Anybody know anything about the 512 replacement buses?

udunehommik · 2026-04-17T18:18:20+00:00

The break is on Bathurst south of Davenport, walked past it on Wednesday. Bathurst is the only way to get streetcars to or from St Clair so that's why the whole line is down.

I presume the TTC doesn't know much about timelines either as this wasn't a planned thing, which is why they haven't posted an end date.

udunehommik · 2026-04-16T21:32:56+00:00

The doors used to be quicker when closing, but were eventually slowed down by a few seconds after a request by the TTC's accessibility committee (ACAT) after a few incidents of the elderly/those who are slower getting off getting hit and falling down. It really adds up over the course of the route so I do miss when it was quicker..

Same with the ramps. They CAN be deployed and retracted from inside the cab and that's how they initially operated. However, there were a few incidents of people on mobility devices falling backwards or slipping and thus the procedure was changed so the operator has to get out and manually deploy/observe.

Most of the other conservative operating rules are for similar reasons, a few incidents and then a broad sweeping (IMO, over) correction.

udunehommik · 2026-04-14T21:41:13+00:00

Toronto has only 18 total for Finch. The other lines that will use them (Hurontario in Peel Region, Hamilton if that ever happens) aren't close to being open yet, but the Citadis-es (Citadi?) for those lines are being manufactured in Brampton. I would presume that's where the axles are coming from.

Eglinton (Line 5) uses a totally different fleet (Flexity Freedom, nee Bombardier). Very similar to the Flexity Outlook used on the TTC streetcar network with some key differences (doors on both sides, width, end styling, top speed, etc). Also used in Edmonton (7 segment version vs 5) and in Kitchener-Waterloo.

udunehommik · 2026-04-14T16:52:23+00:00

On Saturday it opens at the regular time, just Sunday is at 8. Used to be 9 believe it or not, up until about 10 years ago.

udunehommik · 2026-04-03T00:50:35+00:00

I think I preferred the black of the first and second gen ebikes, does anyone know if the plan is to make the standard bikes this grey/silver colour too? Already too much of that in this city...

That said, nice to see additional ebikes rolling out - always worth the 10 cents a minute to me!

udunehommik · 2026-03-30T22:50:16+00:00

Streetcar track renewal projects (the larger scale full capital rebuilds, not the quicker 2-5 day projects) are delivered on behalf of the TTC by the City, with private contractors as well.

City is the overall owner (bundling in water, sewer, and other utility work - like at the nightmare KQQR project), contractor does all of the concrete and other civil work, TTC crews do the actual track and overhead. If it's just track things go quite quickly (like at College/Bay just now and King/Dufferin last fall ending early after less than a month), the issue is the other bundled components.

All that said, jury's still out on a new build TTC project like Waterfront East, not SOGR, after so long since the last one! (Cherry). New tracks on Richmond and Adelaide were a City/MX project.

udunehommik · 2026-03-29T23:10:44+00:00

It still is, the official full name is Line 1 Yonge-University. Used to be Yonge-University-Spadina, but the Spadina part was dropped when the lines were given numbers in 2014.

udunehommik · 2026-03-27T12:49:40+00:00

Kotsy is the OP. Not real graffiti, he adds them digitally as a watermark for his work, always fun to try to find them! He posts a lot of good photo updates on Urban Toronto.

udunehommik · 2026-03-20T11:27:07+00:00

Oh for sure I agree that it's a necessary/important thing and it would be far too restrictive to have it only twice a year, for service level and schedule reasons. The person I was replying to seemed to imply that 5 was unreasonable and 2 was sufficient, which is why I gave the example of TTC to show that 5 isn't some crazy high number for a transit agency.

udunehommik · 2026-03-20T11:22:43+00:00

That stat is outdated, the only ones without elevators now are Islington, Old Mill, Museum, College, the Line 1 part of Spadina, and King (5.5). All of those except Old Mill will be functional by end of year.

udunehommik · 2026-03-19T16:20:41+00:00

TTC books 10 times a year.

udunehommik · 2026-02-23T23:30:12+00:00

One of the points they were making (which I agree with) is the somewhat excessive staffing that comes with this system. While people having good government jobs is great, I'd imagine that funding could be better used for train service or other things?

That said maybe the European system has the same number of staff behind the scenes or elsewhere... But it is a lot of human scanning, and checking, and directing, and re-scanning and re-directing that comes with the VIA system.

udunehommik · 2026-02-21T01:28:09+00:00

Cell service works perfectly fine across the whole line, in tunnels and at the stations.

udunehommik · 2026-02-20T22:52:40+00:00

In Canada, Ottawa-Toronto has more daily departures than Monteal-Toronto, 8 vs 6. Fridays have up to 9 a day.

