01-10-2016, 11:23 AM
Toronto is a bit of an exception, when it comes to service frequency and headways. At rush, they aim for 2:26 headways between trains (and automating the YUS line, which is what they're doing now, will bring that down even further!) - which is about the lowest of any rapid metros in the world, certainly that I've ever ridden. Exceptions are SkyTrain (Vancouver) where I've actually been standing on the platform, watching the train I just got off leave and before it's even cleared the platform, the next train is coming in, and automated systems like VAL, where small trains run extremely frequently to get the capacity up to a reasonable level:
But all other heavy metros and subways I've ridden do something closer to 5 minutes in rush and 10+ minutes non-rush. Growing up with Toronto as our nearest subway we kind of hold others up to a higher standard. So when I got older and started going off and exploring the world I was shocked that so many systems have such dismal headways between trains in off-peak. DC drops to something like 20 minutes off-peak! It's a beautiful system but the service frequency can be brutal.
There's going to be a balance obviously between the number of trains we run here, which dictates how close they'll be together, and I'm sure the first few years there's going to be a lot of balancing done to try and optimize wait times with operational costs (more trains running = more expense, both from an operations standpoint and a maintenance one as well). It's no different than going to a theme park and getting annoyed at one-train operations on a light day. Yeah, I hate it, but it makes sense because why wear out the wheels on 2 trains when you can just make your guests wait twice as long and cut your ops cost in half?
But all other heavy metros and subways I've ridden do something closer to 5 minutes in rush and 10+ minutes non-rush. Growing up with Toronto as our nearest subway we kind of hold others up to a higher standard. So when I got older and started going off and exploring the world I was shocked that so many systems have such dismal headways between trains in off-peak. DC drops to something like 20 minutes off-peak! It's a beautiful system but the service frequency can be brutal.
There's going to be a balance obviously between the number of trains we run here, which dictates how close they'll be together, and I'm sure the first few years there's going to be a lot of balancing done to try and optimize wait times with operational costs (more trains running = more expense, both from an operations standpoint and a maintenance one as well). It's no different than going to a theme park and getting annoyed at one-train operations on a light day. Yeah, I hate it, but it makes sense because why wear out the wheels on 2 trains when you can just make your guests wait twice as long and cut your ops cost in half?