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since we're on the topic of TTC and $$$ .. here's an extremely good read I found a couple of months ago:
Does it make sense that the TTC always seems to be in the red, when other transit systems around the world are churning a profit?
Here's a few theories as to why ..
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Who has the better way?
After an illegal strike against the TTC brought Torontonians to their knees, David Bruser examines what we can learn from cities like Singapore, Madrid and Paris
Jun. 3, 2006. 09:40 AM
DAVID BRUSER
BUSINESS REPORTER
In the 15 years Paul Yong has been a student, then a financial analyst in his humid hometown of 3.5 million people, he's noticed one immutable characteristic of his transit service.
"There's never been a stoppage. Not due to a strike," he says. "It's pretty much run like clockwork."
Not like in Toronto, where a wildcat strike Monday left hundreds of thousands of commuters stranded in the haze and stress of rush hour.
"I think if you put that (scenario) to someone on the street, they would think you were crazy," Yong says.
Welcome to Singapore. Home of a better way?
Or what about Madrid, where the subway system has doubled in eight years?
Or Paris, where subway infrastructure is built in anticipation of demand?
The Toronto Transit Commission, critics say, is sluggish to expand, not generating enough non-fare revenue, and, as was made clear this week, vulnerable to labour strife.
Some blame an engineer-dominated management team that is good at controlling costs but lacking in business growth skills.
Some decry the lack of will of those controlling the public purse who could help put the TTC on the right foot.
Others brood not much can be done for a system coursing through a city populated by people hopelessly devoted to their cars.
A brief look to Singapore, Madrid and Paris — while it may not offer a cure-all for the TTC's ails — reveals what makes world renowned systems function smoothly and respond quickly to their customers.
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Granted, Singapore is where the U.S. State Department says officials enforce strict laws against jaywalking, littering and spitting, mete out canings for vandalism, and the People's Action Party has ruled for nearly 50 years.
But Yong, an analyst with DBS Vickers Securities, adds the city's transit system differs from Toronto's in almost every significant way.
Two publicly listed firms, including state-controlled SMRT Corp. Ltd., operate the subway system. The other firm, ComfortDelGro Corp. , whose largest shareholder is the co-operative Singapore Labour Foundation, operates a fleet of buses.
Yet the two systems interface well, he says, offering a seamless citywide 68-stop service constantly in demand in a densely populated city where 80 per cent of inhabitants live in flats.
The government builds the infrastructure, sometimes building new subway stations in anticipation of growth, as at Buangkok, then mothballs them until needed.
"We actually have a lot of stations that aren't even open yet. The government sees it more as something that is necessary," Yong says. "You have to invest in infrastructure if you want your economy to develop."
Through effective marketing, spending to make over stations and renting property to restaurants and shops, SMRT, whose CEO Saw Phaik Hwa came from the retail sector, has shown consistent growth, Yong says. Though he adds the firm's taxi business has so far been unsuccessful as it glutted the market.
SMRT's profit after tax in the 2005 fiscal year was $127 million (Singapore), or about $89 million Canadian as of yesterday's exchange rate, more than double what it was in 2002.
In his office in Madrid, transportation planner Carlos Cristobal-Pinto shuffles through papers, looking for the numbers detailing his city's stunning subway growth. He's a busy man these days, in demand by conferences around the world wanting to hear how he helped Madrid to double its tracks and stations in eight years.
That's 110 km to 220 km of tracks — 55 km every four years between 1995 and 2003 —and 74 new stations to meet the demands of a growing city. About half of the new tracks and stations were built in the suburbs.
It wasn't cheap.
Through a formula that has the city paying 20 per cent, the nation 30 per cent and the region 50 per cent, taxpayers were on the hook for 4.4 billion euros.
And Cristobal-Pinto, of the Madrid Transport Consortium says the new publicly run system doesn't pay for itself. About 60 per cent of its costs are covered by the farebox, with the remaining 40 per cent paid by government subsidies, which are only rising as the system expands, he adds.
"It's a priority of the politicians. We have in the regional government three policies: One is education, the other health and the last transportation," Cristobal-Pinto says. "The president of the region decided to extend the metro because we have money to pay for the debt. In the last 10 years, we have a good economy. We've increased population 1 million in 10 years, from 5 million to 6 million."