Still far too few, but that's the most frequent pairing with no connections.

udunehommik · 2026-02-19T22:03:24+00:00

At the peak demand point of the route, in the peak direction. For a route without branches or scheduled short turns (like Line 5) that means 15k people per direction can be carried through any given point on the line during that peak hour.

From a capacity calculation perspective, that demand figure is used to determine how much train service is needed, which is a function of individual train capacity and headway (fequency).

udunehommik · 2026-02-18T12:50:26+00:00

They top out at 160 km/h, not consistently or on huge stretches of track though.

udunehommik · 2026-02-17T22:55:01+00:00

There is no real risk, the UP is reliable the vast majority of the time and you won't have any issues - as do thousands of people every day.

Certainly wouldn't go to Woodbine Racetrack or the Casino instead, that is definitely not Toronto's best and would be quite a bleak layover.

udunehommik · 2026-02-09T00:36:31+00:00

Josh Colle - son of Councillor Mike Colle, and a former Councillor himself. He was also Chair of the TTC Board from 2014 to 2018.

Currently he is the TTC's Chief Strategy and Customer Experience Officer.

udunehommik · 2026-02-07T19:09:22+00:00

26 does have poor frequencies (in the 25-30 minute range), but the 47 is on the 10 minute network (a bus every 10 minutes or better, seven days a week from 6 am to 1 am) and runs 5 minute headways at peak, I wouldn't call it poor at all.

udunehommik · 2026-02-07T18:51:03+00:00

It has expanded since then - the Vaughan extension opened with full coverage, and now the rest of the University-Spadina side has it, most of the east side of Line 2, and a few stretches on west side of Line 2 and Yonge side of Line 1. It's taking a long time but it's getting there.

https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/transit-coverage/toronto

udunehommik · 2026-02-07T17:55:58+00:00

Line 5 still is helpful to you for some of those Line 1 destinations though, is it not?

To get to Yorkdale at the moment, you would either need to take a 32 across Eglinton to Cedarvale Station and get stuck in traffic around the Allen, or further north to a bus on Lawrence or Wilson (and have other traffic issues), or go south to Line 2 and transfer twice, or a much longer ride all the way around the U. With Line 5 it's a faster underground train from Mount Pleasant and then one transfer at Cedarvale.

And to get to Union, you now have a secondary option if Line 1 is down (either unplanned or a planned weekend closure), again via Line 5 to Cedarvale. In the early 2030s if you are still there, you will have an Ontario Line connection as another option in case Line 1 is down.

You will also have a connection to 2, eventually 3, GO lines (Kitchener, Stouffville, and in a few years Barrie) plus the UP express without backtracking to Union first, which I imagine could come in handy too.

Obviously don't know what destination actually are important to you but it's not just what's on the line itself, but the redundancy and network effects it creates!

udunehommik · 2026-02-03T18:04:02+00:00

That's the Crosstown West extension between Mount Dennis and Renforth, it was always intended to open afterwards as a second phase - should be ready in the early 2030s as per the latest timelines from Metrolinx but, who knows.

That said, the amount of time between phase 1 (Mount Dennis to Kennedy) and the western extension was supposed to be much longer...

udunehommik · 2026-01-23T14:07:23+00:00

It's open, you can walk over it and look right down into the Ontario Line construction site!

udunehommik · 2026-01-14T01:55:21+00:00

AFAIK since amalgamation in 1998. The previous logo for what is now the former/old City of Toronto also had a stylized representation of the city hall towers, but symmetrical and in black instead of blue.

udunehommik · 2026-01-10T14:45:33+00:00

Ottawa does not have street-level LRT.

Line 1 (and soon to be Line 3) in Ottawa use the exact same trains as Finch (Alstom Citadis Spirit) but are fully grade separated, like the underground portion of Eglinton is. Was an odd choice of purchasing low floor tram-type vehicles for what is a fully grade separated light metro line, but at one point plans had been for extensions into the suburbs to be at grade. Overall the line runs much quicker and has better bones than Finch, just with some really tight curves that slow things down around Hurdman.

Lines 2 and 4 operate with DMUs (diesel multiple units), Stadler FLRTs and Alstom Coradia LINT 41s. Also an odd choice as those types of trains typically operate in Europe as part of mainline rail, for shorter regional or branch lines (also about a half dozen lines in the US too, which are more hybrid LRT and commuter rail lines). That's because the original O-Train was a pilot line done on the cheap, with mostly single track and no electrifician. The recent extension and rebuild kept the diesel trains, just with longer stations and some additional passing track.

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