Crossposted to Transit Toronto. Design critic and accessibility advocate Joe Clark brings to our attention pressing issues regarding signage on the Toronto Transit Commission. Plans are currently underway to clean up and update a number of the stations on Toronto's subway network, including St. George and Pape. These stations and others have been identified as requiring upgrades, to clean up their appearance and improve passenger experience. Clark doesn't oppose these changes, but is concerned about two issues: preservation and good wayfinding design. In particular, the cleanup of St. George station advocates the removal of a wayfinding experiment made ...

Crossposted to Transit Toronto. At 12:15 p.m., Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced an ambitious plan to increase public transportation throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Highlights of this plan include: • Extending the Yonge subway to Highway 7 • Electrifying the GO Lakeshore line, speeding up service to Hamilton by 15 minutes. • Boosting capacity on other GO Transit lines, including Highway 407. • Establish rapid transit lines in Hamilton • Commit funds to the TTC's $6 billion Transit City plan. • Provide 2/3rds of the cost of this construction, absolving cash-strapped cities from their share. The remaining 1/3rd is supposed to come from the ...

Improving service on King and Queen — can it be done? Steve Munro thinks it can, and he's put together a detailed proposal showing how. The King and Queen streetcars have been among the more problematic routes on the TTC network. Operating through the downtown core and through the revitalizing inner suburbs, they're among the most heavily used routes on the city-wide network (King especially). The King streetcar is operating at capacity with a scheduled peak service of two-minute intervals, and the TTC claims that adding more capacity isn't possible. The Queen car is suffering from lengthy ...

That's the question Calvin Henry-Cotnam attempts to answer as he sets up this page on the world wide web. As Torontonians consider the TTC's proposed Transit City network, Calvin notes that they have very little precident to consider close to home. Transit City is not a subway network, and it's not a streetcar. In bridging the gap between the two transit options, Torontonians only have the Scarborough RT and the Spadina, Queens Quay and St. Clair streetcars to consider, but these don't describe what's possible, or appropriate for the new system. So, Calvin ...

AM640 Toronto is running a report stating that the Toronto Transit Commission's record of cleanliness at its subway stations is improving, although the commission still has some way to go before returning to the cleanliness that commuters may remember in days of yore. According to the TTC's report: Of the 69 stations in the system, 23 have been deemed to be in a “good” state of cleanliness. And while that is a long way from a system-wide rating of ‘good', the report argues that it is still an improvement: Two years ago, only one station was rated “good.” The goal is to ...

Less than twenty-four hours after the TTC began diverting Bloor-Danforth subway trains through Lower Bay and Museum stations, railfans have posted a number of videos on YouTube. In my opinion, the best one I've seen is below. The video shows the train's departure from Yonge, its operation through the switches and down into Lower Bay as well as beyond, around the curve and into Museum station. You can clearly hear the announcements on the PA explaining the diversion as well as some oohs and aws from the passengers as the train passes through Lower Bay. Other videos include: Passing ...

Crossposted to Transit Toronto. A self-described “ad-hoc gathering of designers, transit geeks, bloggers, visual artists, tech geeks and cultural creators” will be meeting next week in order to brainstorm further ideas on how to improve public transit in Toronto. It is hoped that this demonstration of creativity could act as a “solutions playground” that the TTC would be hard-pressed to ignore. From their website We will not be changing bus schedules, talking about stop locations, complaining about creaky infrastructure or otherwise telling the TTC how to do its core business. The organizers respect ...

Crossposted to Transit Toronto. The blog of the design firm Radiant Core was inspired by TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone's call to bloggers for suggestions to improve the TTC's website and the subsequent attention the call received from bloggers in the Toronto blogging community and the national media. As a result, Radiant Core gathered a team of some of the best web designers in the community and sat down for a thorough brainstorming session. The results of their discussions can be found here and are well worth reading. I would say that Radiant Core sets ...

We are constantly impressed by the labours of love the Toronto Transit Commission brings out of its fans, but we were totally blown away by this transit map created by Ian Stevens of the blog Crazed Monkey. It really is a state of the art feature, combining the latest Ride Guide PDF with Google Maps and Sean Lerner's TTC Subway Rider's Efficiency Guide. You can enter in your address and immediately be taken to that spot in Toronto for a quick, at a glance look at the routes near that location. Click on any subway station on the map, ...

Crossposted to Transit Toronto. Image by David Cooper, courtesy the Toronto Star. TTC Chairman Howard Moscoe waxes on about the benefits of automatic train control (a.k.a. “driverless trains”), suggesting that they are “a bargain” at $750 million. The Toronto Star has more details. In his view, putting computers in charge of subway operations would allow the TTC to: reassign TTC personnel to other duties, like keeping the stations cleaner. run trains closer together, significantly increasing the capacity on the subway lines. opens up the prospect of night service, or increased service throughout the day, since you ...