In Toronto, transit consultant Ed Levy of the BA Group, who's studied transit systems around the world, is jealous. "It's just enough to make you cry. Nobody can tell me that if a city like that can do it that we can't here."
Back in Madrid, Cristobal-Pinto notes an important similarity.
"From time to time we have a strike," he says. "In the last month we had some problems with the (subway) drivers."
But he says a law recognizes the subway as a "social service" and disallows all drivers to strike at once. That means at least half of the drivers are operating a "minimal service."
Tony Travers looks longingly across the English Channel and wishes his government would learn from the French.
"The way it tends to happen here is a great deal of pressure builds up for a new line, then it gets built," says the director of the Greater London Group research centre at the London School of Economics. "It's not the kind of rational planning of the kind that's gone on in Paris."
In a lather at the mere mention of his hometown's mass transit, Travers rails against London's byzantine and diffuse system of private bus operators, public subways and "clever" unions that frequently paralyze the city to get what they want. Absent, he says, is a strong central leadership focused on serving the public.
The mayor, as chair of the transport board, sets service levels and fares for buses and the underground, Travers explains. Bus service is provided by several private firms. The underground is owned and operated by the city, but between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., when the system is closed to the public, private maintenance firms go to work.
When the Canary Wharf business district was being developed, Travers says developers had to lobby hard to get subway service to the area via the Jubilee Line. Meanwhile, in Paris, "the equivalent project — La Defense — was all done by the edict of the state with public transport infrastructure from the beginning. They built a station, then built the business district around it.
"There's simply a lot more public money in France."
Back in Toronto, as blame searches for a home in the wake of the wildcat strike, Richard Soberman, former University of Toronto professor and now a transit consultant, wishes for a labour law similar to Madrid's.
"This is crazy that people should be able to hold the public up for ransom. There's got to be a better way. We (should) have groups of employees who are categorized as essential and are not permitted to strike."
TTC chair Howard Moscoe marvels at Madrid's system that stretches into the suburbs. But an "essential service" law that ensures not all drivers walk off the job would have been toothless in the face of an illegal strike like the city experienced this week, a frustrated Moscoe notes. "You take away the right of workers to strike and you have to pay them as if they're essential. And that's why police and fire salaries have gone through the roof."
Bob Brent, former TTC chief marketing officer, commends the TTC's cost management, but says the efficient managers fail to generate the kind of revenue more business-minded leaders could. "They see marketing as a cost. No one wants to come out and say they want to grow. They tend to favour a low-ball budget (because) they want to get a better subsidy."
Though the TTC already recovers 80 per cent of its operating costs from the farebox, Moscoe concedes the commission could do more to increase revenue, such as landing more stores or coffee shops inside stations.
"I push the staff to be more entrepreneurial," he says.
But even if the TTC recovered 100 per cent of its costs, Moscoe says it could not operate as a self-sustaining system without subsidies for upkeep and improvements. Without public money, fares would go up, driving riders back into their cars. "We'd strangle the system. People would stop riding it."
Might the TTC save money and headaches if it privatized, say, its bus operations?
Ryerson University professor and urban planning expert James Mars fears not.
"The idea of that, it just scares me," Mars says, adding the most lucrative routes would probably fall to high-bidding private firms, leaving low passenger loads for less popular routes run by the public operation and leading to reduced service or hiked fares. "It would hurt low-income people, people that do shift work, students, the people that are transit-dependent. They would be in the less lucrative times and routes."
Why not, Mars wonders, privatize some functions, not customer relations or security, but maybe maintenance or IT? "I think they could get some cost savings, some cost certainty. Some of this would move out of union domination. You would have fewer things at stake if there were a strike. It's a little hedging."
Moscoe is doubtful such a move would be tolerated, only saying, "It's been contemplated, but we operate in a very heavily unionized environment."
Meanwhile, a despondent Levy fears the road to a better way is elusory in a vast city overrun with cars and trucks.
"(People) want their SUVs and their houses with picket fences. That's what they've been taught since childhood," he says. "The GTA is more like Los Angeles than New York City. It's not as centralized as it once was. It's like exploding outward, and we're halfway to Lake Simcoe."
