Laura Stricker

It was announced Friday that a new LRT line is to be built along Sheppard Avenue East, extending to Meadowvale Road. Supposedly it will cost $950 million, but knowing our governments and their history of overspending, I’m thinking it will more likely go into the billions range. I was surprised to hear they’re actually extending the line, based on how few people actually use the line. In its first year of operation, 2003, there was only 34,700 weekly riders. Compare that to 42,000 on the Scarborough line, 480,000 on the Bloor-Danforth line and 620,000 on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Yes, this was six years ago, but I could not find any more recent statistics. Wikipedia says that as of 2008, there were 42,000 riders weekly, but they have no sources to back that up so I’m not sure of its credibility.
Anyways, all this got me thinking about what the TTC could actually use. So, here goes:

1. A line connecting the University-Spadina side of the subway with the Yonge line - but from north of downtown. In fact, the Sheppard line was originally supposed to extend west to Downsview, like this:

I can’t even begin to express how awesome and convenient that would have been. Now when I want to get to the Yonge line, I have to either go down to Spadina/St. George and transfer, or take a bus from Lawrence West or Downsview. Considering that the yellow line is by far the busiest, it is quite ridiculous that there is only one subway transfer point to get to the other side.

2. Replace the old buses and streetcars…
with new wheelchair and stroller accessible vehicles. They have started bringing in new buses without stairs, but I really think all the old buses should be replaced with the newer models. Streetcars should also be replaced by ones without stairs. There’s been a lot of talk about this, but now that the government has announced the extension of the (useless!) Sheppard line, who knows if or when that will actually happen.
Oh and speaking of strollers, I think there needs to be some kind of bylaw implemented where gigantic, SUV-type strollers are NOT allowed on buses, streetcars or subways. Nothing is more frustrating than having one of those monstrosities taking up the whole aisle and making it impossible for people to pass by. The only strollers that should be allowed on the bus are these ones:

3. A new, modern way to pay
Get rid of the antiquated method of using tickets, tokens and change to pay. Give everyone who uses the TTC a card that they can load money onto - online, in subway stations, even on buses and streetcars. When getting onto the TTC, they will simply swipe the card. This will make things a lot faster, and will mean that people won’t have to use piles of change everytime they run out of tokens. Also, instead of charging $2.75 no matter what, charge based on how far people are travelling. There should either be an option to punch in which station/intersection you will be exiting at, or swipe the card again when you are leaving the TTC and deduct the appropriate amount. Even better would be when you exit, if there was some way to automatically tell someone was leaving the TTC and then just deduct the fare automatically. Or, before you leave the house/office, go online and enter in your destination and where you will be leaving from. A receipt could then print out, which you would show to the driver as proof that you paid. This may not be so realistic as not everyone has a computer or internet access, but my real point is there’s a million different ways this could be implemented.

4. No weapons on public transit!
Remember this? How about this? Or maybe you remember this. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that Torontonians should be able to take the TTC without worrying about getting shot. As someone who was literally seconds away from being an unfortunate victim of the Yorkdale subway shooting back in 2005, I think I’m qualified to say that. There should be something set up before anyone gets on the TTC to scan them for weapons - knives, guns, whatever. If they are found to be carrying a weapon, I think TTC drivers should perform a citizen’s arrest and call the police on them. There is NO REASON to have a weapon with you on the TTC, or anywhere in public. If you want to be all ‘macho,’ deal with your issues of inadequacy at home. Don’t bring that crap out in public with you, where more often than not innocent people end up getting hurt.

5. Expand the subway entirely. How can a supposed ‘world class city’ only have four different subway lines?

New York City

Frankfurt, Germany

Paris, France

Chicago, Illinois

Toronto, Ontario

ENOUGH SAID.

6. Dedicated streetcar lines on every major road (Queen Street, I’m looking at you!)
I don’t know why, but Queen Street is always SO crowded with cars, it is insane. I’m one of those people who believes there is no reason at all to even be driving a car in downtown Toronto, but that’s a whole other issue for later. I remember one summer day in particular, I was trying to make my way to Beachfest to see David Usher perform. I got down to Queen station almost an hour before his set was supposed to start and figured I’d make it there in plenty of time. How wrong I was. Not only did it take almost half an hour for a streetcar to come, it was totally packed and drove right by. A second streetcar finally showed up, only to go out of service two blocks later! By the time I made it down to the beaches, I’d missed all but two songs and was incredibly pissed off. So here’s what needs to be done, on Queen Street in particular: Queen Street is a very, VERY long street. There should be two different streetcar routes (at least) to go on Queen, one to cover one half, the other to cover the other half. This will cut back on the sometimes ridiculous amounts of time waiting for a Queen streetcar to come, and will hopefully also ensure that when one does arrive, there will be space to get on it. I also think (although I know this will never happen) that cars should be banned entirely from certain downtown streets, with the exception of say, delivery trucks and emergency vehicles. But like I said, Toronto is sadly a city that is so obsessed with and reliant on cars, that it will never happen. This is yet another reason the TTC needs to expand drastically - perhaps if they had better service and more far reaching areas were covered, then banning personal vehicles from certain downtown areas might actually be feasible. But no, instead we have people freaking out when Ryerson University wants to close Gould Street (a TINY street!) to traffic.

7. Elevators in all the stations
Currently, the TTC has elevators in only 25 of their 69 subway stations. That’s not even half! I know a few people who use wheelchairs, and I can’t even imagine what a hassle it must be for them to have to spend extra time getting to a subway station that has elevator access. But then, of course, they have to be lucky enough to get on one of the buses that does not have stairs. If they live by a streetcar route, well, they are basically screwed. It should be mandatory for every single subway station to have at least two elevators - this way, when one inevitably breaks down, there will be a second one available.

8. Get more revenue from advertising
At any given time, most of those spaces on TTC buses meant for advertisements are empty. Clearly there is room for improvement in this area. With such massive amounts of people using the TTC everyday, you would think placing ads on TTC vehicles would be a goldmine. They could even consider ’selling’ full subway stations to companies. How cool would it be to get off the subway at Nestle Station?
If their advertising revenue was to increase, maybe Adam Giambrone would stop raising TTC fares all the time.

What do you think the TTC needs to become a truly ‘world class’ public transit system? Leave a comment if you so desire.