[AlvinofDiaspar]

NL:

Sounds to me like there's plenty of room for improvement in-house; not sure how well managed any outsiders would be. Maybe they could outsource the management!

Well, that too - set the standards, contract it out and rely on external audits. The last thing TTC should do is hire a few more managers in this case.

AoD

 

[DavidJamesTO]

2nd Idea I hate. All our freedoms are being slowly taken from us. You can't smoke in bars. You can't talk on a cell phone and drive. You can't be at Queen & Spadina during the G20. I hate anything that takes away freedom. That being said, pigs who liter the ttc with their food containers/spilt food don't deserve freedom.

No argument here. The oft-decried 'nanny state' is a necessity in a world where people send their common sense on an all-expenses-paid holiday never to return.

 

[TTC12]

I just read the cleanliness audit and there a part where they discuss in short, a new style of ceilings, being tested at Lower bay station there is a pictureof the new ceiling in the report, looks fine to me, what do you guys think? I also like that they list what they doing to other stations, seems like they have ordered repplacement tiles for that hole at Yonge station.

http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Co...July_14_2010/Reports/SUBWAY_STATION_APPEA.pdf

 

[junctionist]

I just read the cleanliness audit and there a part where they discuss in short, a new style of ceilings, being tested at Lower bay station there is a pictureof the new ceiling in the report, looks fine to me, what do you guys think? I also like that they list what they doing to other stations, seems like they have ordered repplacement tiles for that hole at Yonge station.

http://www3.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Co...July_14_2010/Reports/SUBWAY_STATION_APPEA.pdf

Thanks for the link. It's good to see that the TTC is making a stronger commitment to station cleanliness. However, with all those new people hired, it's troubling to think that this growing commitment to cleanliness could be easily reversed by a mayor like Rob Ford, since the growing number of people being hired is bound to stand out upon even a casual review.

In terms of the new ceilings, they look like just another dull new finish used by the TTC. When they install elevators at stations, they often replace the tiles with generic grey tiles. (There are some exceptions like Jane Street, where if I recall correctly, new yellow and green tiles were used.) At Glencairn, they replaced the signature burnt-red rectangular tiles on the platform with a wide band of the cheapest looking grey square tiles.

 

[lafard]

On a related note, I've really noticed a lot of hardcore cleaning going on lately. I don't know if I've ever seen a bunch of guys with a pressure washer or a steam machine blasting down an escalator or the concrete in a bus bay, maybe once or twice in five years, but in the last month I'm running into them on a seeming almost daily basis.

I don't know if the program is that threatened by Rob Ford. It has tangible effects and the guys that are out there work pretty hard.

 

[DSC]

It's good to see that the TTC is making a stronger commitment to station cleanliness. However, with all those new people hired, it's troubling to think that this growing commitment to cleanliness could be easily reversed by a mayor like Rob Ford, since the growing number of people being hired is bound to stand out upon even a casual review.QUOTE]

They have hired extra people for 5 months to "catch up": As the Report says 32 Temporary Positions August-December. Presumably these position wil disappear on December 31 no matter who is elected Mayor - though the 2011 budget may create more temporary (or permanent) cleaning positions.

 

[picard102]

Dupont has never looked so clean!

 

[reaperexpress]

I was talking to a friend on the Yonge line a while ago, and he told me that they had gotten new tiles at Eglinton. When we got to Eglinton, it turned out that they had simply washed the tiles.

Just goes to show that spending $500 on cleaning can make a station look $10 000 better.

 

[spider]

My wife is recovering from major surgery at Toronto General, I am visiting everyday with no particular time table to adhere to so I decided to take the TTC rather than drive. I am travelling from York Mills to College Street on the Yonge subway and am absolutely appalled at what a filthy, dimly lit rat hole this line has become, when did this happen? I would never advise a visitor to Toronto to even think of using this embarrassment to our city, if it were a public washroom it would be closed.

I am not condemning the utilitarian design and finish of the stations but the fact that obviously no one gives a rats ass about cleanliness.

I will not be back next week, my effort to be environmentally friendly is over because I have a choice and I will exercise it. Although parking is expensive, $21.50 per day, I will pay it and so will anyone else who can afford it. As a side bar the off peak and weekend trip takes an hour and 20 minutes on the TTC and under 30 minutes in the comfort of my car.

The "Better Way", I don't think so.

 

[andrewpmk]

Good luck with the traffic jams downtown then and paying over $600/month for parking (OUCH).

 

[Observer Walt]

... and yet Spider speaks for many when he comments on the cleanliness issue. This has been mentioned repeatedly and although there are some hints that the TTC may be moving on this issue, it's not enough. Many of the stations are indeed dirty, and will probably get worse if anything once snow begins.

(However, I do question how it is that his trip takes an hour and 20 minutes when it sounds like most of it is by subway.)

 

[spider]

Easy,
TTC:
7 minute walk to Bus stop
5 minute wait for Bus
20 minutes to subway
10 minutes walk thru tunnel and wait for train
28 minutes to College station
10 minutes walk to Hospital

 

[nfitz]

Easy,
TTC:
7 minute walk to Bus stop
5 minute wait for Bus
20 minutes to subway
10 minutes walk thru tunnel and wait for train
28 minutes to College station
10 minutes walk to Hospital

I've travelled before from York Mills/Lesmill to Mount Sinai, and it's never taken 80 minutes.

For one, travel time from York Mills station to College station isn't 28 minutes. It's 17 minutes typically. For another, it doesn't normally take 10 minutes after arriving at York Mills station before one gets on a train. Perhaps on a Sunday if you just miss a train and have to wait 7-8 minutes. If there's some major trouble on the Yonge line it might take 28 minutes, but I got the impression he'd travelled it several times, ... though I do use that line regularly (maybe twice a month these days) and I've never actually encountered it (though if there's major problems, I just avoid the line ...).

And though maintenance does seem to be an issue (have they stopped washing the floors or something?), York Mills isn't particularly bad.

Personally, if you were travelling off-peak, I'd be tempted to drive to York Mills. Parking right near the hospital is hugely expensive.

 

[TTC12]

What an effort you made to be environmentally friendly...

There's actually been a lot more cleaning you know, and just a day or two of riding it isn't really environmentally friendly, let alone an effort, and the real problem is that there hasn't been much money alocated to cleanliness.

 

[nfitz]

There's actually been a lot more cleaning you know, and just a day or two of riding it isn't really environmentally friendly, let alone an effort, and the real problem is that there hasn't been much money alocated to cleanliness.

What's odd is that the floors seem worse in the places that don't see regular foot traffic. The corners, the far end of a platform.

I've seen bucket and mop out recently. I can't recall the last time I saw a proper floor cleaning machine ... I seem to recall seeing them regularly when I used the subway in Montreal daily ...

... surely the TTC doesn't mop subway platform floors with a mop and bucket ...