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Below the line (Steve Munro):

TTC capital spending plans suffer from a basic problem: political support for funding of routine maintenance that doesn’t have ribbon-cutting, photo-ops and election prospects has been falling for years. During the same period, demand for transit service, not just for shiny new lines, but for seats on buses, streetcars and subways, has been climbing fast. Two to three percent a year might not seem like much, but when many services see no improvement, or even deliberate cutbacks, things get tight.

This is not news. The shortfall in funding the TTC’s ten-year capital plan was foreseen some years ago, and it appears regularly as part of the City of Toronto’s budgetary handwringing about the growing backlog of work. There is always hope that a new formula, a more enlightened attitude at Queen’s Park or Ottawa, will bring new money to transit and solve this problem once and for all. Meanwhile, the shortfall is, to the degree possible, pushed off into later years of the plan so that the TTC can do the maintenance and rebuilding it needs.
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Some minor upgrades underway at Spadina (line 2). They are installing cable routes for wifi service and are painting the ceiling over the tracks black as they've done at some other stations.
 
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The first question one should ask the commissioners is - did they ride the TTC consistently, and did they do so today? Competence and knowledge of the system starts at the top. Don't ride it? Shouldn't make decisions about it.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
The first question one should ask the commissioners is - did they ride the TTC consistently, and did they do so today? Competence and knowledge of the system starts at the top. Don't ride it? Shouldn't make decisions about it.

AoD
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The current crop of commissioners on the TTC don't. Denzil Minnan-Wong definitely does not ride the TTC on a regular basis.

Electrify said:
Reading some of the tweets coming from the TTC's budget meeting (https://twitter.com/TessKalinowski/status/562334199265636352 and https://twitter.com/TessKalinowski/status/562334289392861184) I am seriously considering that a provincial takeover of the system is a good idea. This is the kind of incompetent creative accounting I expect from a monopolistic teleco, not a public agency!
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Should be remembered that province used to subsidize the TTC operations, but not today. Just the capital projects. And that the TTC and GO are the least subsidized in North America, see link. The TTC is already efficient compared with other transit agencies in North America. Transit agencies in Asia are also developers, owning and then leasing out office & residential buildings, which the TTC cannot do.
 
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P23 said:
Some minor upgrades underway at Spadina (line 2). They are installing cable routes for wifi service and are painting the ceiling over the tracks black as they've done at some other stations.
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I have a question: is providing free wifi just a waste of money?

We probably spend at most 4-5 minutes at any subway station, what is exactly the point of having wifi? yes, it could be useful under certain circumstances (checking schedule, msg someone you will be late etc) but I just don't see it as some necessarily or massively useful to passengers, particularly it is only available at the stations, not after the train has left.

The biggest beneficiary is probably the ttc ticket collectors. Now instead of reading newspapers or napping, they can play with their cellphones.
 
Electrify said:
Reading some of the tweets coming from the TTC's budget meeting (https://twitter.com/TessKalinowski/status/562334199265636352 and https://twitter.com/TessKalinowski/status/562334289392861184) I am seriously considering that a provincial takeover of the system is a good idea. This is the kind of incompetent creative accounting I expect from a monopolistic teleco, not a public agency!
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The way the province is treating the city, I wouldn't expect things to be better under a provincial takeover.
 
ksun said:
I have a question: is providing free wifi just a waste of money?

We probably spend at most 4-5 minutes at any subway station, what is exactly the point of having wifi? yes, it could be useful under certain circumstances (checking schedule, msg someone you will be late etc) but I just don't see it as some necessarily or massively useful to passengers, particularly it is only available at the stations, not after the train has left.

The biggest beneficiary is probably the ttc ticket collectors. Now instead of reading newspapers or napping, they can play with their cellphones.
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Given that the wifi is provided to the TTC, not paid for by the TTC, whose money is being wasted?

It's starting to become available on the trains, although that may be a function of stations being close together.
 
the lemur said:
Given that the wifi is provided to the TTC, not paid for by the TTC, whose money is being wasted?

It's starting to become available on the trains, although that may be a function of stations being close together.
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what you said is true, it doesn't come at a cost to TTC or the city. However, it still provides minimum value and usefulness to passengers but quite a bit of convenience to TTC employees.

On TTC's website it says "There will not be Wi-Fi coverage between stations and in tunnels but as soon as the train enters the next Wi-Fi enabled station your device will automatically re-connect to the Internet." I don't find it to be the case. It never automatically reconnect on my phone.

Maybe Rogers etc should provide cellphone signals stations/tunnels, at least the southern portion of the system. That will be useful.
 
