No more printed schedules for TTC

Removed because created 'false expectation' of being on time

Printed schedules removed.
A TTC rider stares at the new placard that has replaced her bus's schedule.  Cellie Agunbiade/Toronto Observer

TTC has embraced apps, real-time LED schedule signs, and text messaging instead of posting printed schedules at streetcar and bus stops.

“The decision was reached after TTC found them increasingly unreliable, as they create this sort of false expectation that people will get their bus at a certain time,” said TTC spokesperson Stuart Green.

TTC conducted polls in the spring to determine if printed schedules were necessary.

He said that TTC will also be saving $400,000 each year when they stop printing schedules.

“Last year we put 200 new LED next bus arriving signs, we are going to do another 200 this year.

“We are trying to encourage people to use third party apps like NextBus or RocketMan,” Green said.

However, Toronto resident, Nat Dawn, 28, believes the organization is overlooking people in the society who are not technologically advanced.

“It causes problems with people who are marginalized and don’t have phones, internet access or seniors who can’t access it because they don’t know how to,” Dawn said.

She said she loves the app she uses to access her bus’s schedule. But people who don’t have phones have to ask strangers.

She noticed the absence of the printed schedules when she stood at the King Street W. and Dufferin Street stop.

“We need good public transit that anybody who chooses whether to drive or not, can have the option to get to wherever they need to,” Green said

She believes the decision will create unreasonable and unjustifiable hardship for those people while travelling in the city.

Green said options are available for getting schedule information that is more accurate, better and faster.

“Still, if you want a printed schedule you can phone in and we can have it printed and sent to you in the mail,” Green said.

Green said because buses move in traffic, the printed schedules are unreliable and thus not useful.

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Posted: Jan 19 2017 2:29 pm
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