YRT staff at a recent open house have told me they are aware of Solaris 24 m buses, however, they want to improve frequencies before buying them.
Fun fact, YRT’s Richmond Hill depot was built for 80 ft buses. YRT was thinking of 24 m VanHools at the time. architecture49.com/en/portfolio...
They went with three doors!!!
Fun fact, the Orion VI was available with three doors, but not many agencies chose that option.
www.flickr.com/photos/flyer...
Good coverage on some of the accessibility issues affecting Eglinton Crosstown users.
One nice thing about Line 5 is that the LRV doors close quite quickly, in ~3 seconds, vs. the ~5 seconds it takes for streetcar doors to close.
To save time, the TTC should re-program the streetcar doors to close faster, which should be possible as they use closely related Alstom vehicles.
bruh the doors on CLRVs were even faster, and those have internal stairs!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKE5...
The tall lollipop-shaped sign at the street entrance of Highway 407 station. Printed piece on this side of the sign is mostly gone, exposing the backlight.
I thought I was early to report the broken sign in Feb 2025 💀
That’s a new way to celebrate 🤔
Anyhow, good job, you stayed on for more than 8 seconds 🤠
(For context: “To receive a score, the rider must stay on top of the bull for eight seconds…” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_ri... )
Now’s an exciting time for viva yellow. The new buses (2576–2578) have improvements:
- more standing room
- wide exit doors (I begged YRT for these)
- automatic wheelchair securement (Q’Straint Quantum)
- tactile stop request buttons
- USB ports
Source: cptdb.ca/topic/4280-y...
Real cities plow sidewalks.
Earlier today, this YRT driver on route 50 was going through basically zero visibility 🌨️.
www.reddit.com/r/YRTVIVA/co...
🫡 to the professional drivers indeed.
Welcome to the bus stop where the DRT sign faces the street so you can’t read it
There’s different kinds of electric switch heaters including ones that just warm up, ones that blow hot air, and induction ones. I wonder what FWLRT and iON got.
www.apecthermal.com/rail-heaters...
thermon.com/products/tra...
www.hotswitchheatingsystems.com/products
Is that YRT’s old announcement bot?
There was an obvious error in a recent PDF schedule; so errors can and do happen even in formal documents.
www.reddit.com/r/gotransit/...
Screenshot of Google Maps listing departures from GO and YRT’s bus terminal at Finch station. Departures from all bays are consolidated into a single list while platform numbers are indicated beside each departure time. Above the list is a map of the station; there’s a single map pin for the whole bus terminal. Individual bus bay numbers are more subtly displayed as numbers on the map.
Screenshot of Google Maps listing departures from bus bay 11 at TTC’s bus terminal at Finch station. The platform number “11” is still indicated beside each departure, but there’s no way to show departures from other bays in the same list. Above, the map shows each bus bay with a bus icon, but no number unlike YRT’s terminal.
But it could be better.
TTC still treats bus bays as if they aren’t part of a larger transit facility. This makes it hard to see all buses that depart from a bus terminal. That’s bad if there’s a few buses you could take, and you want to see the departure times for all of them.
Compare YRT and TTC.
“Before” photo: screenshot of Google Maps at Kipling Station. About a dozen map pins (one for each bus bay) all labelled “Kipling Station”.
“After” photo: a more recent screenshot of Google Maps at Kipling Station. Now, the map pin for each bus bay is labelled, “Kipling Station at Bus Bay” followed by the bay’s number.
#TTC finally numbered their bus bays in GTFS! This matters because nowadays, apps are as important as signage in a wayfinding system. This change will make it easier to find where your bus departs from.
Thanks queen
Poster of “Trains from Humber College”. Below the header, it’s just blank black.
First and last train times?
☑️ No
(Image edited with AI to remove my shadow)
My biggest issue is the next train screens. None of them were showing the next train times.
This reminds me, Hong Kong MTR gets fined when they have distruptions.
But MTR is a profitable corporation and isn’t government-subsidized. TTC getting fined would be the government fining itself, and it’s clear the solution for TTC is more money (for state-of-good-repair!), not less.
![Two diagrams. First shows a seating quad on a bus: two forward and two backward facing seats facing each other. The backward facing seats are labelled as “footrests” in quotes. In the second diagram, the two backwards seats are replaced by two aisle-facing seats. An armrest, placed between the two seating pairs on the edge of the aisle-facing seating pair is labelled, “arm rest blocks people from using these [aisle-facing] seats as footrests”.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ygpancxnomm3vboqngxpzj7v/bafkreieijxpntjkzwcarz3xcfsvm4bfgi7pbps2wtsarhzoamnkn3peidm)
Two diagrams. First shows a seating quad on a bus: two forward and two backward facing seats facing each other. The backward facing seats are labelled as “footrests” in quotes. In the second diagram, the two backwards seats are replaced by two aisle-facing seats. An armrest, placed between the two seating pairs on the edge of the aisle-facing seating pair is labelled, “arm rest blocks people from using these [aisle-facing] seats as footrests”.
Not to defend bad etiquette but given the reality, buses should replace backwards-facing seats in quads with aisle-facing seats and an armrest. This is what DRT does. Although the LFS’s larger wheel well takes legroom from an aisle-facing seat, the seats stay cleaner.
Yes!
More bus riders mean the transit agency and government will see the demand and improve service.
Simultaneously, road space is cleared up for those who chose to, or must drive.
Whether you drive or take transit, you benefit.
Buses run on a schedule. We can track buses in real time. We can plan out our trips. Did you really think bus riders wait at bus stops for 20 mins? No, we can usually stay where we are, and only walk to the bus stop when needed.
And bus riders don’t worry about driving in the snow.
Empty poster cases at a GO park and ride waiting shelter. They’re meant to show transit info.
Empty poster cases at transit facilities make me sad.
Flu shots were only available to people at high risk until yesterday 😔
Thanks for the timely reminder.
MTR exit signage. (English text is also shown in Chinese.) The wide overhead sign, from left to right, has: a left-pointing arrow; the word “exit” in a green square as tall as the sign itself; the letter ‘G’ in a gray box; then “Festival Walk / To Fuk Road”. Two exit directories (one for left, one for right) show: directional arrows; green “exit” squares; bus, minibus, and taxi icons; then list exit letters and corresponding destinations with some photos. Attribution: GAULUAEN Yamwzld00, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
I agree, TTC’s approach is too busy. I like the doorway icon, it’s more inclusive than MX’s walking man.
I like Hong Kong MTR’s approach (progressive disclosure). One icon for “exit”. If only some exits are one way, exit letters are specified. Exit names are given when only one remains.
Google Street View of St. George station’s Bedford Rd entrance. The entrance sign above the doors has, from left to right: the TTC logo above the word “Subway”, then “Saint George” in large font, the wheelchair icon, the number 1 in a yellow circle, the number 2 in a green circle, and a bus icon in a white box. The encircled numbers are icons representing subway lines.
Sad that TTC stopped locking up the TTC logo with the word “Subway” (see example). Though monolingual, it’s better than just showing a line number to represent the subway. When there’s just one line, it could be confused for an entrance number like at a mall.
Screenshot of Ruffles poutine flavoured chips, 180 grams. On rollback, now $2.96, originally $4.47. Price when purchased online. The chip bag has light blue and dark blue zig-zag stripes on the top, white in the middle, then brown and dark brown stripes on the bottom. On top of this background from top to bottom, there’s labels reading “limited edition” and “made in Canada”, the Ruffles logo, a poutine in typical paper box and red checkered wax paper packaging resting on two enlarged chips, a blue arrow-shaped neon sign reading “poutine”, and finally the text “180 g” on the bottom.
Doooon’t buy it at Shoppers. It’s only $2.96 at Walmart for 180g (right now on discount).
