PRESTO! An Explanation Please

The Presto fare payment system being rolled out by Metrolinx throughout the Toronto area and Ottawa is supposed to make fare payment for transit riders easier.  Transit users would be able to use one card to ride all the transit systems in the Toronto area which would remove the necessity of carrying tickets, tokens, passes and other transit brick a brack.  The dream of modern reliable fare payment options appeared to have dawned on the Toronto area after years in the darkness of tokens and easily counterfitable tickets.   Torontoians would finally join the ranks of Hong Kong and New York City transit riders with modern flexible transit fare payment technology.  The dream and optimism was there in the beginning, but then Metrolinx and it's contractors have fallen apart. 

In the beginning everything seemed to be working as it should be on a major roll out.  GO Transit, a division of Metrolinx, started testing the card technology on the Lakeshore West Train line.  As with any well designed project, there was to be kinks when items leave the lab.  Even Google Beta Tests new technologies before rolling them out to all users (e.g. Gmail, Maps, etc.).  Grand designs for roll out of the technology in 2011 and 2012 went from there. 

Then the technological issues and lack of planning started to arise.  First the Toronto's TTC refused to adopt the Presto card as it called the technology outdated because the card was the only way to pay the fare instead of allowing for credit cards, Presto Cards and, eventually, cell phones to be used.   The TTC initially said it would undertake it's own tender process for a more advanced fare payment system provided by the private sector.  But after exploring a few options, it was determined Presto would be the best choice as the province was willing to provide some funding for implementation.  However, the TTC currently only has select stations that connect with regional transit on the Presto system.  Thus, presently the largest transit system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is not using Presto to it's fullest potential and is unlikely to until the next year.

Technological problems and secrecy are prevalent in roll out of Presto.  Only the good news is trumpeted by Metrolinx and the transit agencies in the Toronto area.  Delays and technological glitches go unexplained.  A prime example was the roll out of the Presto Card with York Region's YRT System.  The promised date of March 28th 2011 came and went with no communication from YRT.  I commented at the time it left riders and taxpayers confused:  . 

Recently York Region Transit (YRT) has delayed the launch of the Presto Card on it's system from Monday March 28th to some unknown date. Yorkregion.com reports that the Region of York's Transportation Department, which YRT is under, refuses to comment on why the delay. This is despite a report to the Region's Transportation comittee's March 2nd meeting from the transportation department making no mention of a delay and that March 28th was the target date. As well there was no mention of the Presto delay in the Region of York's council minutes for March 24, 2011. One would think that an update to government officials on why delayed roll out would be required as there is signicant amount of the regional and provincial money being invested. But politicians, YRT Customers and taxpayers are left without answers even after a news reporter asked questions.

YRT, as per usual practice, rolled out the marketing campaign for Presto in March 2011 with bus wraps, newsletter advertisments and much much more.  But no explanation came forth on why Presto was delayed or what the issues were for the delay.  It was all hush hush because, quite frankly, Presto might become an embarassment for both YRT and Metrolinx if the real reasons came out. 

Fast forward to July 2011 and at least some of  real reasons finally came out.  Presto was not ready for prime time at YRT.  The lack of advertising for the July 2011 was pretty noticeable.  Optics didn't look good for YRT's Marketing department as it appeared they blew their Presto advertising budgets on the March 2011 roll out with nothing to show for it.  No newspaper advertisments were put out and YRT's transit newsletter, My Transit, had been printed in May.    But that was not to say YRT didn't blow the budget with the roll out of Presto though.  I commented more on that roll out back in July 2011.  Bottom line, advertising was overblown and a weak overpiced roll out occurred. 

Then the technology and inital set up of the Presto cards started to become evident.  Yorkregion.com reported several issues with the incorrect set up of cards which resulted in children and students being charged adult fares.  The only place to resolve these issues?  YRT's Transit Office open a very conveinent 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Friday.   

Add to that issues with the cards themselves malfunctioning with YRT's Finest Fare Enforcement Officers with the below being a prime example:

Two weeks ago on CBC Radio's Metro Morning with Matt Galloway, a freelance reporter reported that he tapped his Presto Card at Finch Station and boarded a northbound VIVA Blue bus. YRT's Transit Enforcement was on the VIVA bus checking fares. They tapped the reporter's card to show he hadn't paid. He disembarked the bus with the transit enforcement team and tapped the Presto Machine he used and it showe he paid. In the meantime, the VIVA Blue bus pulled out without the reporter on the bus for which he duly paid his fare and he was made to look like a fare evading scofflaw when in fact the reporter had fully paid his fare and was entitled to board the bus. There was no word of an apology from York Region Transit or Presto.

If that was not enough, when confronted about the issues with Presto, YRT and the Region of York clammed right up.  Bruce McCuaig, the President of Metrolinx, was on CBC Radio's Metro Morning and was interviewed at the time by Matt Galloway.  McCuaig refused to apologize for these indicences but did point out there would be technological glitches from time to time.

YRT even tried to paint the roll out of Presto as successful.  YRT General Manager Rick Leary claimed the rollout was successful as only eight complaints had been registered.  I took Leary's claims to task in a posting in August 2011.

YRT continues to struggle with acceptance by it's passengers with Presto as the only place to load obtain or load a card in person is the very convenient YRT Office open only during regular working hours.  Add to this YRT passengers can only use Presto for 10 ride ticket function which basically gives one ride free for every 10 taken.  Unfortunately, weekly and monthly passes are not available at this time and the only place to obtain a card authoried by York Region is the YRT office which is open during not very convenient hours, but there are is promises to roll out to retail locations in the future.

