toronto. I don't know if it is worse here than in Montréal, but I suspect that it is worse. I think Montréal's Métro is in the top ten transit systems in the world for having few instances of loss of service. Experts might correct me on this.

My preoccupation with the Number 300 route is caused by the fact that the Toronto Transit System seems to have a considerable amount of trouble keeping buses on schedule on that route. I have seen enough evidence, in bus movements and driver attitudes, to realize that they are making a serious effort to rectify the situation on this route, but they do not seem to be succeeding.

Buses on this route are very often bunched up in groups of two or three. I think this is one of the signs of trying to cope with the problem. Rushing other buses into the fray to cover for the mechanical failure of a bus or perhaps an unexpected staff shortage on the route unfortunately mixes buses which are "short turning" in with buses which are not "short turning". Passengers can become confused and angry, as they did this morning. The addition of a letter after the big 300 on the front of the bus may not be fully understood by many. Drivers have to make frequent announcements to update passengers as to what is going on and some, like me this morning, may only find out that a bus is "short turning" by asking a fellow passenger about it as a near riot is going on.

None of this would be happening, of course, if the subway were operating between, say, 6:00 AM and 9:00 AM on Sunday morning, which it does not do, unlike every other major city with a subway system on the planet, as far as I can tell, and I did make an effort to find out.

I also tried to find out why Toronto's subway system is not open early Sunday morning. In 2009, someone else did too. Here's what they found out. (The following, a statement from a public official, is quoted nearly in full. Emphasis, bolding and capitalization of words was done by me.)

torontoist.com...

TTC Director of Communications Brad Ross says:

I wish I could respond with the answer I think you want to read, but I can’t. In short, the Sunday morning subway start time of 9 a.m. won’t be changing anytime soon.
. . .
When the subway closes each night, an army (or maybe it’s a battalion) of maintenance crews descend into the tunnels and begin a wide range of work including: sweeping and cleaning debris from the track to prevent fires; rail and switch inspections; rail and switch replacement where required; repairing decaying tunnel concrete damaged by ground-water leaks; removing asbestos, replacing burned-out lights; re-cabling and replacing the signal system on the Yonge-University-Spadina line with an Automatic Train Control system; and, of course, station cleaning and maintenance that can’t occur when passengers and trains are in the stations.

Much of the work is time-consuming and requires crews to set up in the tunnel for hours at a time. Sunday mornings give our maintenance crews AN ADDITIONAL THREE HOURS to complete much of the routine and specialized work required to ensure the system remains reliable and safe.

On any given weekday, maintenance crews have just three hours to get to a work location, set up, complete the work, pack up, and return to the yard. Sundays, though, afford us with additional time to complete the routine work but also more complex tasks.

If the TTC were to narrow that Sunday morning maintenance window, some of those complex tasks would not get finished. The result, then, would likely require a disruption to normal service to get the job done; assuming emergency repairs don’t cause us to do that sooner, at a much less convenient time for you, the rider.

Simply put, subway systems require constant and vigilant maintenance. Toronto’s system does not have a network of redundant or express track to fall back on when the mainline needs work. Keeping that Sunday morning window open, therefore, equals a more reliable and safer subway system.

Finally, the TTC does run a network of buses and streetcars on twenty-four routes when the subway is closed—the Blue Night Network. The two routes that replace the subway—320 Yonge and 300 Bloor-Danforth—are the most frequently used routes on the network. The TTC is committed to ensuring people who need to get around, whether at 4 a.m. on Tuesday or 8 a.m. on Sunday, can do so on public transit.

Most other transit systems in the world, in the principal cities of their respective countries, manage to get this work done without having to close the subway on Sunday morning. Some of these systems close earlier at night than the Toronto Transit System does. If the transit system in Tornto closed thirty minutes earlier than it does, that would make up those three missing hours from Sunday morning. (6:00 - 9:00 AM)

In my opinion Toronto clearly needs investment in the subway system simply to get to the point where they can efficiently operate the equipment they have now on a schedule that reflects the needs of a ridership that works seven days a week.

The rest of the world is doing it.

In the area of buses and streetcars, putting more vehicles on the road, in and of itself, is not enough. Watching the 300 moving in packs of three and four, instead of packs of two and three, is not going to help the problem.

Until Toronto focuses on reducing loss of service on the routes they currently operate, through investment in whatever that takes, mechanics, drivers, garages, COMPUTER SOFTWARE, . . . the 300 will continue to blow.

TTC Director of Communications Brad Ross says:

Blah, Blah, Blah.

What he should have said is sorry we just can't hire enough subway workers and or provide enough busses to make up for the lack during those hours. Everyone must sacrifice a little to austerity.