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source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ol=969048863851
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Beware the Ides of Merch?
How the TTC is missing out instead of cashing in
by Dale Duncan
Managing Editor
photo courtesy of Nick Provart
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After years working abroad, first in Berlin, and later in San Diego, Nicolas Provart returned to Toronto full of ideas for how to improve the TTC. In 2002, he and a friend even put together a full-fledged marketing plan. After a month of figuring out costs, contacting suppliers, and coming up with ideas — including underwear emblazoned with TTC station names and slogans such as King, Queen, and Ride the Rocket (photo above) — the amateur transit boosters sent their plan off to the TTC.
“It landed in procurement,” Provart says. He hasn’t heard a peep from the commission since.
The reason, Provart later learned, is that the TTC was one year into a five year contract with Legacy Sports, a company based in Woodbridge that won the exclusive right to sell TTC merchandise, with the commission getting a 10% cut of the sales. But while the London Underground brings in a reported $3,424,000 from the sale of merchandise each year through its store and museum, Legacy’s projected sales at the time they signed their contract were only $50,000 annually.
For many, however, the cash is a secondary concern (even $3 million dollars works out to be a sliver of the TTC’s $1.07 billion operation budget).
People wearing TTC T-shirts, and tourists bringing home TTC souvenirs help to promote Toronto’s transit system. As the popularity of Spacing’s subway station buttons demonstrate, many people have an unabashed affection for public transit and they want to wear it on their jacket or shoulder bag. It’s this sort of sentiment Legacy has failed capture. Fortunately, the opportunity for change is growing near: Legacy’s contract comes to an end this August.
“Our tentative plan at this point is to come out with a Request for Proposal and survey the marketplace and see who else might be out there who’s interested in sending in a submission,” says Alice Smith, active manager of TTC marketing.
It’s unfortunate that few people know that Legacy’s products exist. A link to their website — where you can view and purchase T-shirts, toques, pens, and bags, baby clothes that say “property of the TTC,” baseball hats slapped with pictures of buses, and a host of other items — is tucked away on the TTC’s website. Only one store in Toronto, Bowrings, in the Eaton Centre, sells the merchandise year round.
“Our main supporters have obviously been the TTC employees,” explains the president of Legacy Sports, Rick Ferri. “[But] we’re in the process right now of revamping our whole line.” Their new focus, he says, will include “cute catch phrases” such as “Toronto Underground”.
“Will your new line include station names?” I ask. “Possibly,” Ferri says. “Those kind of things appeal more to the buff, the customer more concerned with the logistics of the TTC….We’re looking at the younger crowd and we’re looking to do stuff that’s more hip, to cater to them.” The same goes for the use of subway or streetcar maps, he says. “It’s nice to see, it looks cute, but it’s more for someone who’s really interested in the subway line and all the stops and everything.”
Though Ferri would like to see Legacy’s products appeal to a broader range of people, it seems odd not to market to the TTC buffs, especially the growing, younger generation of transit fans, the ones creating anagram maps, holding subway parties, and debating station design. You’d think these groups of people would be Legacy’s most loyal customers.
Another surprise: Ferri say that Legacy doesn’t look to other transit systems for ideas. “There’s not really much out there to take notes from. We’ve probably been more innovative than a lot of other transit system,” he tells me. “I don’t even think [the London Underground] has got half of the products we carry.” Without a hint of irony in his voice he says, “I don’t know how much more innovative they are than we’ve been.”
Ferri admits that there’s a learning curve to doing merchandising for public transit and hopes to build on what the company has learned over the past four and a half years. “Right now we’re in the rebuilding stage,” he says. “It’s what you produce and we’re taking a different approach to our line…. There’s no guarantees with this stuff.”
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source:
http://spacing.ca/archives/29/
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Melbourne vs. Toronto
How the TTC could learn some lessons from Down Under
by Ian Malczewski
Spacing contributor
photos by Rannie Turingan and Light Rail Now!