The City of Ottawa has also run into issues in rolling out Presto.  Ottawa was expected to piggy back the roll out of the card after the Toronto area had successfully completed it.  The main issue in Ottawa though is someone at Metrolinx believed the Presto System was ready for a more advanced version two.  This was despite Version 1 of the Presto System not being fully implemented or used in the Greater Toronto Area.  As an example, in York Region, Presto Cards can only be purchased from YRT Head Office in Richmond Hill and not commercial retailers.  As well the cards only work for single ride fares in replacement of the ten rides worth of tickets and is not available for monthly pass holders who continue to use paper passes. 

The new system in Ottawa optically looks better than the YRT version with larger screens and tap on and off points at each bus entrance and exit.  However, it currently doesn't work to several technical issues including:

a) Presto system rebooting when cards are tapped. 

b) Presto taking minutes to boot up when the bus is started.

c) Cards being debited once, twice or not at all.

The City of Ottawa had spent numerous amount on promotion of the new Presto System for an expected roll out of July 1st.  Even a month before Metrolinx said the system was ready for launch in Ottawa.  In fact Metrolinx continues to advertise that Presto will be launched in Summer of 2012 on their Presto website.  Thus, City of Ottawa council is quite upset with Metrolinx and is investigating repayment of some of the costs associated with Presto. 

Bruce McQuaig, still the President of Metrolinx, replied to the question of the City of Ottawa receiving any compensation for Metrolinx's delays in implementation:

 “offset reasonable and documented and unavoidable costs in the areas we have agreed.”-  Ottawa Citizen article.

Translation: the City of Ottawa is out of luck in attempting to get any money back on the unproven Presto Technology without reams of paperwork itemizing line by line costing which will suck more staff time than any cheque from Metrolinx would compensate for.

The only difference in terms of Presto between York Region Transit (YRT) and OC Transpo (City of Ottawa's Transit System) is the relationship with Metrolinx.  YRT needs Metrolinx as it is the agency who decides on funding for future transit projects within the Greater Toronto Area.  Whereas, the City of Ottawa plans and seeks funding for it's own transit operations and expansion. Thus, Ottawa is not as beholden to Metrolinx as York Region Transit is for the future.

For the future, OC Transpo and Metrolinx are working on a February 2013 roll out.  City of Ottawa has approved a new fair structure for the interim period that mirrors the discounts for ridersherip for Presto.  Metrolinx and it's contractor are working on tweaking the Presto system and continuing testing.  This all seems very promising that the city is communicating so far with it's ridership on how Presto's issues are being resolved. 

Metrolinx is acting though is nothing wrong in Ottawa. The Presto website does not mention the delay and still points to a summer 2012 roll out.  It was only interested in doing damage control by sending it's President and Vice-President to take the heat from the Cit of Ottawa's Transportation Committee.  There were no answers at the time on how the city would be refunded money spent promoting Presto or the delayed roll out.  Metrolinx has also failed to apologize to both YRT and OC Transpo customers for the delayed roll out and technical glitches that befell both systems.   

Ottawa needs to continue to communicate with it's ridership, councillors, and taxpayers on the progress and hinderances of Presto.  The City needs to learn from the YRT and other Toronto area municipal transit systems in failing to communicate with it's stakeholders about the roll out of Presto.  Failure to do so could leave bad optics to riders and lower the trust of ridership in the transit agency itself. 

Metrolinx needs to realize it is in a communications quagmire.  It has failed to roll out the technology to all the systems on time without any technological issues.  Both YRT and OC Transpo are prime examples of poor planning on implementing new technology.  The systems were promised to transit users and taxpayers and then delayed due to technological or other undisclosed issues. On top of that, Metrolinx then tried to release the second version of Presto while the first version was not fully rolled out anywhere as advertised to replace both monthly passes and 10 ride ticket equivalents.  While all of this is going on, Metrolinx has painted the picture that nothing is wrong and Presto is a great system that we are confident in.  To bad many transit users in both York Region and Ottawa beg to differ.

Why are Transit Customers taking photos?

Over the past couple of weeks in Toronto photos and videos have been surfacing of TTC Workers found in compromising positions. It all started with the now famous sleeping token collector. Then there was a flood of other photos and video of similar actions. Everything from the Queen Street Streetcar driver who stopped the vehicle and crossed to an ATM machine to a video of a TTC Bus Driver visiting a Country Style donuts mid route.

Why are all these photos and videos being taken and released by TTC Customers?

The answer to this question is simply customer frustration. Customers call and complain to the TTC Customer service, presuming it is open, and nothing happens. About three months ago I complained to both YRT and the TTC about the Route 107B near my workplace in Vaughan. The TTC is contracted by YRT to provide an extended TTC Route 107B north into York Region. I received a phone call from a "Sarah" from TTC who promised to look into it and get back to me with a solution. Three months later I haven't heard back from Sarah.

I've since complained back to both YRT, TTC and my Regional Councillor Aurora Mayor Phyllis Morris with no result. The TTC 107B 75% of the time will not come on its scheduled time. This despite the TTC and YRT both looking into it. YRT claims it is a TTC issue and there is nothing they can do about it as the TTC sets the schedule and they don't. Phyllis Morris has tried and doesn't seem to be getting very far with either YRT or the TTC. All I get in return is dumb answers like "the bus is considered to be on time if it arrives within 10 minutes of its scheduled arrival time". Um...so that means if the bus comes consistantly 10 minutes after it's scheduled time YRT and the TTC don't consider this to be an issue? So with that excellent example of "Customer Service" YRT and the TTC provided on this it is no surprise TTC customers are getting a little agitated. To make matters worse, the TTC just raised fares at the beginning of January.

