OK, I have returned from my 6 day trip riding Toronto streetcars, buses and subways. I couldn't have timed it better to compare the TTC with the Confederation Line. I rode the Confederation Line for a round trip from the train station and stopped to look around at Tunney's, Bayview and Hurdman and obviously at Tremblay. I rode it between 3:45 and 5:15 pm so the peak of rush hour.
These are my observations:
1. There is not continuous weather protection from the train station to Tremblay station. Weather protection is more decorative than effective.
2. There are are no escalators at Tremblay station. Given the higher likelihood of passengers carrying luggage that makes using stairs very uncomfortable, this is far from ideal in the long-term if we want more people to use transit to the train station. I can see the number of elevators being inadequate, maybe even immediately when a single VIA train unloads hundreds of passengers. Escalators should be both up and down at this location.
3. I found the grab bars on the trains arranged in a strange way. The grab bars were not continuous, and were located over the middle of seats in some cases. You have to reach over seated passengers. I don't know how this is supposed to work if a train is crowded.
4. We really cheaped out on video displays on-board. They only point in one direction. There were clearly a place to put the video displays in the other direction but were not installed. This is not ideal because seats point in both directions.
5. The exit direction is neither displayed nor announced. TTC subways tell which way to exit at every station both visually and verbally. I spoke to an OC Transpo representative at Tunney's about this. Hopefully, this will be fixed.
6. The odour problem was obvious at Parliament station as soon as the doors opened and lingered for sometime inside the train. This should have been noticed and fixed before it opened to the public. This is unacceptable.
7. Wayfaring was inadequate. As soon as you step off the train, you should see directions in front of you to exits, buses, Line 2, escalators and elevators. You have to look around for signage. This was particularly bad at Bayview and I spoke to an OC representative about this. You should get off a train and know immediately where to go, otherwise, you have a tendency to stop and look around slowing other passengers. I know I did that.
8. Tunney's Pasture is a critical transfer point with the largest numbers of transferring passengers. There was inadequate signage telling you which stop to go to. There are so many different bus stops, it is bewildering and there were hundreds waiting for buses. This will grow to potentially thousands after all the downtown buses shut down. This could be long-term problem. Are the sidewalks big enough to handle the passenger flow? Also, when I tried to return to the train, I faced a wall of passengers exiting the trains blocking the entire width of the stairway. Are there enough exits from the train platform to the bus transfer level?
9. Tunney's has two platforms but the signage to tell you which platform to go to was not facing passengers entering from the bus transfer station where it is needed most. This needs to be fixed.
10. The length of walk at the bus transfer station at Tunney's Pasture can be long and you have to cross the path of passengers boarding many other buses. This is not ideal but not much can be done until Phase 2 opens.
11. At Hurdman, the walkway to the bus stops was narrow. The signs to tell you which platform to go to were tiny and difficult to read. I don't know why we can't have a set up like at Greenboro at the station entrance, with a master digital screens telling you which routes, times and platforms all listed. There was a spot between the elevators and escalators at Hurdman where multiple digital boards could have been placed and not blocked passenger flow, also needed between the exit and the long line of bus shelters. The only next bus times digital boards were provided inside individual shelters. We need to do better than this. Something like this is also needed at Tunney's and Blair. We also need next train departures at Bayview as you are about to descend to the Line 2 level. Information is coming too late to allow people to make transfers especially in off-peak hours at all our major transfer stations.
Did nobody go to Toronto to see how a rail transit system should work? It seems that many best practices were not followed.
Last edited by lrt's friend; Sep 18, 2019 at 11:14 PM.
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