This Wednesday's TTC meeting features a staff report on how to improve bus service on the overcrowded Finch Ave West route. A PDF summarizing the report can be downloaded from the TTC's website. (To download the full report Click here.)
TTC Meeting - Wednesday May 11th
A main finding of the report is that "at a minimum, the existing bus fleet should be replaced with articulated buses that would increase capacity by about 50% and would also improve service reliability."
The simple concept appears to be that a bigger vehicle can hold more passengers and therefore this will make service better. The Toronto Star's Transportation Reporter summed up the report's main finding, "It's a bigger bus but its still a bus."
The major problem with this report is that it was written to identify ways to squeeze more buses onto Finch Ave., and NOT how to deliver better transit for the people who live there.
The staff report notes that all of the bus options include obvious drawbacks. It is these drawbacks that lead the TTC to suggest a Finch West LRT in the first place. Throughout the report the original Finch West LRT is referred to but is not included as a option in the report.
The fact remains that a dedicated LRT remains the best option for transit users on Finch Ave West. This was the conclusion of TTC staff in the past and was communicated to the public at open houses. To view one of the past open house presentations, click on this link: Etobicoke-Finch West LRT - Preliminary Planning for a Transit Project Assessment. (Slides 15 - 19 of this PDF discuss the alternative transit options. For even more dense reading click this link to visit the TTC's past studies on the Finch West LRT project and other Transit City projects.)
The Finch West bus report does offer some important congestion busting ideas including adding queue by-pass lanes for buses, instituting off-board fare payment options to speed up passenger boarding, and expanding the use of transit priority signals along the route. While these innovations warrant further investigation, they would fail to provide the high level of service the approved LRT would bring.
Stay tuned to www.TTCriders.ca for a report back from this meeting or better yet join the meeting taking place Wednesday the 11th starting at 1:00pm at 100 Queen Street West in Committee Room #2.
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