Another issue of forwarding issues to Transit agencies is what the reply is back. That is presuming you get a reply back from the Transit agency. I've made a couple of complaints about YRT Drivers and YRT Transit inspectors, who follow up on customer complaints, either try and defend their driver or the reply is the transit driver denied it. This either ends in the YRT Customer thinking "why did I even bother reporting this?" to complete aggravation with steam coming from Customer's ears. I have experienced both of these. It seems transit agencies have very few people who have the wherewithal and energy to actually investigate the customers complaint instead of writing it off as frivolous. The "frivolous" attitude results in the transit customer being aggravated and not wanting to deal with idiotic customer service people at the transit agency again. Those that work and follow up the transit complaints actually ensure customers get reasonable action taken and a fully informed answer back.

However, there is a way customers can prove their point to the transit agency or at least ensure issues get attention. This is by taking photos or videos of offences like the ones referenced above. I've actually completed an example of this back in June 2007. This example provides all the possibilities that transit agencies use to wriggle themselves out of a driver issue:

On Saturday July 16th I boarded a northbound VIVA Blue Bus at Finch Station. At the station on the platform within a couple weeks of York Region Transit posting on their website no smoking is permitted at any YRT transit terminal (which Finch Subway station is a major one for YRT) was one of their drivers reading a newspaper and smoking. I did have my 10 megapixel digital camera with me and snapped a photo for evidence.



Once I returned home I forwarded the photo in an e-mail to a YRT Transit Inspector I had dealt with very positively in the past with. In the e-mail I also noted that two By-laws that were being contravened (York Region's and GO Transit's). Basically I provided YRT with a pretty open and shut case.

A few days later I received a response from the YRT Transit Inspector over the phone. He called to say that Veiolia, the YRT contractor that operates VIVA for York Region had followed up with the driver. The driver was pulled into a meeting with her supervisor.

The Veolia supervisor asked the driver if she was smoking at the Finch Station. The driver denied that she was. This is the typical "deny, deny, deny..." excuse that transit agencies give you when making a complaint. Note: This excuse is removed with photo or video evidence as it is tough to deny photo or video evidence that is contradictory.

The supervisor then opened the above photo and asked again if the driver was smoking a the transit agency terminal. Obviously there was no denying it a second time and an admission of guilt was provided.

The YRT Transit inspector also applauded me for providing such good detail in my original e-mail in terms of providing both GO Transit's By-law (Finch Station is a GO Transit Terminal) and York Region's No Smoking at YRT Terminals and Bus stops. All he had to do was forward the issue off to Veolia for follow up.

Obviously without the photo the above complaint would have been denied by the driver and Veolia and YRT would have provided the "this is a he said she said" type of scenario. This would have left me angry and wondering "why did I even bother reporting this?" But this was not the case all because a photo was taken.

In the case of the sleeping TTC Token Booth Collector and others, the TTC cannot deny these issues never happened and that customers are making this up because of the photo and video evidence.

But finally the worst about the customer service is the investigation and follow up. In the case of the TTC, they jjust bury the issue and hope it will go away eventually. This is proven in the case of the TTC Sleeping Token clerk:

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said officials will conduct an internal investigation and take appropriate action but the public will likely never know the outcome.

"It's not something that we would share publicly anyways, it's a personnel matter," Ross said. "I don't think the TTC is unusual in that."
So in other words the TTC is officially saying they will investigate the issue and might do something but the TTC will not release an answer as to what action may have been taken to discipline the worker in question (read: suspension or dismissal). So this leaves the TTC customers asking themselves: "how do we know the TTC has investigated and dealt with this issue if we never hear of any results from complaints like this?" This question only further leads to the usual "why do we bother", anger and the belief that all TTC complaints end up in the "TTC's black hole of Customer Service".

It is no wonder TTC Customers are taking photos of TTC Workers' trangressions on the job. TTC Customers are frustrated at the fare increase, service disruptions and, as TTC General Manager Gary Webster put it in a memo to employees: "The culture of complacency and malaise that has seeped into our organization...". Since the TTC has obviously failed their riders in terms of customer service, riders have begun to turn elsewhere. Thus, TTC Customers have turned to the ultimate customer service agency found in this era, the internet. So if the TTC Customer Service wishes to deny, dismiss and obfusticate their way through this mess, photos, videos and other such media will only appear more and more online. This will only lead the media, like the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun to do what they do best. That is to hold public officials to account for what is going on by asking the hard questions. Sadly, it is only when agencies like the TTC are embarassed into action that they start moving to resolve issues.

What's going on at Finch Station?

Finch Station closed due to Police Investigation

On Saturday my girlfriend and I planned head down to High Park for a day out. We hopped on VIVA and headed south to the Finch Subway Station in order to take the Subway the rest of the way. However, once the VIVA Blue bus pulled into Finch Subway and we got off, we saw the scene pictured left (courtesy of CITY News).

I inquired with the grey haired YRT/VIVA Enforcement Officer as to what was going on. He replied there was a police investigation going on and the station was closed. However, there were shuttle buses being provided accross the street.

My girlfriend and I thought it over and thought we would walk down to the Sheppard Subway Station where the trains were ending their trip. We walked by the YRT/VIVA Enforcement officer again and inquired as to why the VIVA Blue bus driver never made an announcement that the subway was shut down. The Enforcement officer replied that perhaps this was the driver's first trip down that day. Now under normal circumstances this would be a satisfactory answer. But with VIVA it wasn't that simple.

