Ferdie's Rants and Other Crap

Board Stuff.. and Illegal Stuff

2009-02-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, recently on the CPTDB, there has been a user by the name of "Promagstyle" who should have be banned in the first place. Why? Well, it all started with him posting a photo of a Viva AG300 artic while on Veolia property. Does that sound wrong to you? Because thats how he got the picture (too lazy to find it). If you need more info about how he was wrong and other stuff pertaining to him and the picture, search up PTB Whiners.

My take on it: he should have been banned the first time. His attitude and comments he put on his photo... "You will be fined $500 for illegal use of this picture" Dude, are you for real? Since when were you a law maker? You don't have a politcal seat anywhere, so why make it all up? Sounds like a reversed version of 13-Going-On-30, 25-Going-On-5. So one, he trespassed against private property by going onto the driveway which leads to the garage (the driveway is owned by GO Transit, since they have their own garage there) and by going onto Veolia (the agency that runs Viva) property to take the picture.

Next, my friend, Ion (will not reveal true I.D.) accused him of taking that picture illegally. And guess what he did. He rebutted by saying that he was commiting HATE CRIMES?! Ok buddy, you just shot yourself in the head. He was simply pointing out that it was taken illegally and that it should not have been on Wiki (we have our little Wikipedia like site to keep information on public transit and transit systems). So, he THREATENED?! to sue him over these false hate crimes?!?!?! He wanted to sue him for 5 grand over it. He also "claims" to have two witnesses that have sided with him. Two of whom are naive, from what my friends tell me.

And would you like to guess what he did next? Rant? Nope. Try to keep up his defence? Nope. He reported this so-called "hate crime" to the ISPs and the TPS (HAHAHAHAHA!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! THIS COMEDIAN MAKES ME LAUGH!!!). Well, what he didn't know was that Ion had connections to the TPS to expell that report.

And then there are all these other things that he had done on the board that one member wouldn't like, etc, etc.

Well, that was enough to get the mods to ban him, or was he... Shortly after he was banned, he was REINSTATED?!?! AS WIKI EDITOR?!?! TOO?!?! Oh geez, what the hell happened to the strictness in moderating the board? They've gone paper towel soft after this. From what I'm told, they treated this as a 'minor' incident... WHAT THE HELL IS SO MINOR ABOUT IT?! His crime! His threats! Everything that he brought into this! Is it THAT minor?! That is NUTS. The board has turned into nothing but child's play if you ask me. But I still go on it so I know what's going on around GTA transit. I'd like to be informed, I don't want to get disconnected from the 'information superhighway of GTA transit'.

Well, thats all I got to ramble about... Who knows when my next post will be...

Service on the 94 Wellesley (Civics)

2009-01-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

Ok.... I was a Wellesley Station recently and they had a taped piece of paper on a window which showed the service changes for that route back from November 23rd. What pisses me off is seeing stuff like this, which I saw on the paper:

"Add more buses!"
"Service is disguisting!"

Sure it might be their opinion on things but, they don't take into consideration as to why the service sucks, especially during PM rush hour.

Just a little background info on it:

The 94 runs from Castle Frank Station west on Bloor, south on Parliament, west on Wellesley, runs into Wellesley Station, continues west on Wellesley, goes around Queens Park Circle, west on Hoskins (passing U of T, St. George Campus), west on Harbord, north on Ossington and into Ossington Station
The 94C runs only from Castle Frank Station to Wellesley Stationa and then heads back to Castle Frank Station
6 buses are used during PM rush on the 94 and 94C interlined

Let me break it down as to how the 94 runs during PM rush hour. Say a bus starts at Castle Frank on the 94C. It follows it route, into Wellesley Station and then comes back to Castle Frank. Once it returns, it goes on the 94 to Ossington and the cycle continues until around 6 PM.

Service in between Castle Frank and Wellesley is "scheduled"to be 8 minutes with the 94 and 94C combined. Service in between Wellesley and Ossington is 16 minutes. Now, as to reason why they're so unreliable is:

Most of the route is on a 2-lane street other than Parliament, Queens Park Circle and Ossington
The lights at Church and Jarvis are ridiculous, they give more time to vehicles along Jarvis and Church
They also have to deal with ALL the traffic along Hoskins, Harbord, Queens Park Circle and Wellesley, I guess they can't deal with streetcars so they have to put it on us.

Sometimes when I see it, I'd love to put a response like "blame all the idiots who decide to use Wellesley, it's their fault you think this service sucks" or "lets see you trying to improve this service, try taking off all the cars who congest Wellesley! Its their fault!" What I'm trying to get out is that dure you may think the service sucks but it's the best these 6 drivers can do. It's not their fault they're late most of the time and that the buses are always crowded.

