Rocket Talk: Why Doesn't the TTC Operate Express Subway Service?

TTC Director of Communications Brad Ross says:

The TTC is a large energy user, as you might imagine. The subway trains’ power/traction rail, or third rail as it’s commonly known, draws its energy from a number of different sources that the TTC is able to move around. As such, subway train power was not adversely affected by last January’s blackout in the west end of the Bloor-Danforth line.

So, yes, the trains could continue to run between the affected stations. However, those stations and tunnels were, themselves, affected by the blackout. There was no lighting on platforms and there was no lighting in the tunnels. We have emergency backup power and lighting that use batteries, which are good for three to four hours. After that, we can bring in generators in to keep emergency lighting operating. The show-stopper, however, was the ventilation system. The TTC can not maintain ventilating fans with generators. And those fans were inoperable during the blackout.

The question you pose was, in fact, asked many times by local media on January 16: why not run express trains, and simply not stop at stations without adequate lighting? The answer, therefore, came down to ventilation. With the ventilation system out of service, operating trains, as proposed, would have been too dangerous. If there was a fire in either a station or tunnel and we had to evacuate a train, the risk of smoke inhalation causing serious injury, or worse, would have been too great.

Small debris fires are not uncommon in the subway. Newspaper, for example, blows down to track level, comes in contact with the power rail, and ignites. Now, these small fires usually extinguish themselves fairly quickly and the ventilation system helps clear the smoke, but with limited lighting to assist a potential evacuation in a tunnel, and with no ventilation to help clear smoke, running express trains and simply hoping nothing happens isn’t a risk the TTC would ever be willing to take.

One last point regarding “express trains.” Occasionally, the TTC will bypass a station when it has a problem at that station. The train will operate slowly through the station and go onto the next. Typically this occurs during a police investigation that doesn’t require access to track level. When we have an incident or problem at a station requiring access to the track, we cut power to the third rail to prevent someone, sometimes a non-TTC worker, from becoming injured or killed.

A power cut to the third rail affects trains travelling in both directions. The TTC, therefore, turns trains back at stations where it has cross-over tracks, allowing a train to use the station like it would at the end of a line, approaching from the opposite side, for example, then heading back from whence it came.

Finally, a few words on shuttle buses. I think we can all agree that shuttle buses will never replace the subway for service reliability and capacity. If they could, we wouldn’t need subways. When shuttle buses are brought in to supplant subway service during a prolonged delay, those buses are cherry-picked off nearby bus routes. If you rely on a local bus route and there’s a delay on the subway nearby, your route will likely have fewer buses on it until the subway delay clears. The TTC does not have buses or drivers on standby for this purpose.

The TTC deploys shuttle buses at both turn-back locations to begin running between stations. The problem, of course, is the buses are incredibly over-crowded as they proceed along the route, making it difficult, if not impossible, to either disembark or board midway. Where possible, empty buses are dispatched to mid-points on a route to help alleviate over-crowding and waiting times. It’s not perfect—it never will be—but the TTC is one of the few transit systems in the world that uses shuttle buses during major subway delays to get as many people as possible to the next operating station.

January 16 was unique, given the length of time the subway was out of service. Most significant delays clear within sixty to ninety minutes. Riders ought to consider alternate routes, where possible, as virtually every surface route connects with a subway station. We’re developing improved communications to help customers during delays, including better use of the video platform screens; clearer, more useful, live announcements on the system; better information to station collectors and the presence of more staff at key stations; and improving e-alerts to include “why,” “where,” “when,” and all-clear notifications.