VIVA buses have GPS units that also have messaging feature that transit control utilizes on a regular basis. Instead of calling each driver one by one and telling them the same message, VIVA Transit Control can send text messages to the drivers. So if an incident were to occur, like the Finch Subway Station being closed for a police investigation, the message can get out to the drivers in a timely fashion. In this case the driver could then announce to the passengers that the station is closed and that there are shuttle buses available to take passengers down to Sheppard Station or to take the VIVA Purple to connect with the VIVA Orange route in order to connect into the TTC Subway at Downsview Station instead.

I pointed out to the YRT/VIVA Enforcement Officer that the GPS units are utilized all the time to send messages to the drivers. So what prevented this? I also retorted that if YRT/VIVA was going to raise fares again they should improve communications.

My girlfriend and I were a little ticked about spending 45 minutes on the bus just to see our way blocked by yellow police tape. Why wasn't an announcement made? Chaos rained at Finch Station for YRT/VIVA riders because nobody had said anything. Also, two YRT/VIVA enforcement vehicles were in the spots where VIVA buses normally load passengers. Apparently YRT/VIVA Enforcement Officers figured it was more important to have good parking spaces instead of parking their cars a little further away in the unused bus parking area. So the VIVA Blue customers were let off at one platform and then picked-up at a different one instead of unloading and loading at the single platform if there was one bus in the station. YRT/VIVA didn't look to good in this situation.

At least the TTC was a little better. Kudos to them for a great job. While my girlfriend and I were making our decision of whether to head back to Aurora and forget our trip to Toronto, the TTC Enforcement officers let everyone know at the station entrance that the trains would be running soon. They just needed to get the collector and other employees back into the station at their posts first. The Toronto Police took down the yellow tape and within ten minutes everything was back to normal.

But I'm still dissapointed in the actions of YRT/VIVA communications. Why wasn't there an announcement made on the VIVA Blue route headed to Finch Station that the TTC subway wasn't operating north of Sheppard Station? Why weren't arrangements made to extend the VIVA Blue route temporarily down to Sheppard Station in order to provide service to the station and help out the TTC with shuttling? This would have been a great service to the customers of YRT/VIVA in a time of transit disruption. I would love answers to these two questions as well as this one: with such bad service from YRT/VIVA in situation like this why would they have the audicity to attempt to raise the fares to the highest in the GTA?

TTC Diversion Gives Riders Chance To See Station Hidden For 40 Years

TTC Diversion Gives Riders Chance To See Station Hidden For 40 Years

The TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) has rerouted its Bloor-Danforth Subway line in order to complete subway tunnel construction.

However, the detour takes the trains through a rarely seen piece of Toronto transit history, the lower Bay Station. For a full history click here and read and view the CityTv story.

For a video look at the lower Bay Station click here and here for Youtube videos from passing subway trains.

Transit Trip Planner

York Region Transit has been promising since their October 2006 newsletter to create an online trip planner for people wishing to plan out a route from point "A" to point "B". The fare increase coming in January 2007, which according to media reports will raise an additional two million dollars for YRT, will also provide funding for new technologies including the online trip planner. Now, as a YRT transit rider, I wait for this come to fruition.

Toronto also has one in the works as well. However, I would think the Toronto one might even happen before the York Region transit one due to the fact the TTC (Toronto's transit agency) is attempting to team up with techno geeks at Google to accomplish this. Google already has the experience in this trip planning with trip planners already created for U.S. cities like Burbank and Tampa. So the technological expertise of Google is already there and all that is really needed is for the TTC to turn over the needed maps and schedules to Google. Once Google acquires these necessary items, the techno geeks can start working on creating the interface.

Why will the Toronto one happen before the York Region one? Knowing the bureaucrats running York Region Transit, they will try and do it themselves instead of handing it over to a company like Google to do it for free. A company like Google, who already has experience in doing this, would have completed this task probably as little as three months. But of course, for York Region Transit, this would make too much sense and thus would not be possible to do. Thus, I don't the promised York Region's transit planner until at least six months to a year from now.

Are there other cities in this world that have great transit planning technologies?

New York City currently has four transit planner

SUBWAYblogger takes a look at the four of transit planners that New York City has complete with links to the planning websites themselves. I've used Hopstop.com while during my time in New York City and found it to be pretty reliable and convenient to use.

What would York Region and Toronto need to include in their trip planning systems?

Here is a list of needed features the trip planners would require:

1. A clean and easy to read map in order to clearly show the directions visually to the user. Hence why Google would be a good company to do a transit planner considering they have the Google Maps technology already in existence.

2. Integrate the system maps and schedules of TTC, GO Transit, YRT, Missisauga Transit, Brampton Transit and Durham Transit. This is to ensure a full Greater Toronto Area transit systems are available to transit riders. Currently it takes flipping between websites, schedules and maps of at least two transit agencies to complete an inter regional transit trip. This only leads to frustration. With all of these transit agencies in one easy to use trip planning system, it will be easier to use transit across borders (e.g. Mississauga to Toronto, etc.).

3. Clearly worded instructions on directions of where to go. Basically clear instructions on how to get from point "A" to point "B" which means the instructions need to include what station or intersection to transfer at and what route (and direction!) one needs to get on. Also, these instructions need to include what time the connecting bus is expected to arrive at the stop.

4. Indicate the fares required to complete the trip. If one is crossing from Toronto into York Region, a rider needs to currently pay two fares in order to ride the TTC and York Region. These fares need to be clearly listed of how much each fare will be for the individual transit agency (e.g. YRT $2.75 TTC $2.75 for a total of $5.50).