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Back in 2004, I spent a year living in Melbourne, Australia, a place often called the world's “most liveable” city. Not surprisingly, a qualifying feature of this title is the presence of an efficient transit system. Championed by an elaborate tram network, public transit is so important to Melbourne’s collective consciousness that its shortcomings – though relatively benign – are easy to forgive. Indeed, most travel guides for Melbourne feature images of the familiar green cars crawling in front of important civic landmarks.
In what ways could Toronto follow Melbourne’s example?
1) Wait Times. The growing clamour for screens in subway stations to display wait times somewhat baffles me. Something I love about the TTC is that you can usually count on waiting less than 5 minutes for the next train. If your wait is going to be longer, you’ll hear an announcement about it. Is it really necessary to display a sign flashing, “Two Minutes Until Next Train,” when the lights are already visible in the tunnel?
This kind of system would be infinitely more useful for our expanding streetcar and bus network. How many times have you waited ten minutes for a streetcar, decided to walk, and then watched it pass three minutes later? If a sign on Queen read, “501 Humber – 14 Minutes,” you could duck into a coffee shop, keep warm, and run out to see the streetcar sliding in as advertised. A notification system this efficient and elaborate might seem impossible, but it is the exact system used all over Melbourne.
A recent Globe & Mail article interviewed TTC Commissioner Howard Moscoe on the subject who, though keen, thought advertisers would be needed to help cover the cost. While it would be tragic to once again see the TTC cheapen its (and our) system by filling information boards with ads for the latest Tomb Raider film, many of us would likely bite the bullet for the added convenience. When the system becomes accessible and communicative, it becomes much more attractive.
2) A Free Ride. In Melbourne, riding trams is an essential part of the city experience, a fact of which city planners are well aware. The City Circle Tram is a free tram that runs in a loop around the the downtown core during daylight hours. The vintage trams are refurbished W-class trams, some of the oldest in the city, and a recorded voice narrates the history of the buildings and locations as you pass them. When my brother visited me, riding the City Circle Tram was one of the first things we did together.
Meanwhile, in Toronto, the beautiful PCC cars that were the face of the TTC for 60 years have been harvested for parts, scrapped, or sold off to places like Trolleyville, Ohio. James Bow’s Transit Toronto website cites the lure of “having a standardised fleet without maintaining a separate spare parts inventory for [PCC] cars” as one of the reasons for this, but in Melbourne the compromise was worth making. Once numbering around 745, there are now two (2) PCC cars remaining in Toronto, which are only used for charter purposes. And there is, of course, a caveat on the TTC Charter website about mechanical breakdowns, which doesn’t exactly instill confidence.
Restored PCC cars would breathe some history into our streets, and recorded stories about the city would be free, non-mobile phone dependent versions of the [murmur] project now restoring accessible meaning to public spaces. These stories would reach the ears not just of transit and urban enthusiasts, but anyone willing to take a free ride. Once people begin to see transit as something other than a strictly functional service, they may begin to want to take the streetcar instead of their car.
3) Meals on Wheels. In Melbourne, trams serve more than the utilitarian purpose of transporting people from A to B: they are also roaming dining halls. Again, refurbished older trams roll out for the trip, equipped with special hydraulics to ensure that drinks (and passengers) stay level. Tinted windows project an air of mystery to passers-by and maintain a private and intimate feel to the diners within, while air-conditioning and heating keep the trip comfortable year round. An early dinner tram, full-course meal tram, and cheaper luncheon depart at different times of the day.
The tram restaurant does not just please those on board, though. Pedestrians smile as the bright flashing "Restaurant" sign crawls along familiar routes, pleased to see this celebratory side of transit. The only advertising on the tram’s body displays the phone number for reservations.
One cannot help but dream about a similar venture here. Melbourne shares many geographic features with Toronto, all of which the tram restaurant exploits: a river cutting the city in half, a large body of water at its southern border, and a relatively flat grid pattern system. The restaurant would be an enormous source of revenue for the TTC and would go a long way towards giving it the fun reputation it so sorely lacks.
Think Toronto lacks the sights to match the former capital of Australia? Imagine this streetcar restaurant route winding its way through our streets:
Passengers meet and wait indoors at Broadview Station, watching eagerly as the refurbished streetcar rolls in. The Maitre d’ steps off to greet each diner with a specially pressed token, something everyone keeps as a souvenir. In order to prevent clogging up the flow of regular service, the streetcar departs promptly with its excited passengers seating themselves as close to windows as possible.
