Latest news with #TTCriders
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
TTC hires New York City transit executive as new CEO
The TTC has hired a new chief executive who said he hopes to get the city's buses, subways and streetcars moving more efficiently. On Thursday, the Toronto Transit Commission Board unanimously voted in favour of the recommendation from its selection committee to hire Mandeep S. Lali as the new CEO. For the last three years, Lali was the New York City Transit Authority's executive vice-president and CEO responsible for its subway system. 'Mr. Lali has over two decades of global experience in transit,' Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said at a press conference in Scarborough. 'He deeply understands public transit in a big, busy city. Mandeep Lali's depth of experience managing the most complex subway system in the world is exactly what we need to get Toronto moving.' Lali replaces former CEO Rick Leary, who announced a year ago that he was leaving the agency after a decade on the job. Lali will officially step into his new role on July 7. 'My vision for the TTC is to be world class,' Lali said. 'World class in safety, reliability, affordability, and accessibility. Those are all basics which are fundamentals to a great transportation system.' Some of the top priorities for Lali include addressing slow zones and bunching of buses. 'Looking ahead, this is a very exciting time here in Toronto,' he said. 'You've got a metamorphosis and transformation happening in respect to the transport sector.' Councillor Dianne Saxe, who sits on the TTC Board, congratulated Lali for his appointment. 'I look forward to working together towards making the TTC the reliable, safe and efficient public transit service Torontonians deserve,' she wrote on social media. Transit advocacy group TTCriders said they hope Lali can restore trust in the TTC, deliver reliable and accessible service, and build a stronger, more transparent transit system. 'TTCriders looks forward to working with the new CEO to put riders first and grow the TTC into a world-class transit system,' Andrew Pulsifer, Executive Director of TTCriders, said in a statement. 'This is a moment to change course and bring real improvements that transit users across the city are calling for.' Before his time in New York, Lali was employed by Transport for London as its head of power management and signals from 2002 to 2015 and at Otis Elevator from 2015 to 2022. Eglinton Crosstown LRT could be open by September: Doug Ford TTC routes rerouted as work begins early on King-Church intersection
CBC
26-04-2025
- CBC
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.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
TTC board looks at what to do when extreme weather hits
When Toronto experiences record breaking amounts of snow and rain, the TTC is affected in a major way, and on Wednesday its board approved a report aimed at minimizing disruptions when extreme weather hits. After heavy rain in July last year and heavy snow in February this year, the board decided it will plan for extreme weather based on the latest climate projections for Toronto. The board also decided the TTC will work with city staff on a review of winter maintenance operations to ensure that the "resilience of TTC operations" remains a top priority. Coun. Jamaal Myers, chair of the TTC board, said the board will look at "technologies and innovations" of other cities to see how they have coped with extreme weather. "Everybody recognizes that this is coming. We all saw what happened last summer when the stations were flooded due to extreme rain," Myers said. "If the system is shut down, it's of no use to anyone." Coun. Josh Matlow, a member of the board, said the city and the TTC need to accept current realities of climate change. "Precipitation has a big impact on the functionality and the reliability of our system and I want to see the TTC move on this as quickly as possible," Matlow said. "I don't want to go through another winter like this where, because we have open cut areas of our tracks, the system just stops working when it snows. That's not acceptable," he said. "We live in a Canadian city. We have to predict that it's going to snow once in a while and we need to be prepared." Coun. Josh Matlow, who sits on the TTC board, speaks to reporters before the board met on Wednesday. (Saeed Dehghani/CBC) Matlow said Toronto is expected to see more severe storms due to climate change and it needs to prepare accordingly. "When the infrastructure can't handle the weather, then the system shuts down. We need to make sure that we're prepared for virtually anything because even when it's really bad outside, people still need to get to work in school." Matlow also said the provincial and federal governments need to commit to funding the capital needs of Toronto's transit system as part of extreme weather planning. TTC board