While the city of Toronto wastes more of everyone's time deciding the fate of the Scarborough ____________ (insert, RT, subway, or LRT here, depending on the decision), the TTC has been making some strides in other areas - ones that we will see a lot sooner, and that I am personally excited about.
First off, in light of last night's robbery at Chester station, the commission's plans for all-automated fare collection has been brought to the forefront again. It's a no-brainer move for this to move forward, Metropasses, weekly passes, and tokens, are all sold at automated machines - not to mention the ongoing introduction of Presto to the system. Sometimes there's a line-up at the collector, and I wonder why?
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| The current Metropass kiosks. They look great, they work great - they just need extended abilities. |
Who's still using the booth to buy stuff?!!? It's like going to the bank - who still goes to a teller to take out money?
Those that are concerned with having someone to ask questions to, etc., I'm not suggesting we take the employees completely away from the stations, but have them there as an information desk, rather than a toll collector. Think of it like the self-serve cashes at big box stores - there's still an employee to answer any questions, etc, but they have no cash, and no access to the cash, so no reason to rob them.
Michelle and I visited NYC in 2012 - and had no problem hopping on the subway within minutes of being in the city, using only a map, and one of the self-serve ticket machines - I know, I know, Toronto isn't New York - but even more reason why our 'simple' system coule be more automated, and easy to use.
Now, don't take this as me preaching for self-serve TTC kiosks, it's happening - I'm just preparing you for it.
The other piece of news is part of the TTC's customer charter that manager Andy Byford pushed forward earlier this year, and something that I hold close to me (my dad being a graphic artist and sign guy and all), and that's that the commission is looking to simplify its way finding signs and line names.
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| courtesy of BlogTO.com |
Long story short - the TTC is looking to take the confusion out of the rail lines by giving numbers to each line (like many other major transit cities). The Yonge-University-Spadina line would be become '1', Bloor-Danforth '2', and so on. Changing direction-giving from the mouthful it is now, to simply "Take the #1 train North to Sheppard, and then hop on the #4 train across to Don Mills, to get to Fairview Mall".
I know some people might be against it - but those are the people that take the TTC, and KNOW the TTC. I've tried giving directions to people from out of town, and it does get confusing. Numbers and colours make a lot more sense than explaining by the subway on Yonge (where most tourists are visiting) are called the Yonge-University-Spadina line trains. "What is University? Where is Spadina? Am I on the right train?".
It's another step in the right direction, that's for sure.
The only change I would make - although I know it won't happen, would be to separate the #1 line into two numbers. Trains should be #1 going North from Union along yonge to Finch, and trains should be a different number(#2 we'll say for this argument), when they go North up University/Spadina/Allen. If the TTC wants to make their lines simpler, this would go a long way. I've found that the most difficult thing about giving people directions when they're out of town, is making sure they get on the right line at Union station. With both tracks going North, it can be a bit of an issue.
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| Me: "Go North from Union to Dundas" Friend 10 Minutes Later: "I'm at St. George, I didn't hear Dundas" Me: "Oh, you got on the wrong North line" |
With my suggestion, the alignment wouldn't need to change, just a simple separation on signs, for those trying to find their way.
What do you think, have you ever run into problems giving people directions on the TTC subway lines?
0 thoughts: