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| - Anyone who says they love the TTC should have a little conversation with ANY commuter and you will soon realize that it's not all hunky-dory, and the cleanliness is limited to the downtown core.
SIGH. I've been commuting almost every day on the TTC since I was 10 years old. Every day. No matter where I go. I take the TTC. And I can tell you, it is one of the least effective transit systems in the world.
My list of grievances:
- What kind of subway system doesn't take people directly to the airport? Oh, right, the TTC. We just allow tourists to get lost on bus platforms while carrying all their luggage.
- Streetcars are a useless novelty, painfully at the mercy of everything around them and everyone who rides them. They say to use the back doors for a reason - that way, people can board the streetcar as you get off. If you don't, the driver will miss two or more green lights, and the entire schedule will be thrown off because of you. And FYI, streetcars are rarely faster than walking -- all it takes is one truck parked on the side of the street to block the streetcar's path and then everyone is trapped inside for half an hour because the driver can't open the doors, either.
- The TTC is only convenient if you live near a subway station or downtown. Sorry to the millions of people who live in the northeast and northwest of Toronto -- looks like you'll have to sit on a series of buses that rarely run just to get to the subway.
- Nothing runs according to schedule. Your bus is supposed to come every 10 minutes? 5 will come at once, leaving the next 45 minutes without bus service. And no one will ever notify you of this. In San Francisco, at every bus shelter, there is a display telling you when the next bus will be arriving. How hard is that to implement??
- The only way you will think the TTC is clean is if you take the Yonge-University-Spadina line. That is the line that is most used by tourists and wealthy up-towners, so they have to give a good impression. Take the Bloor-Danforth line during rush-hour and have a look at the ugly, smelly, orange-seat reject trains that we get to take every day. And try taking the bus in Scarborough to see some real bus artifacts.
And the worst part of it all is that they get next to no government funding compared to every other transit system, so I can't even blame them. Poor TTC.
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