Your View - Toronto

I think the priority is not increasing services simply. They should improve the efficiency and create new schedule models and use different size buses on different routes.

Lots of buses are running with less passengers or without passenger in some routes or some time periods. Or some routes are crowded.

Maybe merge with GO, controlled by province. Build or extend subway lines or light rail. We are tired of David Miller and Adam Giambrone's games and shows.

Toronto transit will obviously appease some of its current ridership with improvements to the quantity and quality of its service fleet. But, if TTC officials are really serious about focusing in on transit trouble spots, they need look no further than the employee operators of the buses and rail carriers. Here lies the greater threat to the Commissions continuing efforts to provide a public service second to none. Unless and until the managers of the transit system rein in the anti-social ,careless, confrontational, disobedient, untidy ,unhelpful, obese, and unsuitable employee operators ,material and schedule changes alone will do little to improve current operational difficulty.

I think this is all fine and dandy, and needed too, but when you compare this to the list of deferred upgrades from last fall (due to the budget) you see that it’s not really all that great. While I agree that many of these changes are needed, and in fact much of this should have been done a long time ago, what we need is a change is the modus operandi of the TTC itself. Take a look at a bus route schedule from New York City and you will not see what you do from the TTC, a specific time when the bus will arrive. The reason for this makes sense as traffic will delay even the best laid schedules. In New York they list the headway – EG the time between a bus and the one behind it. Therefore a route might say “AM Peak – 5 minutes. Midday – 10 minutes. PM Peak – 5 minutes” so on and so forth. This is a much better way to list a “schedule” on routes with headways under 15 minutes, and will stop the irate “my bus was 2 minutes late” passengers from popping off.

What’s sad about all of this is that the city does not have any more money for the TTC and fares are about as high as people can pay. When you compare the TTC’s funding to that of transit in Montreal, Vancouver, or even many cities in the US, you see that the lack of funding comes not from the municipal level, but the provincial level. Dalton McGunity might pride himself on the fact that he’s not Mike Harris, but until he undoes the Harris cuts to transit, I say he’s no better. If the TTC had adequate funding, we might get to see an announcement like this once a year, rather then once a decade.

I think it'll be good for the city for a number of reasons like it'll help people get around better who can't/don't want to drive.

I am dependent on the Queen Streetcar to bring me to work. While some days I manage to arrive downtown in reasonable time, I often feel that I could walk to Yonge Street in the same time that it takes me to wait for, and ride, the tram. The exercise would be highly beneficial. The 501 is badly in need of fixing.

Once again I am amazed at the garbage that people will post on this site in the hope that opinion will replace news. The worst of it is the slander that individuals will post and will be repeated.
Don't like the bus drivers, fine PJM, but what the heck does obesity have to do with anything?
I don't work for the TTC but I'm sure that the Driver's Weight had nothing to do with their driving.
Kudos for the TTC trying to run the largest Transit system in Canada with the scraps left behind by all three levels of Government.

Cliff Gordon - My safety is a first consideration whenever I board public transit. I'm in the hands of the bus or rail carrier operator for the length of my trip. His/Her ability to react instantaneously to a traffic emergency is of primary importance to my safety. If he/she has all the appearances of a pachyderm, it's obvious to me my personal well being, on his/her vehicle, is being unnecessarily compromised. If TTC management were on their toes they'd make certain TTC drivers are retested and re-qualified annually in all the essential operator categories.

This is address to PJM. If you were to spend day in and day out receiving complaints by passengers for things you have no control over, you also may become frustrated driver. if you spend day in and day out being insulted, sometimes spat on, punched, slapped, kicked, just for doing your job or for most of the time something you have no control on, then you would also become a frustrated driver. If you alway get accused for thing that you simply never did just because the passenger is mad at you and that management mostly will take the word of the passenger over the driver, then you would also become a frustrated driver. So before complaining about TTC Driver, i suggest you walk in their shoes a few times. Maybe then you will understand why a lot of them just drive and mind their business and simply don't care.

PJM -what the heck does "obese" have to do with anything? You're a total ignorant.

As a frequent visitor to Toronto who uses the TTC, I have news for most of you who are complaining. Try taking the city bus in Ottawa. We are short 100 buses, due to poor maintenance. At least Toronto is trying. The bus and tram drivers have always been courteous and friendly. And PJM, looks are not everything. Could David Miller have a talk with our mayor about improving bus service? I have never waited more than 5-10 minutes for buses, trams, or the subway in TO and this at rush hour. I have had to wait up to an hour for a taxi. I won't tell you how long I've waited for buses and taxis in Ottawa.

This might make a small improvement but what about investing in TTC employees themselves? Way I see it there is no culture of efficiency in the ranks of the TTC. Just my views.

I walked through the Yorkville station recently to find glaze peeling off the ceramic wall tiles. This transit "service" is in a shambles.

