[Tuscani01]

When Queen is closed to traffic @ Yonge - starting in mid-2023? - the plan was for the 501 to be diverted via Adelaide. As one might expect it is screwed up and there will be busses for 20 months! From CEO Report

The TTC committed to deliver the first part of this project, the tracks on Adelaide Street from Charlotte Street to York Street. This track work was substantially completed in late 2022. The TTC is still refining the detailed design of the infrastructure with the City and Metrolinx, including elements related to utility relocation, stop locations, and streetscape and traffic signal design. Construction on the remaining portion of the work was to start in Q2 2022. However, the amount and complexity of utility conflicts and relocations that have been identified through site surveys has surpassed previous expectations and has delayed the start of the construction of the streetcar tracks for the diversion. Currently, the TTC, Metrolinx, City of Toronto and various utility owners are working very closely to resolve all of the utility conflicts and relocations as expediently as possible. Metrolinx has identified that the potential delay to complete the streetcar detour work will result in approximately 20 months of shuttle bus service commencing in early May 2023. The TTC is still working closely with Metrolinx and the City on exploring options to optimize the construction schedule of the Adelaide civil and streetcar track construction work to reduce the duration of shuttle bus service.

The TTC has finished their part of the tracks, this seems to be Metrolinx and the utilities what a surprise!

The CEO report isn’t up to date. The city has taken over the project and is completing it in half of the time. The project will only take 10 months.

 

[max]

There is already a curve from eastbound King to northbound York. There are no curves (or track!) at the moment at York & Adelaide. I do not recall seeing any diagrams of the curves they have planned and, I assume, ordered for York & Adelaide but suspect it will not include northbound York to eastbound Adelaide. As Drum says, getting special track made takes months. There is no southbound track on York yet but they have been planning to add it from Queen to Adelaide (and ought to bring it down the last short block to King for system resilience.)

From what I heard the Adelaide & York planned curves are EB to NB, NB to EB & SB to EB.

 

[nfitz]

Between children not paying a fare, no fare enforcement and the fair pass the system is losing money.

The $5 or $6 million gross (not net!) income from children is going to make a difference? (no). Fair pass is funded from a non-TTC budget. I doubt the revenue they'd ever get from fare enforcement would even pay for the extra city election.

A real savings would be not opening the Eglinton and Finch LRTs. That cost exceeds the savings from the service cuts. Or simply raise fares to match the inflation since the last fare increase.

At some point a hard look needs to be taken at all these discounts. You can't cut sources of revenue and hope to become more profitable.

Then why aren't we raising fares at the cost of inflation?

 

[DSC]

From what I heard the Adelaide & York planned curves are EB to NB, NB to EB & SB to EB.

As Adelaide is one way EB, that is every possible curve unless they add southbound track on York from Adelaide to King - which would be a very good idea for resiliency reasons - if necessary it could be added when King track is re-laid in 2025(?) - but making allowance for the curve now. This would involve an EB to SB at Adelaide/York.

 

[DSC]

The CEO report isn’t up to date. The city has taken over the project and is completing it in half of the time. The project will only take 10 months.

If the problem is utilities (as stated) I have doubts the City will be able to get them to work any faster than Metrolinx could. The City clearly showed with the Wellington fiasco that they have little to no control over them!

 

[tiffer24]

Violent incidents against riders of Toronto’s transit system have increased by nearly 60 per cent since 2019, a new report from the commission's CEO finds.

Reports from the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) CEO Rick Leary reveal there were 1,068 offences against customers on the publicly funded system last year. The new data marks a 46 per cent increase over offences against customers recorded in 2021 (734) and a 60 per cent increase over incidents reported in 2019 (666).

The commission defines offences as the most serious incidents reported to police, which include assault, sexual assault, robbery, theft, threatening, harassment and indecent exposure.

https://www.cp24.com/news/violent-i...gone-up-60-per-cent-in-recent-years-1.6285705

 

[Richard White]

The $5 or $6 million gross (not net!) income from children is going to make a difference? (no). Fair pass is funded from a non-TTC budget. I doubt the revenue they'd ever get from fare enforcement would even pay for the extra city election.