Re: Province

Perhaps it would not be all roses (eHealth, ORNGE, etc), but I'd like to think they would be able to figure out the ratio of cash fares to tokens.

Likewise they might also be better equipped to estimate Metropass usage. 70 rides on average per month?!? They are easily counting short and spontaneous rides to get that number, if not counting all transfers to reach that number.

If they moved all non-cash fares to Presto with the current fare structure, I think a FOI would uncover the average number of rides to be much, much lower...
 
ksun said:
On TTC's website it says "There will not be Wi-Fi coverage between stations and in tunnels but as soon as the train enters the next Wi-Fi enabled station your device will automatically re-connect to the Internet." I don't find it to be the case. It never automatically reconnect on my phone.
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I've seen it reconnect on my Blackberry 9900. But it could take a minute or two, depending how frequently your phone checks for a signal. So if your just passing through on the train, it may never have a chance to find it.
 
nfitz said:
I've seen it reconnect on my Blackberry 9900. But it could take a minute or two, depending how frequently your phone checks for a signal. So if your just passing through on the train, it may never have a chance to find it.
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I'm about the same. Sometimes it's a hit and miss.


A good tip I'd like to suggest (to anyone) is when you leave the station, turn off the WiFi adapter, and as the train is on the final 1/3 to 1/4 of stopping at the next station (before it stops), turn it back on.

Cumbersome, maybe. Worked for me. Just reconnects automatically, and boom. I return to whatever I was doing. Like reading everyone's posts. No login splash page.

Oh, and don't believe that black and yellow poster... Queen's Park doesn't have WiFi as of yet.
 
ksun said:
what you said is true, it doesn't come at a cost to TTC or the city. However, it still provides minimum value and usefulness to passengers but quite a bit of convenience to TTC employees.

On TTC's website it says "There will not be Wi-Fi coverage between stations and in tunnels but as soon as the train enters the next Wi-Fi enabled station your device will automatically re-connect to the Internet." I don't find it to be the case. It never automatically reconnect on my phone.

Maybe Rogers etc should provide cellphone signals stations/tunnels, at least the southern portion of the system. That will be useful.
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I'm not sure that wifi-assisted slacking on the part of TTC employees is such an issue at the moment. For one thing, fare collectors tend to be closer to the surface, thus within range of wireless/cellular service that originates outside the station, whereas the range of the T-Connect service really does seem to be more on the underground platforms.

Reading, napping, cellphone use, etc., tend to be signs of not having enough work to do. Since many fare collectors have actually been reassigned to booth duty from other jobs, they need to be kept active. I've actually found that there is less likely to be a fare collector on duty at all than one who is clearly under-occupied.

(And then there is (or at least there used to be) that guy at Bessarion with the microwave in the booth, reading novels.)

I agree that the wi-fi connection is still spotty. I usually get to the platform and am able to connect to the network, but most times it still shows as No Service and data doesn't get fetched consistently. I actually had it reconnect in the train between Union and St Andrew yesterday, but not long enough (or not reliably enough) to be useful.
 
Regarding the current fare structure, Steve Munro just put up a pretty good piece. Great comments too:

https://swanboatsteve.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/those-pesky-metropasses/

You know, looking at this new fare structure, especially the slap in the face regarding senior and student fares, I think once I run out of tokens I will simply pay cash fare. With quarters. I don't find myself going into the city very often, so the tokens I still have will last me quite a while and I won't be carrying too much change on me usually.

I'm sorry TTC for stealing all those rides by buying my transit fare ahead of time. I thought that by pre-purchasing my rides, I was just receiving an earned discount by buying in bulk, giving you more money now to save in the long run. Not to mention creating convenience for you by giving your staff less change to count, and being rewarded for choosing to regularly use a sustainable mode of transportation. How wrong I was. I just hope my 12 quarters don't weigh down your vehicles too much.
 
ksun said:
what you said is true, it doesn't come at a cost to TTC or the city. However, it still provides minimum value and usefulness to passengers but quite a bit of convenience to TTC employees.

On TTC's website it says "There will not be Wi-Fi coverage between stations and in tunnels but as soon as the train enters the next Wi-Fi enabled station your device will automatically re-connect to the Internet." I don't find it to be the case. It never automatically reconnect on my phone.

Maybe Rogers etc should provide cellphone signals stations/tunnels, at least the southern portion of the system. That will be useful.
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Montreal has cell service in the tunnels in the downtown section of the green line (Berri-Uqam to Guy-Concordia, and at Lionel-Groux).

Apparently the TTC awarded a contract for installing cell reception in the stations/tunnels, but none of the big 3 carriers have signed on.
 
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