Sipping their first glasses of wine, they travel along Broadview towards King Street East and look out the right-hand window to see the Don Valley and River spread out before them. In the distance, the city’s skyline invites them to their eventual destination. This first leg of the route introduces both the beautiful natural landscapes and iconic buildings that make up downtown Toronto.
The streetcar turns right on King Street, travelling through Corktown before entering the historic St. Lawrence Market district. Having started the trip off with a glimpse of the city before them, the passengers now enter through its oldest neighbourhood. St. Lawrence Hall and St. James Cathedral provide the architectural climax of this leg of the ride, and create a beautiful ambience as appetizers are served. Couples emerging from theatres and Roy Thomson Hall smile as the streetcar’s bell says hello. Even diners at the chic restaurants lining King West look enviously upon the passing gleaming coach.
The streetcar turns right at Bathurst, going only as far as Queen West before turning left. Both visitors to the city and lifelong citizens fall silent as they pass Trinity Bellwoods Park and the restored Gladstone Hotel. While passing countless art galleries, they compare window displays as servers come out to make sure glasses are full.
After a quick jaunt through Parkdale along Roncesvalles, the streetcar turns left at Howard Park Avenue, showing the passengers a quieter part of the city. Meals are cooking away in the on-board kitchen, and some passengers are deep into their second glass of wine. Finally, the streetcar arrives at the High Park loop. Looking out their windows, diners see Dream in High Park -goers smiling at them as they wait for the next streetcar, not far behind. Pausing here for a moment, the Maitre d’ takes the opportunity to introduce the streetcar operator, who offers a friendly wave before clanging the bell to signal the trip is once again underway.
Continuing straight as they reach Roncesvalles, the driver brings them along College West, back downtown. They pass through the quaint streetscapes of Little Italy, where people lining the sidewalks wave as they pass by. Surrounded by cyclists, they slide along the bottom of the University of Toronto while entrees are served.
An out-of-towner takes the opportunity to joke about the city’s sporting heroes as they pass Maple Leaf Gardens. Once they reach Parliament Street, they head south to pass through Cabbagetown. While the Maitre d’ tells a visiting couple about the history of the neighbourhood, the streetcar turns right again on Dundas. As they make the journey west, several diners take the opportunity to run to the on-board bathroom. Arriving at Yonge and Dundas Square, a few tourists watch the fountains while locals express mixed opinions about the space.
Travelling through Toronto’s first Chinatown, they return to Queen via Spadina, beginning the longest leg of the ride. The main course arrives before they sneak by New and Old City Hall, where a performance at Nathan Phillips Square distracts diners from their meal. On the Queen Street Bridge, the streetcar pauses to look over the Don Valley and River, the view perfect from its perch. Diners discuss Eldon Garnet’s inscription, “This river I step in is not the river I stand in,” as they pass over the bridge for the second time.
By the time they reach the Beaches and the Neville Park Loop, servers are back to top off wine and sodas. Plates sampling Canadian cheese are brought out to chase the main course. As they ride back through the Riverside District, a cake comes out for a girl celebrating her 10th birthday, and everyone claps as she blows out the candles.
Deserts come out and before long the streetcar turns left on Bathurst, concluding the trip with a view of the historic Fort York. Their meals finished, passengers watch the moon rise over Lake Ontario and the Toronto Islands as they ride along Queens Quay. Full-bellied and laughing, some passengers empty out at the Ferry Docks terminal, ready to stroll along the lakeshore to walk off the meal. The rest stay on board to be let off at Union Station, where they can take the subway or Go Trains to their homes and hotels.
Ideas like this are obviously far-fetched dreams for the cash-strapped TTC, but perhaps someday we might see them actualized. The warmer and friendlier a system of public transit is, the more it is embraced by citizens and visitors alike.
We are repeatedly told that the future of transit is in LRT systems and that subways are too expensive and time-consuming to build. Toronto is one of few North American cities fortunate enough to have an LRT network already in place, and boasts the largest in North America. With a few tweaks and a splash of creativity, our streetcar network could become, in its own way, a proud celebration of that fact.