needs to step up, advocate says Chloe Tangpongprush, spokesperson for transit advocacy group TTCriders, asked the board for winter clearing standards for surface transit stops. The current standard is that there will be an attempt to clear bus and streetcar stops within 48 hours after a major snowfall. "That's just not good enough," Tangpongprush said. Chloe Tangpongprush, spokesperson for transit advocacy group TTCriders, told the board, 'Transit riders in these events cannot be stranded and abandoned for days after a major snowfall like what we saw in February of this year.' (Saeed Dehghani/CBC) Tangpongprush said the TTC needs to find money to find clear bus and streetcar stops more quickly. "The conditions that Torontonians had to face in February were unacceptable," she said. Tangpongprush told the board that it needs to step up on the issue. "As your report before you outlines today, climate change will continue to wreak havoc on the transit system and on our infrastructure in general. Transit riders in these events cannot be stranded and abandoned for days after a major snowfall like what we saw in February of this year," she said. "Just because the city is snowed in, just because the city is frozen, doesn't mean that riders don't have anywhere to go." She said many transit riders are essential workers, such as doctors, nurses, care workers, and they need to get work regardless of the weather. "They can't choose to work from home. We need to make sure that the transit system remains operating in inclement weather." Drivers are pictured here after they were stranded due to flood waters blocking the Don Valley Parkway following heavy rain in Toronto, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press) According to report, Toronto experienced its highest annual precipitation levels last year, surpassing the previous record set in 2008 by nine per cent and exceeding the 30-year average by more than 30 per cent. On July 15 and 16 of last year, when the city received more than 115 millimetres of rain within 24 hours, there was flooding at 15 subway stations. Nine streetcar routes were disrupted, causing delays ranging from 38 to 59 minutes per route. Fifty-five per cent of affected routes experienced water pooling along the right of way, 22 per cent experienced leakage into vehicles, and 22 per cent were indirectly impacted due to flood-stranded vehicles obstructing their routes. There were also power outages at the TTC's Mount Dennis, Queensway and McNicoll garages. Thirty-four bus routes were disrupted, causing an average delay of 1.5 hours across all affected routes. A person with a walker is shown here after a major snowfall in Toronto in February left many sidewalks impassable. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press) During the extreme snowfall from Feb. 13 to 17, subway service stopped for 18 hours on Line 1 from Lawrence to Bloor, primarily due to loss of traction power from excessive accumulation of snow. Delays continued on Line 1 for an another eight hours after the snow stopped falling due to blowing snow from an open field at Wilson Yard. Service on Line 2 was halted between Woodbine to Kennedy for 18 hours. Thirteen streetcar routes were affected, with an average delay of about 30 minutes across all affected streetcar routes. The snow disrupted 100 bus routes, resulting in an average delay of about one hour across all affected bus routes. Forty per cent of delays were attributed to buses stuck in snow. An additional 30 per cent of delays were due to bus collisions, while 20 per cent were a result of bus diversions caused by blocked roadways. After already seeing record precipitation levels last year, the amount of rain the city could see in a single day is expected increase by 27 percent by the end of the century, the report says.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
TTC board looks at what to do when extreme weather hits
When Toronto experiences record breaking amounts of snow and rain, the TTC is affected in a major way, and on Wednesday its board approved a report aimed at minimizing disruptions when extreme weather hits. After heavy rain in July last year and heavy snow in February this year, the board decided it will plan for extreme weather based on the latest climate projections for Toronto. The board also decided the TTC will work with city staff on a review of winter maintenance operations to ensure that the "resilience of TTC operations" remains a top priority. Coun. Jamaal Myers, chair of the TTC board, said the board will look at "technologies and innovations" of other cities to see how they have coped with extreme weather. "Everybody recognizes that this is coming. We all saw what happened last summer when the stations were flooded due to extreme rain," Myers said. "If the system is shut down, it's of no use to anyone." Coun. Josh Matlow, a member of the board, said the city and the TTC need to accept