If those people think our service sucks, people in York Region have it worse than us. From what I see from their frequency chart (yes, it's so bad they print frequency charts), normal frequency in Zone One (south of Aurora) during midday is every 30 minutes, and rush hour is every 15 minutes. In Newmarket, standard midday service is every hour (jeez, and they think we have it bad) and rush hour is every 30 minutes. Viva, which is YRT's bus rapid transit (like our subways) has a frequency on all routes of at least 15 minutes. Viva Blue, which runs from Finch GO Bus Station along Yonge Street up to Newmarket is normally every 15 minutes. From Finch to Bernard Terminal is every 5 minutes during rush hour and every 12 minutes from Bernard to Newmarket.

We're just lucky we have better service here than York Region. If they want to see bad frequencies (really good service =D), they should try exploring York Region.

TTC Student I.D. Card (Civics)

2009-01-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Here's something that has really boggled my mind ever since I've had it. Does it really save you money AND time, as heard whenever you're waiting for the subway. Honestly, I find it a complete waste of money. It's also a way to skip class whenever you're getting your picture taken!

The "concept" of the student/senior I.D. is so that you can prove your age when you're paying a senior/student ticket (65+/S). Whenever I pay my student ticket, all (if not, 99.9% of them) the drivers don't bother asking you for your I.D. It's just a pay-and-go like with any other fare you use. Whenever I had my 07/08 I.D. card, I was only asked for my card... ONCE. And guess when and where I was asked. Unbelievably, this was during Summer School in July. And I was asked at Dufferin Station.

Is it really that useful? I might as well buy my tickets and not spend... $32-34 on my student I.D. for my whole high school career. Honestly, if you ask me, I'd rather spend that money on York Region Transit adult tickets just so that I can go there for fun. Not only do I just ride around the TTC, I also ride around on YRT. Ocasionally, I'll ride around with my friends from Keele/Finch, Unionville and Stouffville.

Back on topic, some of the drivers can be really BITTER about students not having their cards out. I can't blame the students. Most of these drivers don't even bother with the I.D. cards. There was this one argument with Newman student(s) and a driver about the cards.

This one student clearly had her uniform on. She had $1.85 but, the driver wouldn't accept it. She told him that she is a student because he could see the uniform. Yet, the driver still wanted the card. So they eventually don't get on. Later, when we pick of a senior, she pays with the same ticker we use and she doesn't get to show I.D. Uh..... WHAT?! Can I smell... DISCRIMINATION?! Against students?! Well, I actually bothered to report the driver. The lady at customer service sounded like she couldn't give two shits about my complaint. I tried telling her that we had to show our I.D. but the senior didn't have to. So the person at customer service eventually understood (it sounded like, but she probably didn't).

Honestly, if we're rarely going to use it or going to be asked for it, why have it? Just a card that just holds up a space if your wallet if you ask me. Hehe....

Mount Dennis is OPEN!!!

2008-11-27T17:44:00.000-08:00

Yay! The Mount Dennis Garage is open!!!!! I love it. I FINALLY get variety around my neighbourhood. So far, I've seen:

S50EGER VII (65 Parliament), it's too bad I haven't goodbye completely to them even though I want to because they ARE pieces of shit.
ISL VII (75 Sherbourne), SWEEEETT! I get these full-time now! YAY!
OG HEV VII (75 Sherbourne), this comes with the variety at Wilson
NG HEV VII (75 Sherbourne, 94 Wellesley), well, I get NGs around here full time now expecially on the 94.
Fishbowls!!!! (75 Sherborune, 94 Wellesley), ocasionally, if the dispatchers let it happen, I'll get fishies on these routes. Since both Wilson and Mount Dennis has some.

Thats the good part, the shitty part is that, around my school, it's riddled with Birchmount S50 VIIs. 12, 9 and 102 get VIIs now... But if I get lucky, I'll get myself a Classic on the 102 (since the 102 still isn't listed as an accessible route). I've already gotten 3 Classic rides on 6284, 6223 and 6272. I have a video of my ride on 6284 here. I still need to ride Sherbourne. I need a taste of the awesome variety on it. Other than that, there is more variety in general around the city. The OG HEVs are split Arrow, Wilson and Malvern, the 79xx ISLs are split Arrow and Wilson, etc. I have a bunch of pictures (including a Fishie on the 75 I caught this morning) in my camera but, I don't really post it on the internet, I just keep with on my computer.