5. The route taken needs to have the shortest travel time possible. With the schedules included in the trip planner, connection times between buses can be optimized for riders. There is nothing more frustrating than to realize that you have to wait half an hour for a a connecting bus to arrive. Hopefully, the mapping system can avoid this and suggest another route that may take longer distance wise, but at least the overall travel time is shorter.

6. Take a look at the New York City's and other versions of trip planners. Why should Toronto and York Region "re-invent the wheel" when ideas have already been thought of and implemented? The inventors of the planners should take a look at hopstop.com's options of walking routes, less connections, etc. These options will further assist the transit planner technology to be even more useful to people.

7. Use of GPS technology should be . GPS units on transit vehicles will provide real time arrival times (i.e. is the bus going to arrive on time?) and assist planning an appropriate route. For people with PDAs (i.e. Blackberries) the trip planner could quickly re-map the route one is taking in case unexpected problems (i.e. accident or heavy traffic) occur.

These are just some of the possible suggestions that York Region Transit and Toronto should investigate for their respective online trip planning gizmos. Their own transit planning gizmos? Why can't the transit agencies of the Greater Toronto Area get to together and provide Google with the required information to do an excellent online transit planner? Because that would be thinking and, as we all know, bureaucracies would never do that!

Footnote: Google explains how the Google Transit Planner came about here on the Googleblog.

Chapter 11: Union Station

In case you are wonderin' what is going on with this post....click here.

"If Toronto is a sort of amalgam of New York and Chicago, Montreal can be understood as the best of Boston and New Orleans, a combination of old-world charm and modern technology." -Alan F.J. Artibise, "Canada as an Urban Nation" quoted on page 161.

Fiorito calls Toronto bland in chapter 11 and then proves it by going on to tell about how various facets of Toronto are merely 'mediocre'.

Is Toronto mediocre?

Since Toronto is supposed to be an amalgam of New York and Chicago, as the above quote from Fiorito's book would suggest, lets start there. Since I have never been to Chicago, but do know New York City quite well since I lived there for a year, lets compare Toronto to New York.

1. Transit: New York City has a kick ass subway system that moves millions of people a day (1.4 billion trips in 2005 according to Wikipedia) into and out of the city. The system not only connects with commuter trains (Metro North and the LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGG Island Railroad), Staten Island Ferry, annoucments of transit connections (announcement: "This is Times Square-42nd Street...Transfers available to the 1, 2, 3, 7, A, C, E, N, Q, R, W and Shuttle to Grand Central"), but also has express trains that moves people quickly past smaller "local stations" that the majority of people would not want to stop at. Sure the subway system is more than 100 years old, but it was built right from the beginning with switching redundancies between lines which helps to detour trains during construction on weekends as well as helping to keep the trains moving when there is a medical emergency. Medical emergency? Max ten minute holdup in New York to get things back on the move.

Toronto's subway system is becoming antiquated and useless. The system needs to expand big time! York University is Canada's largest bus station with GO Transit, TTC, YRT, VIVA and York University transit buses feeding passengers into, out of and through the campus. There is a proposal for a subway extension through the university grounds, but this is starting to become bogged down in political blame and bureaucracy between the municipal, provincial and federal levels of government.

Perhaps one comparison between New York City and Toronto on the transit issue is how many people does each subway station serve (i.e. divide the population by the number of subway stations).

New York City has 468 stations serving aproximately 10 million people (living within the 5 Boroughs of Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhatten, and the Bronx) whereas Toronto with a population of 2.5 million (within the former cities of Scarborough, East York, York, North York, Toronto and Etobicoke) has 69 subway stations. So on a per capita basis:

New York: 10,000,000 / 468 = 21,367.52 people

Toronto: 2,500,000 / 69 = 36,231.88 people.

What does this mean? There are more stations in New York serving the population than Toront. Considering that many trains in New York don't stop at the smaller subway stations (i.e. Express trains) and better connections to connecting transit, as well as the ease of their fare system it is no wonder why New York's subway system just totally rocks and Toronto's looks just plainly mediocre. Not only that, New York's transit system (subway, trains and buses) combined gets you everywhere. Toronto's transit system is so disjointed, confusing and stuck in traffic that the only thing one gets is to be late for work.

How to fix Toronto's subway problem?

Simple: 1. Complete the Sheppard Avenue line Eastward to Scarborough Town Centre and Westward to Downsview (and not further) to connect to the current Scarborough RT (and future Bloor-Danforth line extension). 2. Extend the University-Spadina line to Major Mackenzie Drive and Jane Street in order to service the booming new development in that corridor as well as finally give York University subway access. 3. Demo the Scarborough RT (because the system is coming to the end of its life span and no replacement parts are easily accesible as well as demand oustrips capacity) and extend the Bloor-Danforth line out to at least where the Scarborough RT currently ends. 4. Extend the Yonge Street line north to at least Bernard Avenue (one block North of Elgin Mills Road) to reduce congestion on Yonge Street. 5. Twin the Yonge Street line with an Express Tracks and local tracks like the 2/3 line in New York City. This would probably catch Toronto up on it subway stations and provide far better service.

2. Sports: The Toronto Blue Jays keep increasing their payroll year in and year out in an attempt to keep up and hopes (!) of surpassing the New York Yankees in terms of bringing in on field production. The Jays are hoping to eventually get back to winning the World Series for the first time since 1992 and 1993 dynasty years. So far this can only happen if The Boston Red Sox (like in the 2005 season) and New York Yankees are plaqued by injuries allowing Toronto to inch by them into second place in the East and into the Wild Card spot.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been trying to get back to winning a Stanley Cup on a regular basis since 1964. If that doesn't spell out a history of mediocroty what else will?