current realities of climate change. "Precipitation has a big impact on the functionality and the reliability of our system and I want to see the TTC move on this as quickly as possible," Matlow said. "I don't want to go through another winter like this where, because we have open cut areas of our tracks, the system just stops working when it snows. That's not acceptable," he said. "We live in a Canadian city. We have to predict that it's going to snow once in a while and we need to be prepared." Coun. Josh Matlow, who sits on the TTC board, speaks to reporters before the board met on Wednesday. (Saeed Dehghani/CBC) Matlow said Toronto is expected to see more severe storms due to climate change and it needs to prepare accordingly. "When the infrastructure can't handle the weather, then the system shuts down. We need to make sure that we're prepared for virtually anything because even when it's really bad outside, people still need to get to work in school." Matlow also said the provincial and federal governments need to commit to funding the capital needs of Toronto's transit system as part of extreme weather planning. TTC board needs to step up, advocate says Chloe Tangpongprush, spokesperson for transit advocacy group TTCriders, asked the board for winter clearing standards for surface transit stops. The current standard is that there will be an attempt to clear bus and streetcar stops within 48 hours after a major snowfall. "That's just not good enough," Tangpongprush said. Chloe Tangpongprush, spokesperson for transit advocacy group TTCriders, told the board, 'Transit riders in these events cannot be stranded and abandoned for days after a major snowfall like what we saw in February of this year.' (Saeed Dehghani/CBC) Tangpongprush said the TTC needs to find money to find clear bus and streetcar stops more quickly. "The conditions that Torontonians had to face in February were unacceptable," she said. Tangpongprush told the board that it needs to step up on the issue. "As your report before you outlines today, climate change will continue to wreak havoc on the transit system and on our infrastructure in general. Transit riders in these events cannot be stranded and abandoned for days after a major snowfall like what we saw in February of this year," she said. "Just because the city is snowed in, just because the city is frozen, doesn't mean that riders don't have anywhere to go." She said many transit riders are essential workers, such as doctors, nurses, care workers, and they need to get work regardless of the weather. "They can't choose to work from home. We need to make sure that the transit system remains operating in inclement weather." Drivers are pictured here after they were stranded due to flood waters blocking the Don Valley Parkway following heavy rain in Toronto, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press) According to report, Toronto experienced its highest annual precipitation levels last year, surpassing the previous record set in 2008 by nine per cent and exceeding the 30-year average by more than 30 per cent. On July 15 and 16 of last year, when the city received more than 115 millimetres of rain within 24 hours, there was flooding at 15 subway stations. Nine streetcar routes were disrupted, causing delays ranging from 38 to 59 minutes per route. Fifty-five per cent of affected routes experienced water pooling along the right of way, 22 per cent experienced leakage into vehicles, and 22 per cent were indirectly impacted due to flood-stranded vehicles obstructing their routes. There were also power outages at the TTC's Mount Dennis, Queensway and McNicoll garages. Thirty-four bus routes were disrupted, causing an average delay of 1.5 hours across all affected routes. A person with a walker is shown here after a major snowfall in Toronto in February left many sidewalks impassable. (Eduardo Lima/The Canadian Press) During the extreme snowfall from Feb. 13 to 17, subway service stopped for 18 hours on Line 1 from Lawrence to Bloor, primarily due to loss of traction power from excessive accumulation of snow. Delays continued on Line 1 for an another eight hours after the snow stopped falling due to blowing snow from an open field at Wilson Yard. Service on Line 2 was halted between Woodbine to Kennedy for 18 hours. Thirteen streetcar routes were affected, with an average delay of about 30 minutes across all affected streetcar routes. The snow disrupted 100 bus routes, resulting in an average delay of about one hour across all affected bus routes. Forty per cent of delays were attributed to buses stuck in snow. An additional 30 per cent of delays were due to bus collisions, while 20 per cent were a result of bus diversions caused by blocked roadways. After already seeing record precipitation levels last year, the amount of rain the city could see in a single day is expected increase by 27 percent by the end of the century, the report says.
