WATCH: The TTC has launched a pilot program to limit short-turning on its routes. Mark McAllister reports.
TORONTO – The Toronto Transit Commission knows you’re annoyed – especially when you get dropped by the side of the road in the snow or freezing rain to wait for the next bus to come along while your ride turns around and heads in the opposite direction.
There’ve been more than 330,000 short-turned TTC buses since January, 2012. But transit officials are vowing to turn over a new leaf.
The idea behind Run As Directed (RAD) is deceptively simple: Put extra buses into service to fill gaps that would otherwise be filled by short-turned vehicles.
The TTC’s already implemented the policy on two routes – the 512 St. Clair streetcar and the 29 Dufferin bus, which is the most short-turned of any bus in the city.
The result: a dramatic decrease in the number of short turned buses.
“So as we forecast and see gapping occur, we stick these streetcars in to eliminate gapping so that the customers are no longer waiting for long periods of time at a platform for a vehicle to come,” Rick Leary, the TTC’s head of service delivery, said in an interview.
“With that RAD, we no longer need to short turn streetcars.”
Leary said the number of short turns on the Dufferin route dropped from 350 each week to just 30 since RAD vehicles starting driving along the route last month.
But that requires more drivers, more buses and more people to monitor the route. Transit watcher Steve Munro isn’t sure the TTC has the resources to implement the program network-wide.
“You have to have a lot of people to do what they are doing,” Munro said. “You can’t run a system with over a hundred routes having that level of supervision nursemaiding every single bus and streetcar that’s on the road.”
The TTC says short turns are a necessary evil and doesn’t expect to eliminate them completely. According to numbers Global News obtained through an access-to-information request, more than 330,000 city buses have short-turned since the beginning of January, 2012.
WATCH: Why TTC buses short-turn
Buses short turn when a gap in service presents itself on a route. The TTC, after seeing the gap in service, will take a bus going the opposite way, empty it, and turn it around to try and alleviate the problem.
READ MORE: Why your bus short-turned
“We’ve still got work to do. Don’t get me wrong. But we’ve got a significant improvement in our service and we believe that our customers are recognizing that,” Leary said.
But Munro also pointed out buses sometimes drive in bunches with one following another close behind.
“Dufferin’s the perfect example,” Munro said. “You see two or three buses leave the end of the line together. They sure weren’t scheduled to leave the end of the line together and they travel in a pack all the way to the other end.”
The Amalgamated Transit Union – the union representing TTC workers – put out a position paper in November with a host of recommendations aiming to improve the TTC. One of the recommendations was shifting buses to a headway-based management system rather than a scheduled system.
“So, rather than saying ‘There’s car 4875 sitting over there which should be at Broadview and Danforth at exactly 2:05pm’ the issue is it should be five minutes behind the car in front of it and five minutes ahead of the car behind that,” Munro said. “It’s certainly possible. The TTC knows where every vehicle is right now.”
The TTC is reviewing the program and has not yet decided if it will expand the RAD program.
“We actually have a number of initiatives on the way moving forward, trying to improve the situation that’s on the street,” Leary said.
Leary said the TTC is studying each route and looking at where and how often buses short-turn.
But in some cases, Munro said, it’s more an HR issue than a technical one.
“We hear all the time why vehicles are short turned but when it comes down to it; one of the main reasons is to keep operators on time because the issue is to reduce overtime payments. Make sure operators get off their shift on time,” Munro said. “It’s always been an issue with the union.”
The TTC is trying to fix that, too, Leary said.
“It’s does happen. I’m not going to deny it. We’re having a lot of discussion with the union and the inner employees about that kind of thing.”
– With files from Mark McAllister, and Leslie Young
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