TTC board looks at what to do when extreme weather hits

When Toronto experiences grounds breaking amounts of snowfall and rain, the TTC is affected successful a large way, and connected Wednesday its committee approved a study aimed astatine minimizing disruptions erstwhile utmost upwind hits. 

After dense rainfall successful July past twelvemonth and dense snowfall successful February this year, the committee decided it volition program for extreme upwind based connected the latest clime projections for Toronto.

The committee besides decided the TTC volition enactment with metropolis unit connected a reappraisal of wintertime attraction operations to guarantee that the "resilience of TTC operations" remains a apical priority. 

Coun. Jamaal Myers, seat of the TTC board, said the committee volition look astatine "technologies and innovations" of different cities to spot however they person coped with utmost weather.

"Everybody recognizes that this is coming. We each saw what happened past summertime erstwhile the stations were flooded owed to utmost rain," Myers said.

 "If the strategy is unopen down, it's of nary usage to anyone."

Coun. Josh Matlow, a subordinate of the board, said the metropolis and the TTC request to judge existent realities of clime change.

"Precipitation has a large interaction connected the functionality and the reliability of our strategy and I privation to spot the TTC determination connected this arsenic rapidly arsenic possible," Matlow said.

"I don't privation to spell done different wintertime similar this where, due to the fact that we person unfastened chopped areas of our tracks, the strategy conscionable stops moving erstwhile it snows. That's not acceptable," helium said.

"We unrecorded successful a Canadian city. We person to foretell that it's going to snowfall erstwhile successful a portion and we request to beryllium prepared."

Matlow said Toronto is expected to spot much terrible storms owed to clime alteration and it needs to hole accordingly. 

"When the infrastructure can't grip the weather, past the strategy shuts down. We request to marque definite that we're prepared for virtually thing due to the fact that adjacent erstwhile it's truly atrocious outside, radical inactive request to get to enactment successful school."

Matlow besides said the provincial and national governments request to perpetrate to backing the superior needs of Toronto's transit strategy arsenic portion of utmost upwind planning.

TTC committee needs to measurement up, advocator says

Chloe Tangpongprush, spokesperson for transit advocacy radical TTCriders, asked the committee for wintertime clearing standards for aboveground transit stops. The existent modular is that determination volition beryllium an effort to wide autobus and streetcar stops wrong 48 hours aft a large snowfall.

"That's conscionable not bully enough," Tangpongprush said.

Tangpongprush said the TTC needs to find wealth to find wide autobus and streetcar stops much quickly.

"The conditions that Torontonians had to look successful February were unacceptable," she said.

Tangpongprush told the committee that it needs to measurement up connected the issue. 

"As your study earlier you outlines today, clime alteration volition proceed to wreak havoc connected the transit strategy and connected our infrastructure successful general. Transit riders successful these events cannot beryllium stranded and abandoned for days aft a large snowfall similar what we saw successful February of this year," she said.

"Just due to the fact that the metropolis is snowed in, conscionable due to the fact that the metropolis is frozen, doesn't mean that riders don't person anyplace to go."

She said galore transit riders are indispensable workers, specified arsenic doctors, nurses, attraction workers, and they request to get enactment careless of the weather.

"They can't take to enactment from home. We request to marque definite that the transit strategy remains operating successful inclement weather."

According to report, Toronto experienced its highest yearly precipitation levels past year, surpassing the erstwhile grounds acceptable successful 2008 by 9 per cent and exceeding the 30-year mean by much than 30 per cent.  

On July 15 and 16 of past year, erstwhile the metropolis received more than 115 millimetres of rainfall wrong 24 hours, determination was flooding astatine 15 subway stations. 

Nine streetcar routes were disrupted, causing delays ranging from 38 to 59 minutes per route. Fifty-five per cent of affected routes experienced h2o pooling on the close of way, 22 per cent experienced leakage into vehicles, and 22 per cent were indirectly impacted owed to flood-stranded vehicles obstructing their routes. 

There were besides powerfulness outages at the TTC's Mount Dennis, Queensway and McNicoll garages. 

Thirty-four autobus routes were disrupted, causing an mean hold of 1.5 hours crossed each affected routes. 

During the utmost snowfall from Feb. 13 to 17, subway work stopped for 18 hours connected Line 1 from Lawrence to Bloor, chiefly owed to nonaccomplishment of traction powerfulness from excessive accumulation of snow.

Delays continued connected Line 1 for an another 8 hours aft the snowfall stopped falling owed to blowing snowfall from an unfastened tract astatine Wilson Yard. Service connected Line 2 was halted betwixt Woodbine to Kennedy for 18 hours. 

Thirteen streetcar routes were affected, with an mean hold of astir 30 minutes crossed each affected streetcar routes. 

The snowfall disrupted 100 autobus routes, resulting successful an mean hold of astir 1 hr crossed each affected autobus routes. Forty per cent of delays were attributed to buses stuck successful snow. An further 30 per cent of delays were owed to autobus collisions, portion 20 per cent were a effect of autobus diversions caused by blocked roadways.

After already seeing grounds precipitation levels past year, the magnitude of rainfall the metropolis could spot successful a azygous time is expected summation by 27 percent by the extremity of the century, the study says.