CBC
17-04-2025
- Climate
- CBC
TTC board looks at what to do when extreme weather hits
When Toronto experiences record breaking amounts of snow and rain, the TTC is affected in a major way, and on Wednesday its board approved a report aimed at minimizing disruptions when extreme weather hits. After heavy rain in July last year and heavy snow in February this year, the board decided it will plan for extreme weather based on the latest climate projections for Toronto. The board also decided the TTC will work with city staff on a review of winter maintenance operations to ensure that the "resilience of TTC operations" remains a top priority. Coun. Jamaal Myers, chair of the TTC board, said the board will look at "technologies and innovations" of other cities to see how they have coped with extreme weather. "Everybody recognizes that this is coming. We all saw what happened last summer when the stations were flooded due to extreme rain," Myers said. "If the system is shut down, it's of no use to anyone." Coun. Josh Matlow, a member of the board, said the city and the TTC need to accept current realities of climate change. "Precipitation has a big impact on the functionality and the reliability of our system and I want to see the TTC move on this as quickly as possible," Matlow said. "I don't want to go through another winter like this where, because we have open cut areas of our tracks, the system just stops working when it snows. That's not acceptable," he said. "We live in a Canadian city. We have to predict that it's going to snow once in a while and we need to be prepared." Matlow said Toronto is expected to see more severe storms due to climate change and it needs to prepare accordingly. "When the infrastructure can't handle the weather, then the system shuts down. We need to make sure that we're prepared for virtually anything because even when it's really bad outside, people still need to get to work in school." Matlow also said the provincial and federal governments need to commit to funding the capital needs of Toronto's transit system as part of extreme weather planning. TTC board needs to step up, advocate says Chloe Tangpongprush, spokesperson for transit advocacy group TTCriders, asked the board for winter clearing standards for surface transit stops. The current standard is that there will be an attempt to clear bus and streetcar stops within 48 hours after a major snowfall. "That's just not good enough," Tangpongprush said. Tangpongprush said the TTC needs to find money to find clear bus and streetcar stops more quickly. "The conditions that Torontonians had to face in February were unacceptable," she said. Tangpongprush told the board that it needs to step up on the issue. "As your report before you outlines today, climate change will continue to wreak havoc on the transit system and on our infrastructure in general. Transit riders in these events cannot be stranded and abandoned for days after a major snowfall like what we saw in February of this year," she said. "Just because the city is snowed in, just because the city is frozen, doesn't mean that riders don't have anywhere to go." She said many transit riders are essential workers, such as doctors, nurses, care workers, and they need to get work regardless of the weather. "They can't choose to work from home. We need to make sure that the transit system remains operating in inclement weather." According to report, Toronto experienced its highest annual precipitation levels last year, surpassing the previous record set in 2008 by nine per cent and exceeding the 30-year average by more than 30 per cent. On July 15 and 16 of last year, when the city received more than 115 millimetres of rain within 24 hours, there was flooding at 15 subway stations. Nine streetcar routes were disrupted, causing delays ranging from 38 to 59 minutes per route. Fifty-five per cent of affected routes experienced water pooling along the right of way, 22 per cent experienced leakage into vehicles, and 22 per cent were indirectly impacted due to flood-stranded vehicles obstructing their routes. There were also power outages at the TTC's Mount Dennis, Queensway and McNicoll garages. Thirty-four bus routes were disrupted, causing an average delay of 1.5 hours across all affected routes. During the extreme snowfall from Feb. 13 to 17, subway service stopped for 18 hours on Line 1 from Lawrence to Bloor, primarily due to loss of traction power from excessive accumulation of snow. Delays continued on Line 1 for an another eight hours after the snow stopped falling due to blowing snow from an open field at Wilson Yard. Service on Line 2 was halted between Woodbine to Kennedy for 18 hours. Thirteen streetcar routes were affected, with an average delay of about 30 minutes across all affected streetcar routes. The snow disrupted 100 bus routes, resulting in an average delay of about one hour across all affected bus routes. Forty per cent of delays were attributed to buses stuck in snow. An additional 30 per cent of delays were due to bus collisions, while 20 per cent were a result of bus diversions caused by blocked roadways.