The Toronto Raptors are just plain losers considering this team has been around for at least ten years and has spent more time on the wrong side of the scoreboard than on the right. This barely even qualifies as mediocre.

3. Architecture: Toronto has hints of great architecture but more often than not this has been subdoed by the mediocre cement and/or glass buildings that surround them. The hints of great architecture include the new Ontario College of Art and Design on McCaul Street (page 162), Queen's Park, ROM, the CN Tower and others. But these buildings are surrounded by boring buildings like Metro Hall, Toronto Convention Centre and other office buildings. These buildings hold back or even block the amazing sightlines to the spectacular buildings. The rising condo buildings along Toronto's waterfront are starting to imped the spectacular view of the famous Toronto skyline of office towers, the CN Tower and Rogers Centre (SkyDome). In fact, Rogers Centre is almost totally blocked out by the condo towers depending on which angle the skyline is viewed from the Toronto Islands. It is sad really that such great architecture is being glossed over by mediocre utilitarian buildings.

Toronto is a unique city. It just wants to be like New York, but it has to come to the realization that it is not. Perhaps if Toronto found its own niche market like London, like Paris, like New York, like Berlin and others, then perhaps Toronto could become great. But until then, Toronto will have to sit it the realm of mediocrity.

TTC Picks on a Pregnant Woman

Mike Strobel - Heavy-handed behaviour by TTC officers leaves single mom convinced there has to be a better way

Say it ain't so....as the Toronto Sun's Mike Strobel reports, a pregnant lady with her own four year old son in tow, on her way home has been picked on and threatened with being arrested by the TTC's Rent-a-Cops (a.k.a. Goon Squad).

Apparently, the pregnant woman had produced a December Metropass (monthly transit pass) while going through the turnstiles at a Toronto Subway Station at the end of November in order to show she paid her fare. The woman had mistakenly left her November Metropass at home, but did have the receipt for the November pass with her.

When asked further about her fare by Toronto's finest Transit "Fare Hosers", she easily explained what happenned and then produced a receipt for the November pass. This would seem to be a simple mistake of a pregnant woman with obviously quite a bit on her mind.

Toronto Sun columnist, Mike Strobel put it best of what any sensible person of authority would have done. Which would be to say to the lady: " 'Okay, ma'am, please be more careful next time,'... "

Then tell her four year old son, Johnny, that everyone makes a mistake and this time we will let this one slide.

But sadley this was not the case. The "Goon Squad," who obviously has nothing better to do than intimidate and harass a defenseless pregnant lady, decided to confiscate the legally paid for December Monthly Pass and issue her of a hefty ticket. The Rent a Cops did this instead of moving on to more important crime prevention matters like patrolling the stations in order to prevent something like a recent situation where someone was recently killed by a brick at the Jane Street station on the Bloor-Danforth line.

No, that would be too easy.

Here's an even better idea!...according to the TTC: First you accuse a lady, who has basically proven she has paid her fare and her son's fare, of not paying a fare. Then you let this same "fare beater" ride the subway anyway. If you believe someone hasn't paid their fare, why would you let them board the subway? This must be TTC bureacratic reasoning at its best, because who can figure out this logic? In fact, there isn't any logic in the TTC's actions in this case at all.

If the TTC, and other transit agencies, want to continue to increase ridership they must become a little more accomodating. This dooen't mean opening the fare gates to allow passengers to ride for free. This means in this pregnant woman's case to simply write her a warning for this simple mistake and let her and her son go on their merry way. If this particular lady tried to pull this stunt again, then the TTC should hand her the ticket.

The TTC needs to remember that we are all human, and humans make mistakes. But apparently at the TTC no mistakes are allowed by their customers. Especially pregnant customers who have a four year old in tow. Apparently, customer's mistakes, like this one, only provides the opportunity for the TTC's Goon Squad to pick on defensless pregnant ladies. Perhaps the TTC's should really learn which ones are the "goons" in this case, it's the ones wearing the uniforms! SHAME ON THE TTC!

UPDATE! : Mike Strobel's column today (Saturday) in the Toronto Sun provides an update on the situation. Strobel notes that Sun readers have come forward offering to pay both the fine and the new December pass. Strobel figures that with the offers from the readership be taken into account, the pregnant lady could easily ride for a couple of years on the TTC for free. Congratulations to the readers for stepping up. That is what Toronto is all about.

The TTC even stepped up to the plate and returned the December TTC back in, what they called, "an act of compassion." The TTC should do even more by waving the the fine and offering up a free January monthly pass as compensation. But that would be common sense and, as we all know, transit and government bureaucracy doesn't have a lot of common sense. If the TTC was a business and treated it's customers like this, they would be bankrupt in no time. Instead, because the TTC is a government agency they are able to still operate and be bankrupt in another sense, in this case it is morally bankrupt.

TTC = Take the Car

TheStar.com - Buses, Bloor subway rolling

With an unanounced transit strike in Toronto people were feeling the following towards the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC):

1. TTC = Take The Car

2. TTC "The Bitter Way" (instead of the usually advertised: "TTC, the Better Way.")

In other news, a smog alert was announced for Toronto today. People were encouraged to spare the air by taking transit....

69 TTC Subway Station tour

Apparently there is someone trying to visit all 69 Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway stations. Not only that, but to take pictures of each and every one of those 69 stations.

Other people have tried getting transfers from each and every one of the subway stations before. But taking pictures over one summer of each of the subway stations is something I have never heard of before.

