Carriage of happiness

TTC Riders

If you live in Toronto, are concerned about public transit and feel like our current city administration is taking us for a ride, this group might be a good fit for you.

Our goal is to build a strong and vibrant transit advocacy group that gives a voice to the interests and concerns of the millions of us who use the TTC.

Are You Concerned about Transit in Toronto? Then Join the Crowd!

Thousands of transit users from across the city want a TTC that works for them.
Now you have chance to be heard and make real changes.
Join us for the founding meeting of TTCriders, Toronto’s new voice for transit riders, and help us reshape how Toronto does transit.

Wednesday June 22nd, 2011
7:00pm – 9:00pm
North York Civic Centre
5100 Yonge Street (at North York Centre Subway station)
Committee Room 3

TTC Collector – quite possibly the best job in the world

There’s a TTC collector at Runnymede St during rush hour who may possibly have the best job in the world.

Solving crosswords with determination and concentration of a Zen master, he leisurely smiles at passersby with astuteness of a lobotomy patient. Is he an undercover agent? Is he staking out a dangerous criminal? What is his purpose? I was curious – will he notice people walking through? Will he check the fare that comes into the cash box? Not likely. The next person walking in threw her fare in the box and the collector kept on going with the crossword. And it wouldn’t be the first time. The volume at the station is low enough for another turnstile to handle, even during rush hour – where is the key to this mystery?

You know what? I am not going to be bitter about it. I don’t want the poor guy to lose his job or get in trouble – I am going to go with the flow and offer myself as a viable candidate for an incredible opportunity such as this. I’m just going to come out and say it – dear councilor Adam Giambrone, can I apply for a job at TTC? I will beat any collector in a crossword-solving competition, thus proving myself worthy of the best job in the world.

And hey, I will even blog and tweet about it! Island Caretaker will have nothing on me.

Drop me a line!

TTC introduces new counterfit measures

I know, I know – I am about a week behind on this, but on June 3rd, TTC announced new counterfeit measures to roll out in July. The passes will feature a hologram sticker as well as a one-time use sticker that will invalidate the pass for return once purchased (think credit card activation). The TTC is a little behind the times – smart cards are obviously the way to go, but will take a while to implement and will mean a costly overhaul of the fare system. On another hand, smart cards would also make a lot of high-paying jobs held by snoozing ticket wardens obsolete – bet the Transit Union would not be too happy about that.

Anyway, here’s what the pass will look like:

Bah! Same crappy design, but with more flare and shine. Has the photographer ever heard of white balance and exposure metering? I am not even going to bother this time.

But wait! There is hope! An interesting excerpt from the article:

Later this year the TTC will outline a plan to use art on its passes. Currently, the TTC uses a combination of art and photography when designing passes. The new art will be part of the overall pass design. The TTC will be issuing a request for expressions of interest in August. TTC customers can expect to see new art on Metropasses starting in April 2010.

Adam Giambrone, have you been reading my rants about the Metropass design? Hmmm? Please don’t screw this up – there are a lot of talented designers in the city who would love an opportunity to redesign this abdomination. Give me a shout, Adam.

TTC part of “Doors Open Toronto”

As part of Doors Open Toronto initiative, on Saturday, May 23rd, TTC is opening doors to its Greenwood Shop and Eglinton Garage, where they maintain our buses and subway cars from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Sounds really cool – unfortunately I found out about it way too late and made other weekend plans. But I think you should go! I am going to be checking out a few other Toronto landmarks on Sunday.

Greenwood  Maintenance Shop

Greenwood Shop is one of two heavy repair and overhaul facilities for the TTC. It is part of the 31 acre Greenwood Complex which opened in March 1960.The shop covers approx. 190,000 square feet and is the workplace of almost 200 employees. Major vehicle overhaul work and component rebuilds to support the fleet of subway vehicles is done here. The Shop also maintains the TTC fleet of workcars that are used by other TTC Departments in the maintenance of subway track, tunnels and wayside equipment.

Visitors will have a behind-the-scenes tour featuring machinery and equipment used in the overhaul and repair of big subway cars and the various work cars used by the TTC.

Eglinton Garage

Eglinton Garage/Division opened on March 31, 2002 and consists of 121,000 square feet situated on a 15.7 acre site. The garage services a fleet of 250 buses. The facility also features two bus wash racks, 12 indoor repair spaces and an outdoor bus storage area with a unique heating system which allows parked buses to be connected so that their engines are warm and ready to drive during the winter season.

A behind the scenes tour of the garage including a ride on a bus through the bus wash.

A ride through a bus wash!

More information on Doors Open Toronto and more places to visit.

P.S. Here’s a tip, City of Toronto – why not use a free open map API (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc) to place all of the locations on one map and give users an opportunity to print out customized lists instead of putting them all in one loooooong list. Even your downloadable PDF seems to be maintained by an accountant in Excel.