Tired of slow zones on the TTC? There could be more identified soon
The TTC is gearing up for another one of its annual track surveys meant to spot minor defects before they balloon into bigger issues, and help bring tracks across the transit system back to industry standard.
Journalists were invited along to watch the preparations for this year's geometric track survey set to begin next week.
"While we have no idea how many minor defects the survey might find (or slow zones may result), we assume it will find some," TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said in an email ahead of the tour.
Last year's survey resulted in dozens of new slow zones being implemented to bring tracks across the transit system back to industry standard, while critics doubt whether more could be done to prevent the slow zones entirely.
The number of slow zones has been reduced from 33 last summer to 12, but the Green already warned earlier this year that number will "never be zero."
Trains drop down to 15 to 25 kilometres per hour in each slow zone, slowing down the service by two minutes per zone.
How does a track survey work?
During the survey, a specialized device takes laser-guided measurements of the distance between two rails on a track, as well as the elevation and wear and tear on the tracks — all to identify issues that wouldn't have been visible during a typical inspection, like a track misalignment as small as a few millimetres.
The TTC started doing the survey in 2015, mapping out the whole subway network stretching over 140 kilometres. Slow zones could be placed in sections where the survey finds the track geometry falls outside the standard.
The TTC says it will collect data twice on each line, something that will be done outside service hours on Line 1, but not for Lines 2 and 4.
Each survey costs around $250,000 US, or about $347,000 Cdn., according to Fort Monaco, the TTC's chief operations and infrastructure officer.
"We want more trains, we want more people, we want tighter headways. That comes at the cost of deterioration of assets," he said.
The survey will kickstart April 28 and is expected to wrap up on May 5, according to the TTC.
But the track survey might not be a cure-all for detecting issues that exist across the system.
The TTC's maintenance reporting system was called out last year in a commissioned report, saying the system didn't properly document when certain components of its fleet needed to be inspected, maintained, or replaced.
The TTC accepted all of the report's recommendations, according to staff.
Critics say slow zones can't go on
The slow zones are meant to reduce wear and tear so small deficiencies found along the tracks are less likely to turn into issues that cause bigger disruptions.
The TTC says they try to prioritize areas where tracks can be fixed quickly and leverage weekend closures to limit the number of slow zones riders need to sit through. But Chloe Tangpongprush, a spokesperson for the advocacy group TTCriders, says riders are fed up with the state of despair.
"These subway slow zones impact hundreds of thousands of riders every day, and it cannot be the new normal," she said.
Monaco of the TTC says how long slow zones last depends on the severity of the issue, but the transit agency looks to clear them within an average of 22 to 25 days.
He says Toronto can get to a world with zero slow zones if it took inspiration from cities like Boston, where the subway service can shut down for as long as three weeks for repairs — much longer than the weekend closures the TTC currently has.
"I think the point is we need to increase our maintenance window and be a little bit more creative," he said.
The TTC has long been plagued by maintenance issues. From the trains on Line 2 that will soon celebrate their 30th birthday, aging and faulty equipment causing fuel spills, and cracks in concrete that contribute to flooding, quite a lot of the TTC is aging as the transit system faces a roughly $8.2-billion repair backlog.
That figure could go down by nearly 50 per cent, thanks to new sources of funding in this year's budget, according to an annual progress report.
Tangpongprush said there's a need for more funding to repair the system as she appealed to federal parties to prioritize public transit ahead of election day.
"We're asking for the federal government to chip in," she said.
As the aging trains on Line 2 approach the end of their useful life, the city recently reached an agreement with the federal and provincial government to split the $2.3-billion bill for new ones.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


National Post
20 hours ago
- National Post
Canadian air and auto travel to the U.S. drops again in May, overseas trips increase
Canadians continued to avoid making trips to the U.S. in May, according to preliminary data from Statistics Canada. Article content The agency says return trips by Canadian residents by air from the U.S. in May fell 24.2 per cent compared with a year ago to 488,800, while return trips from overseas countries rose 9.8 per cent to 1.1 million. Meanwhile, Canadian resident return trips from the U.S. by automobile totalled 1.3 million, down 38.1 per cent compared with May 2024. Article content Article content Article content Canadians have avoided travel to the U.S. in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs and '51st state' threats over the past few months. Article content Article content According to preliminary figures, Statistics Canada says international arrivals in May, including returning Canadian residents and non-residents combined, by air and automobile, totalled 4.8 million, down 16.7 per cent from May 2024. Article content Non-resident arrivals to Canada by air totalled 894,200 in May, down 1.3 per cent from a year ago. The number of U.S. residents arriving by air totalled 439,800, down 0.3 per cent from a year ago, while the number of overseas residents arriving slipped 2.3 per cent to 454,500. Article content The number of U.S.-resident trips to Canada by automobile was 1,044,700, down 8.4 per cent from a year ago. Article content


National Post
20 hours ago
- National Post
Number of Canadians returning from U.S. trips down again in May: StatCan
OTTAWA — Canadians continued to avoid making trips to the U.S. in May, according to preliminary data from Statistics Canada. Article content The agency says return trips by Canadian residents by air from the U.S. in May fell 24.2 per cent compared with a year ago to 488,800, while return trips from overseas countries rose 9.8 per cent to 1.1 million. Meanwhile, Canadian resident return trips from the U.S. by automobile totalled 1.3 million, down 38.1 per cent compared with May 2024. Article content Article content Article content Canadians have avoided travel to the U.S. in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs and '51st state' threats over the past few months. Article content Article content


CBC
6 days ago
- CBC
Former New York, London transit exec tapped to lead Toronto Transit Commission
The incoming CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission says he hopes to leverage his experience working for two of the largest transit agencies in the world to make the TTC the most reliable transit system in North America. Mandeep Lali was announced as the TTC's pick to be the new CEO at a news conference in Scarborough Thursday. "My vision for the TTC is to be world class — world class in safety, reliability, affordability and accessibility," Lali said Thursday. "Those are all basics of which are fundamentals of a great transportation system." Lali was previously an executive at New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), serving as executive vice-president and chief operating officer of subways for the largest transit agency in North America. Prior to that, he spent over a 13 years at Transport for London. He'll be taking over the role from Rick Leary, who retired at the end of August last year. Lali was tapped to take the helm of the city's transit commission after an extensive international search that lasted close to nine months, said TTC board chair Jamaal Myers at Thursday's news conference. "When we asked him what his goal for the TTC was, he said, without missing a beat, to make the TTC the most reliable transit system in North America," Myers said. "As a lifelong TTC rider this was music to my ears. It's what every Torontonian wants to hear."