{"id":2778,"date":"2008-02-14T10:05:50","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T15:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2008-02-14T10:20:51","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T15:20:51","slug":"bus-improvements-coming-but-why-the-secrecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/14\/bus-improvements-coming-but-why-the-secrecy\/","title":{"rendered":"Bus improvements coming, but why the secrecy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

On Sunday, February 17, the TTC will roll-out a series of major service improvements that will finally make a dent in addressing overcrowding. Many of these have been deferred since the fall, when the TTC was forced to find savings to cover the budget shortfall when councillors deferred the vote on the new land transfer and vehicle registration taxes.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> I learned yesterday the details, and now can confirm that schedules will change on 45 routes beginning Sunday, February 17. Nearly all of these are service improvements, with decreased headways, and all address crowding on many busy routes across the city, and clears most of the backlog of changes required due to growing ridership. However, there are 21 additional schedule changes that have been identified as necessary, but yet have to be implemented, as the budget and bus fleet can not yet handle them. And if ridership continues to grow as expected this year, the TTC will have to continue to catch-up. Hopefully, it will still be able to implement the later phases on the Ridership Growth Strategy, which includes that minimum daily 20 minute service standard, this year.<\/p>\n

Steve Munro has more details posted here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This information was embargoed until 10AM today to accommodate a media splash at Arrow Road Garage. This is the one fly in the ointment – while many changes increase already high service levels (for example, from 9 to 8 minute service on 58 Malton weekdays), some schedule changes will result in significant changes in arrival times (for example, 129 McCowan North going from every 20 to 15 minutes on Sunday mornings). And with many people away or perhaps enjoying an extended long weekend, the TTC needs to provide more notice, even if it means holding press conferences earlier or after the details are released.<\/p>\n

The TTC is often late in having\u00a0service changes posted (my experience has been anywhere from 4-12 days before)\u00a0, but background materials, such as the service summary are available a week to two weeks early. Some other transit agencies – notably York Region Transit and Brampton Transit, typically put notices out and new schedules on-line up to two weeks before any major changes.<\/p>\n

One interesting note is that bus service on Finch East during the AM peak will have a frequency of every 1 minute, 15 seconds. Perhaps Finch\u00a0East should have been a Transit City route!\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a column in Metro from January 31,<\/a> Ed Drass gives a few hints on what’s in store. Service improvements include midday and limited weekend service on the 39E Finch East Express, one of the TTC’s busiest and longest routes, and a step towards introducing more express routes to service the inner suburbs, and can be seen as a precursor to Transit City. Service levels during rush hour, midday and evenings during the week, and to a lesser extent on weekends, will finally make many buses and streetcars a little more comfortable for patrons.<\/p>\n

This fall, the TTC will introduce a second phase of service improvements<\/a> that will include a new standard for all surface routes – that all routes will run 7 days a week, 18-20 hours a day (essentially eliminating those dashed and dotted routes on the Ride Guide). Furthermore, buses will run at a minimum headway of 20 minutes, a very significant milestone, as it will restore many, if not most, cuts made in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

The TTC hopes to implement two RGS changes later this year. First, service will run on all routes whenever the subway is open. If a route exists, it runs 7 days\/week, 19 hours\/day. Second, no headway will be worse than 20 minutes anywhere.<\/p>\n

The TTC is on track on beating its previous ridership record of 1988, when it carried 463 <\/strong><\/em>million people a year, with, for the most part, far higher service standards than today. Since then, a recession, fare hikes and then major cuts conspired to drive people away from the TTC. Amongst the casualties were the trolley buses, the remaining PCC fleet (declared surplus after streetcar service levels were cut), and many bus routes, including 3 Ancaster Park, 19 Church, 118 Finch via Allen, 119 Grandravine, and 163 Rustic Road, were eliminated all-together, and slashing evening and weekend service on many others.<\/p>\n

But so far, almost uncharacteristically, there has been little public notice about the improvements and changes coming. As of 11AM today, the TTC’s website still lists the latest service changes from January 6<\/a>. The service summary, a great resource outlining the nuts-and-bolts of bus allocation by garage and route, frequencies, running times and route lengths, (a goldmine of information for transit advocates and enthusiasts, and located here<\/a>) also has yet to be updated, though these documents usually come out weeks before a service change. Come Sunday or, for those with the long weekend off, Tuesday morning, passengers will be in for a surprise. Albeit for many, this will be a pleasant surprise, but as there will be major changes, transit riders’ regular schedules will be affected, and passengers should not be left in the dark until the last minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, February 17, the TTC will roll-out a series of major service improvements that will finally make a dent in addressing overcrowding. Many of these have been deferred since the fall, when the TTC was forced to find savings to cover the budget shortfall when councillors deferred the vote on the new land transferContinue reading “Bus improvements coming, but why the secrecy?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[8172,8173],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-transit","tag-arrow-road-garage","tag-the-ride-guide"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBus improvements coming, but why the secrecy? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/14\/bus-improvements-coming-but-why-the-secrecy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bus improvements coming, but why the secrecy? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Sunday, February 17, the TTC will roll-out a series of major service improvements that will finally make a dent in addressing overcrowding. 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