A real savings would be not opening the Eglinton and Finch LRTs. That cost exceeds the savings from the service cuts. Or simply raise fares to match the inflation since the last fare increase.

Then why aren't we raising fares at the cost of inflation?

Not opening the LRT on Eglinton after substantial completion would be ludacris.

The point I was trying to make was that you cannot keep offering everyone discounts and then cry poor. At some point people need to pay a full fare and suck it up for the betterment of the system.

As for raising fares in line with inflation, I would very much be ok with that as long as the service levels increased to match. Paying more for less is not a winning formula.

 

[Tuscani01]

If the problem is utilities (as stated) I have doubts the City will be able to get them to work any faster than Metrolinx could. The City clearly showed with the Wellington fiasco that they have little to no control over them!

The benefit of the city doing the work is that crews are already mobilized and ready to start work immediately on the utilities. Metrolinx needed more time to organize, procure, and issue a tender.

 

[Northern Light]

The benefit of the city doing the work is that crews are already mobilized and ready to start work immediately. Metrolinx needed more time to organize.

So any utilitiy conflicts are resolved then? This is just a matter of building the relevant track?

 

[nfitz]

Not opening the LRT on Eglinton after substantial completion would be ludacris.

It's not as ludicrous as increasing cost and reducing ridership by reintroducing children's fares! It's also not as ludicrous as cutting service standards to save less money than is being spent to operate the LRT service.

The point I was trying to make was that you cannot keep offering everyone discounts and then cry poor. At some point people need to pay a full fare and suck it up for the betterment of the system.

Raising fares by 1¢ would get you more money (net) than reintroducing children's fares. You'd get a lot more revenue by ending discounts for students and seniors. I'm not sure what this obsession is with children, who barely cost a cent!

As for raising fares in line with inflation, I would very much be ok with that as long as the service levels increased to match. Paying more for less is not a winning formula.

If you are only raising fares by inflation, then service levels would stay the same, assuming operating costs are also generally aligned with inflation.

 

[Tuscani01]

So any utilitiy conflicts are resolved then? This is just a matter of building the relevant track?

I updated my post, but it seems like one of the major utility issues was water - and the city already had a contractor that did the work on Adelaide. They are using the same contractor to do this job now - which means no more procurement process, and work can start immediately.

 

[DSC]

The benefit of the city doing the work is that crews are already mobilized and ready to start work immediately on the utilities. Metrolinx needed more time to organize, procure, and issue a tender.

Stranger and stranger. ML has known that they were laying the track on York and Adelaide east of York for ages. How come they were not ready? I also am surprised the utility conflicts that were last week' s excuse have magically been resolved. If they have been, laying mostly tangent track is not a huge job. I await confirmation, and new track!

 

[T3G]

How come they were not ready?

ML

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Violent incidents against riders of Toronto’s transit system have increased by nearly 60 per cent since 2019, a new report from the commission's CEO finds.

Reports from the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) CEO Rick Leary reveal there were 1,068 offences against customers on the publicly funded system last year. The new data marks a 46 per cent increase over offences against customers recorded in 2021 (734) and a 60 per cent increase over incidents reported in 2019 (666).

The commission defines offences as the most serious incidents reported to police, which include assault, sexual assault, robbery, theft, threatening, harassment and indecent exposure.

https://www.cp24.com/news/violent-i...gone-up-60-per-cent-in-recent-years-1.6285705

Well, at least that puts an end to the narrative that things hasn't gotten worse; that it is just the media whipping it all up in a frenzy.

AoD

 

[DSC]

I updated my post, but it seems like one of the major utility issues was water - and the city already had a contractor that did the work on Adelaide. They are using the same contractor to do this job now - which means no more procurement process, and work can start immediately.

That is simply not true. The City was ALWAYS going to do the water main replacement all the way from Victoria to Spadina and the contract was all awarded, which is why the work, which started ant the west side (Spadina) and ends at Victoria is almost finished. They are currently working at Bay and Yonge. See https://www.toronto.ca/community-pe...ucture-projects/adelaide-street-construction/