Quote:
Originally Posted by 1overcosc
Transit in the 416 is very, very, good with very frequent bus routes everywhere even in suburban areas and the very convenient fare-paid bus transfer model at stations.
But the 905 service is horrible, and the siloization of the different services (TTC, GO, YRT, etc.) is bad.
One example.. the TTC is going to be putting the shuttle bus route from Kipling station to the Pearson Airport on the subway maps. But the UPX is not going to be put on them, because UPX = GO, and GO != TTC so TTC has to pretend that UPX doesn't exist.
So confused tourists are going to be taking the very long subway -> shuttle route to get from downtown to the airport... not even knowing the UPX exists, solely because the TTC is rigidly insistent on retaining the siloization between it and Metrolinx.
Another example, this happened to me personally. I was staying in Etobicoke with a friend and was visiting another friend in Vaughan. I took the subway up to Downsview knowing that the YRT service connects there.. but I couldn't find the YRT bus stop! Plenty of signs for TTC bus routes, no signs for VIVA Orange. Had to ask people for help. Same problem on the way back.. had to switch from YRT to TTC at York University. YRT dropped me off at a bus stop, that had Brampton Transit there too... but no signs saying where the heck the TTC bus stopped. Turns out TTC was around the corner on some other street... had to also get someone to help me find it.
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Well, that's the problem with the TTC: it's an old man's transit agency seemingly run by old men.
It's very good at doing what it has done well for 60 years: run line haul buses at good frequencies into the spine of the subway system, and very bad at everything else.
Without going into the TTC's obvious customer service problems, here are just a few line management problems that make me shake my head:
1. The TTC basically terminates east-west service on the Yonge line. This means that it forces a transfer for people crossing Yonge street and, inevitably, positions the system as a feeder service to the Yonge subway which is, not surprisingly, horrendously overcrowded.
2. The TTC not only doesn't have a separate branding for its express bus system (except for the handful of Rocket routes which run to destinations, rather than along routes), but its express buses aren't even express buses: they're skip stop service to a certain point, after which they run local milk runs.
3. The TTC runs a bizarre "short turn" system which is impossible to predict, done almost spontaneously and completely unintuitive for first time visitors. If a 501 short turns at McCaul, a visitor would have to know to go to the operator, get a transfer and then walk 200 meters to the nearest stop on Queen to continue their journey.
4. Not as bad as #3, but the TTC could stand to label their subway system to let people know about the expected short turns of trains, especially since the new destination sign is basically illegible. For example, if every second train turns around at St. Clair West, label the train 1A on the map. This is similar to the NYC system, where certain lines (e.g. the Z on the "J,M,Z") only run rush hours. Otherwise you announce that the train is going out of service, and for years I thought this was because of a technical failure or emergency and I cursed the TTC for this.
5. The TTC seemingly hasn't created any new, major surface routes (not rocket routes, but regular line hauls) in decades. Even in the old City of Vancouver, Translink has created new routes to meet changing demand and travel patterns: the 99, the 84, the 43 and the 135 are new routes that didn't exist 20 or often even 10 years ago.
I could go on like this. The TTC has been resting on its laurels for about 40 years. It's successful because of the things that it has always done reasonably well, but there's almost no innovation or progress at the agency. It really needs to be overhauled.
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