Imagine trying to do either the photo feat in New York City's subway system of over 400 hundred stations. Has anyone tried to do this? Transfers in New York you question? Sorry, the New York City Subway system does not provide transfers like those of the Toronto Subway System.

I remember when I was in my childhood my entire family road the entire Toronto Subway System end to end in one day. We started at Yorkdale (on the University line) and headed north to Wilson (Downsview Station didn't exist back then) and then back south around Union Station and north to Finch (on the Yonge line). Next we headed south to the Bloor-Danforth line and then east to the Scarborough RT to have lunch at Scarborough Town Centre's food court. Then we worked our way westward to the Kipling Station. Somehow, along the way, we worked in the Lakeshore LRT line as well. It was a long day!

Deals for taking transit?

theMAP.ca - Metropass Affinity Program

Should monthly pass holders on public transit receive deals at local stores and from the government? Well that is just starting to happen in Toronto and in Canada slowly but surely.

Today I just stumbled accross the Metropass Affinity Program. This website lists stores that are willing to give discounts to TTC Metropass (the TTC's version of a Monthly Pass) holders as well as the closest subway station or transit stop to the commercial enterprise offering the discount.

The problem is that the TTC doesn't even mention the discounts available on their website. You would think the TTC would encourage businesses within Toronto to offer discounts to Metropass holders. Perhaps that would encourage more people to purchase the Metropass and help towards gradually increasing public transit ridership in Toronto. Seems to me the TTC has missed out on a great no cost opportunity to market the monthly Metropass.

A while back in March and April, York Region Transit (YRT) and Ikea Vaughan offered a deal to monthly pass holders. YRT Monthly Pass Holders could receive 10% off all Ikea purchases over one hundred dollars. It also helped that York Region Transit serves that store fairly well with both a VIVA stop and local service relatively close to the store. Now if York Region Transit could only figure out how to get an Ikea bed from the store to a customer's home :)

Providing value for money is what most customers are looking for. That is what transit agencies should be looking to provide in order to encourage people to get out of their cars and take transit. Teaming up with local retailers to provide deals helps both the transit agency and the local retailer. The transit agency gets the paid fares and needed revenue, while the retailer receives the customers while not having to provide a parking spot to that customer if the client decides to take transit instead of driving.

Government would wish to provide the same deals to transit pass holders as well. The Canadian government in its recently unveiled budget promised to provide a tax credit to monthly public transit pass holders. With the introduction of this tax credit, transit riders across Canada can travel for free every one of twelve months.

Not all government officials were happy with that. TTC Chairman and Toronto Councillor Howard Moscoe called on the government to instead use the money to help local transit agencies reduce fares. What Mr. Moscoe fails to notice is that the Ontario Government has been sending "budget bailout" money to Toronto under the guise that it is meant for TTC system improvements. What has resulted, if you fall the creative accounting, is the Ontario Governments money is directed toward the TTC system while an equal amount of city money is withdrawn. What results is no improvements are made to expand the TTC system and fares keep rising.

So Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper came up with a different plan. Why not give monthly transit riders a tax credit for riding public transit. This way the people that benefit the most from a public transit system receive the most benefits instead of the governments extracting money from the transit system when another source of government funding comes in.

Hopefully ridership in Canadian public transit will increase. Especially in Toronto because of the actions of transit advocates like those at the Metropass Affinnity Program.

Metal-bashing at the TTC

TheStar.com - Metal-bashing at the TTC

A blacksmith working for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)? What for? Aren't all the horse drawn streetcars off the road a long time ago?

This interesting Toronto Star article explains.

Why People will not Leave their Car at Home

Re: “Group has $7.9M to get you to leave car at home.” Toronto Star. 

Getting paid to commute by transit? Hello that is so me! I still don't have a drivers license and don't need one living in New York City. New York City has perhaps one of the best transit systems in the world. Ok...even the system in NYC is not perfect with construction needed and some down time due to track fires. However, that is what happens when the backbone of your system is now over the age of a century.

Giving people incentive to take transit, even though in some cases transit may take a little more time to take in comparison to the car, can only be positive. Paying people cash as well as a free monthly bus pass will increase transit ridership as well as reduce the number of cars on the road. This means cleaner air and less congestion on the roadway. However, there is a problem with this plan already. Is there capacity on the transit system to handle the increased demand that is sure to come from providing an incentive like this? Probably not considering GO Transit's three train's southbound and three trains northbound to Bradford are packed already. Another problem is Union Station in Toronto is already really packed with trains and delays are already backing up this important hub in Toronto. Renovations are due for this station, but I doubt whether any more trains will be added to soon except for the possibility to Toronto's Lester B. Pearson airport. Issues of capacity may mean more buses and trains will need to be ordered in order to handle the excess the capacity created when these incentives are put through.

But this new incentive may work for the new VIVA rapid transit program. The VIVA program, like Ottawa's Transitway, will provide rapid express bus service to major points along Yonge Street (between Newmarket and Finch Subway Station), along Highway 7 (between Vaughan and Markham) and better connections to major points in north Toronto (e.g. York University, etc.). This new transit system's launch would only benefit from such a deal in York Region. This way people might actually get out of their cars in order to check out "VIVA" to get to work in Toronto. The VIVA program will have some existing capacity, but most of it will be new capacity since GO Transit appears to still want to run the Newmarket "B" route in both its local and express forms and seems to refuse the idea of ending the service once VIVA starts up.