I wonder if he gets around in a state provided car with driver?

a reply to: intrptr

For whatever reason, they cannot efficiently run the system they have. They cannot deploy the buses and drivers they have, efficiently. That problem should be solved. It might be a matter of computer power. It might be a matter of not wanting to do one thing because the one thing will soon have to be integrated into another thing so it would be better to do both things at once.

Why trim the hedge when you plan to mow the lawn? It's much better if the two jobs are integrated. That's the reason neither job got done.

a reply to: ipsedixit

For whatever reason, they cannot efficiently run the system they have.

Sorry you have to endure that. Sorry for the throngs that have to work all week to make needs meet, too.

You think with all the taxes they garner from all those hours worked they might relieve a little pressure by just hiring a few more subway workers. That way they could get the jobs done sooner?. The infrastructure isn't getting any newer.

We have the same sorts of problems here in the lower 48. A women dies in her car of asphyxiation because she is so tired from working such long hours to make her life livable.

a reply to: intrptr

I'm preparing another thread where I intend to delve a little deeper into things up here north of the border.

A lot of tax is paid in this city, but it seems to be being raked off elsewhere. I imagine it is the same in the US, but of course down there companies just take their money offshore rather than pay the taxes owed stateside.

It's all about money wouldn't ya know.

a reply to: ipsedixit

A lot of tax is paid in this city, but it seems to be being raked off elsewhere.

Do you guys elect your officials? Dot they have term limit? Do they somehow endure in office despite that?

To your thread. At least you have subways up there. I live on the west coast. we don't know from sub way except it being a sammich shop.

The New York City subway system is abominable. So glad I don't use it often. That one train is late or going slow and it threatens to ruin your plans. I always leave very early no matter what but when I use the subway it's extra early. And Metro North would make you cringe. Sometimes you go slow you can make out every detail on every rock near the tracks

Slavery sucks.

The buses near DC are on GPS. They are monitored so closely the buses can't leave early and will wait at stops if they get ahead so all the transferring can be done properly.

There's no way these buses would be able to not finish a route. Maybe you could write a letter suggesting a better way to solve the issue.

I've been riding the Montreal Transit system for a number of years now and I've never been "short turned" but that's not saying much for the quality of service. Our metro's (Or subways) seem to be frequently delayed and don't even have any air conditioning. Nothing beats taking a long metro ride in an overcrowded tincan in the heat. Better pack deodorant...

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: ipsedixit

A lot of tax is paid in this city, but it seems to be being raked off elsewhere.

Do you guys elect your officials? Dot they have term limit? Do they somehow endure in office despite that?

The Chairman of the TTC (Toronto Transit Comission) is appointed but I know very little about the process. Karen Stintz was a city counsellor as was Adam Giambrone. Howard Moscoe was as well.

To your thread. At least you have subways up there. I live on the west coast. we don't know from sub way except it being a sammich shop.

I sympathize. The subway, and the TTC as a whole is a great system. I love it. I respect the people who run it. It can't be an easy thing to do. They, and the city as a whole are hindered greatly by other levels of government, in my opinion, who take too much in taxes out of Toronto.

This is a big issue.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

The US has severe infrastructure issues. When you spend as much as you do on military hardware and military deployment both at home and abroad, it doesn't leave much for infrastructure improvement. I'm with Alex Jones and Webster Tarpley on things like this. Americans have got to get busy and regain control of their country.

America has a very tough fight ahead of itself. I hope it doesn't require a second revolution. 100 years from now Ferguson, Missouri might be a very famous name.

originally posted by: Iamthatbish
The buses near DC are on GPS. They are monitored so closely the buses can't leave early and will wait at stops if they get ahead so all the transferring can be done properly.

There's no way these buses would be able to not finish a route. Maybe you could write a letter suggesting a better way to solve the issue.

You are right on. I think this is why Montréal has such a good system. They have more sophisticated computer control of things. They seem to have a better handle on "loss of service" issues.

www.stm.info...

According to a website document (dated 2013, link below) from them,

97.6% of customers arrive on time

.

www.stm.info...

This ranking of systems as to reliability is from the same document and was carried out by Imperial College London, a polytechnical style institute founded in 1907.



Toronto ranks well below Montréal, among systems studied. I don't know how many systems were studied, but quite a few were, from the ranking shown.

The number 300 bus route in Toronto is chaotic on Sunday morning.

a reply to: TheMainEvent

Every system has its problems. The one in Montréal is smaller and carries far fewer people than the one in Toronto.

I think people have to just decide that they are going to improve their systems and change what they don't like about them. Any large important city is an economic engine for the province and the nation as a whole. Work done in Montréal or Toronto has huge spin off economic effects for the rest of the country.

Transit systems have to run as smoothly as possible. While I was researching, I ran into one large Asian city, it might have been Jakarta, that didn't have a subway system and reckoned that they were losing 2 or 3 billion dollars a year in business because of that lack.