Nobody waiting in new shelter
A transit shelter is a terrible thing to waste, especially when so many TTC riders are shivering in the cold and rain.
With winter just around the corner — at least that’s how it feels, even if the calendar says otherwise — a shelter with four glass walls is a thing of beauty for transit riders.
We often get notes from people pleading for a shelter, many of whom want to know why so many TTC stops have one while theirs doesn’t.
The reasons shelters are at some stops but not others are varied and complicated, but it has a lot to do with prioritizing locations, a decision made by officials at Toronto’s street furniture division.
Which makes it all that much harder to figure out why a nice new shelter was recently installed on the east side of Eastern Ave., just south of Queen St., where TTC buses rarely stop. A reader who asked not to be named sent us copies of emails between him and TTC official Brad Ross, in which Ross replies, “Agreed, no reason for a shelter there.”
We called Ross, who confirmed the authenticity of his reply.
The reader notes that “I have never seen anyone wait on this corner for a bus as the only bus you can get from this stop would be the 143 express bus going east at the end of the day.”
He described it as a “new and very likely redundant shelter,” adding, “it should be moved to a more useful location and not left here to serve as a distraction for commuters.”
We went there last week and kept an eye on it for 45 minutes, but didn’t see anyone in it, or even one bus stop there to pick up or let off riders.
But with lots of traffic on Queen, Eastern and Kingston Rd. to the north, it’s an ideal location for advertising, like the roof-to-sidewalk ads on two sides of the new shelter. Status: Ryan Lanyon, the manager of street furniture, sent us an email saying: “The stop on Eastern, at the southeast corner of Queen, is in service. It’s a unique location that regularly serves the 143 Beach Express route. After receiving the correspondence from your reader, we reviewed the shelter installation with the TTC. While the stop is being used, riders of the 143 are predominantly disem- barking here and not boarding; however, routes 501, 502 and 503 are being diverted around the intersection of Coxwell and Queen and the stop at Queen and Eastern will be used to pick up passengers. The diversions last through September. Once regular service is restored in the area, we will relocate the shelter to another stop.” Lanyon didn’t address our question about how the decision was made to install a shelter at a stop where riders “are predominately disembarking and not boarding,” so we sent him a second note, asking again. Once again, he did not answer it, so we can only assume there is no good answer. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Send an email to jlakey@thestar.ca.