As for the conditions in Toronto and the TTC. The Yonge Street subway line is practically at capacity already during the morning and afternoon rushes. So providing incentives to people to start using that line to get to work is pointless unless more capacity is added somehow. However, with the TTC facing a yearly budget crunch, along with the City of Toronto, adding capacity to the Yonge line doesn't seem likely to happen to soon. Encouraging more people onto the Spadina line might help a bit as well. To do this might require the TTC to finally push the Sheppard line westward to meet the Spadina line at Downsview subway station. Again, this is unlikely to happen as well because of the above noted budget shortfalls. So it seems in the short run, what people need to get out of their cars is reliable transit.

But this is not likely to happen too soon during rush hours because of funding shortfalls needed to increase capacity and to maintain existing service. Sure the federal government is sending GST rebates to municipalities in the name of transit service. But these cheques are pretty well already spent considering that municipalities (like Toronto) are battling to maintain existing service because of the need to retire old buses and purchase new ones. Thus, the GST money is only really going to maintaining existing service and not increasing capacity in anyway. With the exception of York Region Transit, expansion of existing systems in the Toronto area looks unlikely. Why York Region Transit? Because of the creative way the private-public partnership and launching VIVA has been undertaken and due to be launched in September. Other municipalities in the Toronto area are hesitant to get into public-private partnerships in transit terms because of bad experiences like the highway 407 fiasco (a privately owned highway in the suburbs of Toronto that went horribly horribly wrong). Therefore, the public-private nature of VIVA is being watched by local governments to see how it pans out. Why wait? The VIVA consortium is a brand new idea in providing services to people. So governments are watching to see what problems creep up and what successes there are to such a deal. This way if the VIVA program goes horribly horribly wrong (like the 407 fiasco did), then governments know not to make a similar deal in the future. So capacity is not likely to be increase during rush hours due to reluctance of local governments to engage in public-private partnerships until VIVA operational and fully studied.

So capacity during rush hours is not likely to be increased any time soon (except in York Region). So what good is it to provide incentives for people to get out of their cars and onto transit during the most needed times if there is no capacity along the main transit arteries (e.g. Yonge Street subway line)? The only way is to get people to utilize the lesser used arteries like the University-Spadina subway line which still have available capacity. But can how would stipulate that you can't use a subway line? It is almost impossible.

The only other option is to provide incentives for people to telecommute to work (i.e. work from home) or shift their work schedules so they are not in rush hour times. This would increase the number of people taking transit during times when there is underused capacity on the clogged rush hour arteries. In other words, why not commute home at 7:00 P.M. and into work at 10:00 A.M. when the subways are still running yet have space to spare? It make sense, now we just need people to volunteer. Perhaps throwing in $200 and a free transit pass a year might do that. This would encourage more people to take transit as well as not cost the transit systems any more money because of existing unused capacity being used. It is truly a win-win situation if this were to happen. All of this just by adding one stipulation of not riding transit during existing rush hours or telecommuting. But this will require further investigation on how to keep people from riding during rush hours.

Government incentives are great if they are fully thought through. However, obviously this incentive program hasn't been thoroughly thought through by the federal government. This is because new transit funding for infrastructure projects only needs to be invested in order to expand capacity during peek periods in the Toronto area to make this program work. Why only Toronto? Because Toronto is currently heading towards becoming worse than Los Angeles in terms of congestion. The city needs utmost help.

Other cities in Canada might be able to benefit from the deal to give financial incentives for people to leave their cars at home. But capacity needs to be ensured to be there. If other cities are anything like Toronto in terms of capacity issues during peak periods, then this incentive may not work.

 Works Cited 

Rush, Curtis. “Group has $7.9M to get you to leave car at home.” Toronto Star. 1 June 2005. Online. Internet. 9 June 2005. Available: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1117620187165&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

TheStar.com - Subway's open-door policy just leads to confusion

TheStar.com - Subway's open-door policy just leads to confusion

Check out the bottom of the page update on the linked page above.

Right, a flaw. Why was the entrance not checked for accessibility issues so that a person would not have to buzz into a brand spanking new station. I can see on the older subway lines in Toronto the possibilty of not having enough physical space or the equipment installed yet to allow full accessibilty. But this is the Sheppard line the station is on. It has been barely open two years! The system should have been installed then tested then fixed to allow better accessibilty without requiring someone to watch a camera or an employee to be there. Its called fiscal responsibilty folks! Make the station accessible to those in wheelchairs without requiring paying a TTC employee to stand there or be buzzed. Yet another great example of brillance at it's best!

TheStar.com - Busted TTC card reader side-swipes the disabled

TheStar.com - Busted TTC card reader side-swipes the disabled: "Somebody at the TTC. Bolton says she'll take the flak from disappointed riders. Her number is 416-393-3741."

It always seems that bureaucrats never know who is to blame for a faulty piece of machinery that should have been replaced a long time ago. Now the media relations departments of the governments are fielding reports so that the manager's voice mail doesn't see the light of day and all the angry customers trying to make sure something happens. It really only seems when the media starts to get involved do issues seem to be taken care of in a snappy way. Shame really, for it should have only taken one phone call to the TTC to have this turnstile taken care of.

Better yet, why isn't there two of the turnstiles in case one goes down? This station is new within the last five years. So didn't somebody think of it since the TTC has been around for over fifty years? Wait a minute, these are the same people who leave a turnstile broken for six months and many phone calls later.

The above bureaucratic bumbling reminds me of a certain broken sidewalk that still exists in New York City since September....(see below)....by the way it is still not fixed. When I get the time I might have to take pictures of its location....wouldn't that be fun to send to the city and a media establishment. That may actually get the city moving...well maybe not...but at least it would be amusing.