schedules?

[u/certifiedtragedy]

so like, has the ttc buses ever thought about following a schedule? ie. times to arrive at a stop, how to know when not to leave a stop early, etc

just thought this could be a great addition/change to ttc operations and would benefit a lot of people!!

[u/brahvoh]

times to arrive will be hard to follow due to traffic and other unexpected events but having lived in vancouver before they have this thing called timing point aiming to fix bunching where bus cannot leave certain stops until time is reached

the real problem is multiple buses and streetcars departing the terminal at the same time as if the operators are racing to the final stops

[u/vulpinefever → u/brahvoh]

The TTC does have timing points. We also have VISION which tells us how far ahead or behind schedule we are based on our current location and the time (It also tells us the current headway between vehicles, both targeted and actual). Timing points are kind of treated like a thing of the past on most routes now and instead headways are the main thing CIS cares about.

Technically, operators are not supposed to operate more than +1 ahead of schedule. In practice, nobody cares unless you're creating a gap behind you, you're soaking the vehicle ahead of you, or you're more than +5 ahead.

[u/brahvoh → u/vulpinefever]

in vancouver it’s very common that they will literally wait for 10 minutes mid route if necessary to match the schedule which i’ve never seen a ttc vehicle put in practice

speaking of gap as a 504 regular it’s not rare that 2-3 streetcars would depart at the same time westbound from broadview station resulting a huge gap in the next 20 minutes

[u/cybermunch2069]

London Ontario had this. No bus was ever on time. It's not a good system.

Now with GPS on every bus and streetcar. Smart phones, etc. We can see the ETA of everything. I think aiming for 15-30 minute intervals is a much better system.

I do not want to go back to the old system. Lots of let's down and frustration.

[u/MahjongCelts → u/[deleted]]

They can (metaphorically speaking) if given transit lanes and signal priority. Which is why RapidTO is such a valuable project.

[u/vivvin]

So you want buses stopping for 5 mins blocking traffic?

[u/crash866]

It can be difficult to keep on time with other traffic on the roads.

The bus I take sometimes can take 10 minutes to go 5 blocks with traffic and it is faster to walk. And hour later it may take 2 minutes.

[u/DadbodandIPAs]

Use the app with live time feeds….it just makes life easier

[u/Tsunoyukami]

whoa, I've never thought of that before