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source:
http://spacing.ca/archives/30/
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TTC issues moved to the rear
Politics weakens growth strategy
Who will make the case for transit?
Jun. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
Rick Ducharme's ouster as chief general manager and Howard Moscoe's lame-duck status as chair of the TTC couldn't come at a worse time for commuters who hope The Better Way will one day live up to its moniker.
Issues that go to the core of the TTC's growth strategy — the future of the Scarborough RT, expanding the streetcar network, the purchase of new buses, streetcars and subways — are at risk of being sideswiped by labour woes and political interference as the upper echelon of the TTC lurches from crisis to crisis.
Political meddling here is nothing new. Because of it, the TTC has ended up with things it didn't really need, like Mel Lastman's Sheppard subway, and things that weren't properly thought through, like Bill Davis's Scarborough RT.
It has also killed things that could have proved beneficial, like an Eglinton subway to the airport, stopped by Mike Harris. And given TTC users things they could have done without like the service cuts and fare hikes through the 1990s.
Ridership is again on the increase, rising from 390 million per year in 1999 to an expected 430 million this year. Finding more ways to move more people has become essential.
For riders, transit issues ought to revolve around arrival dates for more streetcars, buses, subways, transit lanes and subway extension. All that's been sidetracked by the wildcat strike and ensuing political fallout.
"Frankly if we spend the next six months talking about labour stuff, there's going to be far more important stuff not being on the table," says transit advocate Steve Munro. "There are far more fundamental issues regarding medium- and long-term budget planning and capital works planning. If we are serious about improving the transit system, we've got to spend some money on it."
The TTC now lacks the strong leadership necessary to make that case. Ducharme, with his transit experience, and Moscoe, with his political sense and street smarts, formed a formidable pair. Now Ducharme's gone, and an under-pressure Moscoe is offering to give up his post in November.
That's bad news for riders because deals on the table to improve transit are more likely to be deferred when debated this summer by the city's budget advisory committee. The powerful fiscal hawks on that committee will have an easy time with weakened transit advocates, forcing delays to purchasing new buses, subway cars and streetcars, saving money through deferral, rather than focussing on transit priorities.
One front-burner issue: Scarborough's transit future. Will residents of the city's poorest-served transit area get a subway, a refurbished RT, or a streetcar network? With the current RT reaching the end of its life about 2015 time is running out.
It's a decision that will affect the city for decades. The province has undermined the process by giving $1 million to the city to conduct an environmental assessment to put in a subway, and the city hasn't even reached a conclusion. Will the issue even get a proper debate and resolution in this climate?
A debate is growing around Moscoe's deal with Bombardier for that Quebec-based company to be the sole source of TTC subway cars, a means to fast-track the modernization of the Yonge-University-Spadina line.
Councillors who were quiet on the issue before are comparing it to the MFP leasing boondoggle that embarrassed the city under Lastman. By the time Bombardier comes through with its offer, those left on the commission may liken it to political poison in an election year.
Ironically, the deal — struck to protect unionized jobs in Thunder Bay — may end up as collateral damage due to the TTC's labour woes. A project that had momentum may be stalled, who knows for how long.
The same thing could happen to the TTC's desire to get rid of streetcars and replace them with a modern fleet of light rail vehicles. The budget committee would rather the TTC refurbish the current fleet, extending its life for 10 years. That's bad news for those backing accessible transit, and for streets constantly in need of reconstruction because of the weight of streetcars.
What strong voice will make the case to build streetcar lines in the redeveloped port lands? Ducharme made the case that if streetcar lines don't go in concurrently with housing development, then folks moving into this downtown area will need to have two cars like everyone else.
Convincing the budget committee to give the TTC more money in this climate is laughable. And it's doubtful the TTC will find a strong voice to replace Ducharme until the labour issues are resolved.
That's too bad. There are already few enough voices advocating bus and streetcar priority on city streets. Ducharme and Moscoe were two such advocates. Ducharme is gone, Moscoe hanging on by a thread.
And commuters are paying the price.
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source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...epath=News/News
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
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not another fare hike...
