[nfitz]

While Washington has 100 stations, it carries only about 700,000 riders per day. Toronto has 69 stations, but carries almost twice as much (around 1,331,420).

Which makes the entire 100-station Washington Metro less riders than the about 750,000 riders a day on the
32-station Yonge-University line.

Which would still be a huge impact to Toronto if it was closed for an entire business day.

 

[Napoleon]

This is the latest in a long string of severe problems in DC to do with deferred maintenance, safety issues and generally questionable operating practices. It's an extremely troubled system, despite an impressive-looking network and decent success generating suburban transit-oriented development.

But in fact, even when it is running properly the Metro is amazingly useless. Midday frequencies can be 12 minutes or longer, which Torontonians would find absolutely absurd. The network also makes a hard turn to actually avoid serving Georgetown, the busiest retail area in town, leaving its main drag clogged with bumper-to-bumper buses.

Metro was never really designed as a high-capacity urban subway -- more as fancy commuter rail, to funnel suburbanites to federal jobs downtown in the morning and out again. If you live in the District itself, you're almost always better off taking a bus or even walking.

All very true statements. I was just back in DC for work last week. I hadn't been there for a couple years, but used to work there often. The deterioration of Metro service was palpable, as I had problems just about every day. Every local I talked to complained about it. Off-peak frequencies for the evening are closer to 20 minutes these days. As a transit system, it reminds me a lot of BART (right down to the 30 year old stained carpet), but with more build-out in the urban core. It's useful for getting around the district if you happen to going to an area that's well-served; however, their bus system can leave a bit to be desired....Uber it was for other trips.

 

[W. K. Lis]

...

But in fact, even when it is running properly the Metro is amazingly useless. Midday frequencies can be 12 minutes or longer, which Torontonians would find absolutely absurd. The network also makes a hard turn to actually avoid serving Georgetown, the busiest retail area in town, leaving its main drag clogged with bumper-to-bumper buses.
...

Those NIMBYs in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) must be related to the NIMBYs in Willowdale. The Willowdale NIMBYs were opposed to have a subway station on Line 4 Sheppard at Willowdale Avenue (halfway between Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue). Didn't want "outsiders" from using any station near them, just like those NIMBYs in Georgetown. They rather have the "outsiders" use the buses or walk instead.

 

[dowlingm]

Think closing part of a subway line on a weekend is bad, how about closing all the ENTIRE subway lines (plural) during a weekday!!

Let's hope the fudge that was done to avoid closing the Yonge line for undercutting won't bite us in the ass some day...

 

[dowlingm]

Those NIMBYs in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) must be related to the NIMBYs in Willowdale. The Willowdale NIMBYs were opposed to have a subway station on Line 4 Sheppard at Willowdale Avenue (halfway between Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue). Didn't want "outsiders" from using any station near them, just like those NIMBYs in Georgetown. They rather have the "outsiders" use the buses or walk instead.

At least the much maligned DC Streetcar is benefitting: https://twitter.com/DCStreetcar/status/710166424166084608

 

[TOareaFan]

Here are some updated ridership numbers for TTC and other GTHA systems.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The price of petroleum fuels maybe one cause for the decline in GTA transit ridership... for now.

 

[Steve X]

YRT must be special, it's yellow for negative growth

 

[W. K. Lis]

YRT must be special, it's yellow for negative growth

And they want a Line 1 Yonge subway extension into York Region?

 

[mrgrieves]

I ride the subway each day from Wilson to Union (and back).


On the way up to Wilson in the evening, the train at times slows to a crawl or stops for minutes at a time between Eglinton West and Wilson. I understand this is due to some trains being pulled out of service at Downsview, and I‘m sure this has been discussed on these forums. The TTC operator will sometimes announce to riders that the slow travel speeds are due to “traffic on the line”.


- When the extension up to Vaughan is complete, will trains still be pulled out of service at Downsview?

- Will the eventual implementation of ATC have any improvement of “traffic on the line”

- This seems like an issue many transit systems must face. How do they deal with it without inconveniencing riders?


Thanks!

 

[TOareaFan]

The price of petroleum fuels maybe one cause for the decline in GTA transit ridership... for now.

That and, I think, weather. The past two winters have been really tough...and I bet a fair number of short (mainly in the DT) trips that would have been walks were replaced by quick runs on the subway.

I was just telling someone the other day that I know I used transit a lot less this winter than in the previous two.

 

[WislaHD]

Question:

Can we increase capacity of the Yonge Subway line by not stopping at certain stations (Rosedale, Summerhill) at peak hour?

Discussion in the Yonge North thread brought me to this idea. Maybe having just 1/2 or 1/4 of trains stop at these stations at peak hour. Or maybe, half of trains stop at Summerhill and the other half at Rosedale, or some other scenario. Obviously, this is not an idea I am happy with, I view not stopping at a station as effectively the same as taking transit access away. These are two stations with more daily boardings/alightments than many suburban stations despite their comparatively low numbers to the rest of Line 1. But I think it is also an inevitability that York Region will get the province/feds to fund their extension at some point in a vote buying scheme, downstream TTC users be damned. I am not sure what benefit it is to stop at Rosedale/Summerhill in the future at peak hour when nobody can get on the subway anyway. Stopping here is just slowing down the ride for everyone else.

So would this scheme even work to increase capacity? What kind of operations issues would such a scheme directly or indirectly cause?

 

[Canadian Chocho]

What happens when the "express" train catches up to the "local" train? There's nowhere to pass.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Yea you can. you can increase capacity by shutting the entire line down other than finch and union station!

See the point? Increasing capacity by shutting out passengers isn't really capacity, your just telling people not to ride the subway.

 

[WislaHD]

What happens when the "express" train catches up to the "local" train? There's nowhere to pass.

Right. I guess that means we are limited to only the option of having "express" trains at peak hour.

Yea you can. you can increase capacity by shutting the entire line down other than finch and union station!

See the point? Increasing capacity by shutting out passengers isn't really capacity, your just telling people not to ride the subway.

No need to convince me.

But how much can we increase headways by simply not servicing Rosedale/Summerhill at peak hour? When we really need that extra capacity?

Only a couple hundred board at those stations at peak hour, compared to everyone else. Boarding at those stations is already a challenging scenario for those people anyway, one that will assuredly get significantly worse with the Yonge North extension, if no other ways of providing relief are found.