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SlickFranky said:
Took a ride on the new ROW today.

For the record, the 'squiggly' sections were uneventful. No vomiting passengers, no derailments (or explosions). ;)

Can't wait for the new trams now.
Click to expand...

For the record, I don't think anyone seriously suggested any vomiting, derailments or explosions.

The main concern was whether it might slow down service. My main concern was that it looks ugly.
 
Took a ride on the new streetcar segment today. I took the bus to Lansdowne loop and went east.

At the eastbound platform at Lasndowne, I chatted woth a man who pointed out the the glass in the shelter had been improperly installed.

Each bay in the shelter had three glass panels, which were mounted between metal strips at top and bottom. Looking at the bottom of the glass panels, we could see that some of them had small cutouts or notches at one lower corner. This was for the two panels on the ends of each three-panel set. The metal strips at the bottom were narrower at the ends, so the lower corner of the glass panels had to be cut back so that it didn't stick out past the metal.

The way the glass should have been mounted was: panel with lower notch on the left, panel with no notch, panel with lower notch on the right. It appeared that the panels were mounted randomly. I could see notches in the middle and no notches at the ends.

The man said that this improper installation would lead to cracking in the summer. I don't know how true this is.

Other than this (and a wait for the streetcar to arrive, after which two more showed up in quick succession), I didn't sense any problems. It was good to ride the streetcar along there again. It'll be nice in the summer. And it reminded me that I want to check out the Wychwood Barns.
 
fiendishlibrarian said:
Jesus. I'm wondering if motion-sickness bags will have to be handed out during that stretch, assuming, of course, streetcars will be able to travel at a discernible speed along that section of track.

I'm also thinking: derailment.

That's almost beyond incompetency into willful, criminal negligence.
Click to expand...

Had to rewind a bit to find it :D Not sure how serious it was meant to be, but it seems representative of the more panicked side of the reaction to the photos drum posted. There are also many posts exclaiming that heads should roll, this must be repaired/is unusable, and TC is doomed. Just wanted to point out that the ride was fine, and maybe some people panicked for no reason.

As for the looks...it looks perfectly laser-straight from the sidewalk (where I mostly see it from ;)), and mostly straight from the line itself. Through a telephoto lens, standing over the tracks, it looks crazy though I guess. The looks are mostly marred by the state of the ROW itself. It's still covered in construction remnants and looks plain filthy. Would it have killed them to run a street sweeper through Saturday morning?
 
Here are some video's I shot of the PCC's using the new St Clair ROW for the first time on Dec 19-09.

The rear doors of both cars were broken and could no be use causing all kinds of delays as well doing less runs as plan.

Everyone was thrill to see them up here and both of them were at crush load for the 5 hours they were out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLUjx-W86Hk 4500 is First car to arrive at Lansdowne with riders in 3 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQdZGhIIn4A 4549 arrives at Northcliffe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zWgor8uir0 4549 at Atlas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUxyy0TFTz0 4500 at Northcliffe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiS9drStcIE 4549 first ride from St Clair W station to Oakwood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvPIHszWWw8 4549 ride Oakwood to Lansdowne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFgQIshvCCQ 4549 ride Lansdowne to Oakwood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgqDbaECGj8 4549 ride Oakwood to Bathurst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u02lwvCNLw 4500 at Atlas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glKDkcq6ZI8 CLRV's action at Lansdowne Loop Sunday Dec 20 first day of regular service

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT9ArWBjPlY Ride on CLRV from Lansdowne to Bathurst
 
(No doubt a dumb question but... In the last video, where one CLRV gets stuck behind another, why doesn't the first car just desist picking up passengers and let the one behind pick them up? That would put some space back between the cars...
AmJ )
 
we do not do this because for one people get annoyed when we pass them, they want to get there first and also a lot of the time we have to stop to let people off at every stop anyways. we get seperated when the secong car gets short-turned and becomes the lead car. the first lead car than gets short-turned on the return trip to get back into place.
 