These days, I will do almost anything to avoid the depressingly decrepit (and laughably inefficient) TTC. During rush hour I can literally walk faster than the street car. I just look through the window of the "dead rocket" and feel sorry for the poor sardines steeping in the garlic scented haze. Even street cars on the much lauded (by David Miller) right-of-ways are slow.

As for the subway; it could be sped up too. A series of express trains could make the trip to the suburbs shorter, more pleasant, and attractive to new riders.

A common fiction I hear is that transit is "environmentally friendly." When I see 1960s vintage diesel "bio buses" belching "environmentally friendly" bio carcinogenic soot I wonder: Are these good for our air quality?

I err on the side of caution:

If my destination is within 10 km, I walk, jog, run, or cycle. Beyond that, I drive.

In my view the politicians have gutted the TTC. It is functionally dead. In its current incarnation I’m actually better off without it.

I wish it weren't so. I wish we had a transit system we could be proud of. Something fast, comfortable, efficient. Something I could actually use.

The TTC should wake up and stop patting itself on its back for the miserable service commuters receive.Commuters are hostages to the only service available and for the TTC to constantly remind us of how wonderful it is is nothing but a pathetic sick joke.

ONE: Buy subway cars that have seats NOT designed for anorexics!Presently,the seats on the present cars are extremely poorly designed and too narrow for the vast majority of people, not obese people,just ordinary people.

SECOND: There should be security cameras in each subway car and on each bus.Beef up the visible security presence in the subway stations.

Third: Provide Torontonians with the same superb modern subway cars of Paris and Hong Kong and the trams used in Strasbourg,for example. The TTC is decades behind in providing efficient comfortable transportation enjoyed by these cities in this respect.

The incompetence of TTC management is directly-related to the quality of the service Torontonians receive. If you are dissatisfied with the service ask yourself where the problem originates.

I agree with the TTC staff comments.

The people driving the streetcars and buses, are, for the most part, rude and not helpful.

The amount of incidents I have seen over the years of these operators, in the way they treat riders poorly, is mindboggling.

Not so very long ago the TTC was crying about how poor they were. That they are running on a deficit and that they needed to increase fares or they would have to CUT service. Now all of a sudden there is an "EXTRA" 21 million dollars and services are being increased. Very interesting. From where did this money all of a sudden appear? Sounds fishy to me.

As a new comer it took me 10 minutes to see how inefficient the actual TTC system is. I see more politicians than real Engineers in action. The system is corrupt, I have seen big expenses on changing the rails for the street cars without much improvement, and this means that for another 20 or 30? years car owners will drive at the speed of streetcars (and behind them). I agree with others who ask not just for more, but a better public transportation. Those who ask to leave your car and take the TTC have never taken a streetcar on Queen Street (and they have never had to wait for more than one hour on the cold). No !! the TTC is not an option as it is right now.
Note: TTC is not just the busses and streetcars, but all of them who work there.

The issue with more buses on the roads is that they create more traffic, more slow downs, more aggressive drivers, which leads to more accidents, and more slow downs.

The City needs to diversify the TTC with light rail lines monorail lines, more subway lines, whatever it takes. But, understandably when you only have a shoestring budget of course, more buses will be all you get.

I think that this City should increase property taxes to match that of Mississauga, Oakville, and Brampton etc. But, the provincial and federal governments should be pitching in as well.

I hope within my lifetime I see an increase in service-area for the TTC; whether that happens or not, I'm not willing to hold my breath. I'll just plan my day according to where I can efficiently travel to.

As a student, I wanna say the TTC bus ticket is one of most expensive ticket in the world. Sometimes, I think improving quality of servers is more important then adding more buses. Have you wait bus in winter at -19 degree about 1 hour before, you better try that. Asking more people who take buses, not just sitting in your warm office to dream your plan.

I think there is a lot of truth to the comments made about terrible service on behalf of operators/drivers. I cannot think of any other industry where you can get away with their behaviour in general, let alone illegal strikes that inconvenience an entire city. Given, its not the most glamorous job in the world, but neither is working at McDonalds for 1/4 of the wage, but in general, I receive better service and more smiles from them. Maybe Go transit's decision might be a good one to consider. At the very least, TTC's complaint system is proven to be a bureaucratic dead end. Bad apples are spoiling the better way. Time to cut the dead and diseased weight and hold these employees to the higher standard that their pay would justify.

"Are you tempted to leave our car at home and take The Better Way?"

No....

I would like to but the only way I will start taking the TTC, or the Go for that matter, is if they lower the rates.

If the TTC rates were 1$ or even a 4$ day pass and the GO rates were reduced by 50% then I will leave the car at home. That is the only way

This is directed at Cliff Gordon, Toronto.

You obviously don't comprehend what a 'blog' is...maybe you should google it up first before putting down what you said.

Since the 'service upgrades' I, personally, have seen no real differences is service. The subway at Yong & Bloor is as overcrowded as always. Certainly, the 501 Queen St. car is the absolute worst offender with the hideous amounts of short turns. That said, the money that was spent in supposed service improvements could have been better used in current negotiations to avoid a strike.