High-Speed Rail in California

June 30, 2008 - I recently discovered the official website for California's planned High-Speed Rail system through another transit blog. The site is very impressive, complete with visualizations of what it would be like sitting on one of these trains as you zip through the state from Los Angeles to San Francisco. It also has a few before and after animations as well - and it's great to see how they envision the landscape will change as a result.

The site also has everything from route maps, to costs, to the amount of CO2 saved, to how much you save compared to flying. It's a great marketing tool to sell the idea of public transit to possibly the most car-loving people on the planet.

The 2008 TTC Subway Map

June 24, 2008 - I first saw these maps on the subway over the weekend. Initially I thought my eyes were playing tricks since the map looks blurry and unreadable to me (it was right after my CADD class afterall). It wasn't until I read this blog that I found out that the map that I had seen was actually the 2008 version of the subway map, complete with a new font that bleeds into the background, making the map really hard to read. What were they thinking? or should I not even be surprised anymore.

Also, with regard to having the station addresses on the map, who in the world would care that Rosedale Station is actually at 7 Crescent Road? If the map is supposed to help people find an address (which I don't recommend, since the subway map is crap), wouldn't it make sense to locate the Station with a Yonge Street address, since the subway runs along (gasp!) Yonge Street?

Commuting Thoughts: 30 Days Later

June 21, 2008 - It has been about a month since I made that decision to move back to Markham for a few months until my condo is ready for me to be moved in. Moving home means a few things: living with my parents, free food, and a very long commute. I really did not want to start ranting on my commute, since I know from the date that I decided to move home, that the commute would be painful. Having said that, I have to admit that it has not been as bad as I envisioned it would be. Surely, there are bad days, but the majority of them have been surprisingly good. Of course, when it is bad though, it is really bad. Here's an example:

Saturday, June 21 @ 5:50 p.m.

Someone had jumped/fell/been pushed onto the tracks at St. Clair station. I was on a northbound train at Bloor station when they ordered everyone off the train. There was to be no subway service between Eglinton and Bloor. Sure, it's not the TTC's fault that a "track level injury" had occurred, but what came after really annoyed me. The PA system came on, asking everyone to take a shuttle bus to Bloor (this was in addition to the subway conductors yelling at everyone for not getting off the train fast enough). Past experiences have told me that shuttle buses do not work well in situations like this. As expected, hundreds of people gathered at the Yonge/Bloor intersection. There were no directions on where to wait, when the bus will come, or whether we need a transfer or not. Where were the TTC employees? could they not deploy someone from transit control to help organize the crowds or provide instructions? Ten minutes later, the shuttle bus was still nowhere to be seen, while the crowd at Y&B had grown much larger. It was chaotic and completely disorganized - you would think that TTC has a manual of some sort that actually guides emergency situations like this. I mean, what if it was a terrorist attack instead of an "injury at track level"?

Anyway, I ended up taking the Bloor train to St. George (got stuck at St. George because of "security reasons") and then up to Downsview, east to Sheppard on a bus, then up to Finch. By the time I got to Sheppard, trains were running northbound on Yonge again.

Time it took from Bloor to Finch: 1.5 hours

Really, is it that difficult for the TTC to improve its customer service? I know a huge emphasis is placed on track maintenance and making sure trains run on time, etc, but in today's day and age, you cannot treat your riders like cattles being shuttled to be slaughtered (that also applies to how airlines treat their passengers, but that's another story). At least pretend that you care, that's all I'm asking really.

Is the TTC Customer Service Challenged?

June 6, 2008 - This is probably one of the best Spacing blogs I have read in awhile. As we've all had our share of misery on the TTC, I definitely concur with what the blog says. Click on the link to read other readers' comments, including an official response from the TTC.

Collecting Flack
John Lorinc

The TTC doesn’t need to do drug testing on its drivers. For my money, I’d much prefer the Commission spend some time and capital on customer service training for its ticket booth collectors so that someday they may begin to treat customers — especially those who are young, brown or anglophonically-challenged — with a modicum of civility. While there are polite and professional ticket takers, riders for years have had to endure far too much surly or indifferent service from the members of the booth brigade, who always seem to be yakking on the phone or taking their sweet time making change. Isn’t it bad enough that a TTC ticket or token is perhaps the last commodity, other than dope, that can only be purchased with cash? Then there’s the culture of selective suspicion. Every teenager knows this story, and twas ever thus. But there’s no question that many ticket booth personnel save their most callous behaviour for non-English-speaking immigrants or tourists with the temerity to (gasp!) ask for directions. Sometimes, in fact, their behaviour verges on racist.

Exhibit A: I was in a ticket line at the St. George Street end of the St. George subway station last week. A university student was trying to make the automatic turnstile work but was losing the battle. She politely asks the ticket collector for help. He advises her to jostle it some more. She tries, to no avail, and then asks the man, quite reasonably, “Can I just go through?” He kind of rolls his eyes and mutters, “Well, I dunno.” He’s white, middle-aged, looking fed up. Was his reaction influenced by the fact that she had brown skin and wore a headscarf? Indeed, he only let her through when I and several others in line protested on her behalf, but not before interrogating us if we’d witnessed her inserting the token.

Exhibit B: Two TTC employees, also white-middle-aged males, were stationed at one of the portable ticket boxes at Union Station recently, grousing. One complained to the other that he’d just been assigned to Wheel Trans duty. The man pulls a face: “You know, it’s always, ‘Now, go pick up Mrs. Doodledypaddleypoo,’” he says in a mocking Indian accent. This, in a fully audible voice, at the entrance to the TTC’s busiest station. That such conduct continues to be tolerated defies belief.

The mayor is a self-described progressive who “gets” Toronto’s multi-culturalism. So, we’re told, is TTC chair Adam Giambrone. The commission itself services the most ethnically-diverse city in the world, and the face of the new Toronto is rarely more apparent than on the subway. Perhaps they’re all just afraid of taking on the union. In London, Tube attendants give directions and advise on fares without attitude, and they’ll even accept payment with those new fangled contraptions called bank or credit cards. Our tourism industry moans and groans about the homeless but I’d bet that curt and unhelpful replies from TTC personnel do way more to besmirch our reputation.Isn’t it time for the TTC to get serious about this embattled, unhelpful culture? Maybe the commission needs a bit of prodding. A few years back, Spacing asked our readers to submit their favourite streetcar driver stories. Today, we ask that you post your own ticket booth horror tales below.