They should have a 000 NO PICKUPS signage, to allow for a semi-express run with dropoffs only and no pick-ups.
 
That's a good plan from a logistical standpoint, but I don't think riders would like it too much.

Usually bunching means the lead car is behind schedule, so that person you're passing is already annoyed, maybe even behind schedule themselves because of the delay. People are generally selfish by nature and won't care that the people already on that streetcar will get where they're going a bit faster. All they'll care about is that they should have been on that streetcar up ahead 2 blocks.

Unrelated note:
I've noticed vehicle left turn lights getting priority over streetcar lights. Is this to address a concern that turning drivers might floor it at the first sight of a green light? Because otherwise it makes no sense, and shows that Toronto drivers are still the top priority (even with the ROW). Are 3 car-drivers still more important than 40 transit-users?
 
casaguy said:
Isn't "bunching" exactly one of the problems this new ROW should solve?
Click to expand...

Judging by how successfully the Spadina ROW solved bunching.... :rolleyes:



It's almost inevitable where the vehicles are not controlled to keep a specific distance/time apart that bunching will occur.
 
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Tonight 2 10 minute gaps over by Lansdowne.

The Driver I got on at Yonge sat for over 3 minutes while I was there and he was already there. We left at crush load.

Past a number of 3 packs as well large gaps between some of the car. Headway is supposed to be 4 minutes.

We never past another car going east, east of Dufferin St to the loop.

When I got off, 2 cars behind us. Again the driver sat in the loop close to 3 minutes before moving. About a minute or so later the next car came out and it was follow by the one behind it shortly after it. At the same time, 3 more car show up with them sitting on Lansdowne and St Clair waiting to get into the loop.

In the end, 10 minute gap between my car and the one in front of it at Lansdowne. Waited close to 10 minutes for an eastbound, but gave up as there was no westbound in sight. Took the 47S.

We were a crush load from Yonge to Dufferin.

Riders thought the streetcars were going west of Lansdowne and were asking the drivers where to get the bus to Keele.

TTC crew was putting up large service change notice for Dec 20 change on the shelter glass and poles early today. One who expect TTC had done that last week.

Driver was going after riders with the day pass when they had more than one person with them. Riders were saying TTC website said you could do this from the 21th to Jan 2 and that very true. I said to the drivers yes the riders are right. Reply was "we don't read TTC website." Did someone forget to read the memo or did they not get one??

Other than that, service moved very well both in the am picking up next to no riders as well in the pm. It a lot faster than before the ROW was built to go from Lansdowne to/from Yonge.
 
I put some of the photos I took on Monday and put them into the Urban Toronto photo pool on Flickr.

Observations
- There's a section of ROW without centre poles. They aren't quite as bad as I thought for street clutter, but they do have the problems. The small part, just east of Oakwood, looks just fine with span wire supporting overhead power wires, just like it does on Spadina.
- As for street clutter, the worst thing is all those multiple ugly 12-12-12 yellow and yellow traffic lights, two sets for through traffic and two sets for all those U-turns and left turns, of which there are too many of. Why not restrict some, like at Dufferin Street (where left turns were restricted), and force a U-turn later (ie at Via Italia) where there's another U-turn phase?
- The line was full of problems, including badly bunched streetcars (though a supervisor in the underground loop at St. Clair West seemed to - believe this! - be busy trying to manage it, though forcing a lot of people to change cars making through trips).

Here's some of my pics:
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4208244952_e6853caf8e.jpg


4208245438_9ca82fec89.jpg


4208247402_3673fe7ede.jpg


4207485013_2910e7ebc4.jpg


Larger sizes are found at the UT Pool or on my St. Clair Set.
 
Too much signage! Elsewhere in the world, they get by with less words. Along with different traffic signals for transit. Click on this link (Including left turns after the green.) or this link (from LA) for videos to see how transit signals operate elsewhere in the world, without the words saying TRANSIT SIGNAL.
 
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