Silician Sketchbook

I was late in getting home last night, like pretty much everyone else. I was one of those thousands of people that crowded Yonge and Bloor, although I wasn’t so silly as to step into the middle of the street and block traffic and shuttle buses.

Times like these, it’s good to not have tunnel vision (the irony). I was entertaining the idea of slipping back into the station, doubling back to the Spadina line via the Bloor-Danforth trains, and going north to Lawrence West station. I could then head east to Lawrence station where the subway was still operating northbound. A lot of people did wind up doing something similar, and it’s a shame that more didn’t.

I, on the other hand, took the Bloor line east instead, because east was where I needed to be anyway. I haven’t been on the Bloor line in a while, and the sad truth is I’ve been spoiled by the Yonge-University line’s speed and longer inter-station distances. I’m not sure how anyone could be spoiled by Yonge-University, but there you go.

Opinions vary, but a TTC subway extension northbound was needed yesterday, or 5+ years ago (and don’t get people started about the extension to York University).  If we’re lucky, we’ll see an extension to the Yonge line north to Highway 7 in eight years (see second last page), of which only five are actual construction.

And if you look at page 7, you’ll notice that this extension is only 6.5 kilometers. So 6.5 km in 8 years. If you believe in Wikipedia, this is something amounting to an improvement over the last extension — the Sheppard line — which was 5.5 km in 8 years.

I don’t know about you, but this seems downright atrocious. To put things in a bit of perspective, construction on the Chunnel was completed in 6 years. So in the time it takes to extend the Yonge line 6.5 km, plus one more year, others have built roughly 50 km of track underwater. Should we, perhaps, be embarrassed?

Okay, so maybe that was a bit of an apple to oranges comparison (and only because the Chunnel is way cooler than a middling subway extension). Comparing subways to subways, in the time it would take to construct our subway extension, the Chinese built an entire line. Line 5 of the Beijing Subway, to be exact, spanning 23 stations and 27.6 km.

In 5 years, the Chinese have also built the first phase of Line 10, and this phase alone is 22 stations and 24.68 km in length.

I mean, come on.

But if there’s a silver lining to all this, is that in their latest expansion, the STM took 5 years to extend their Orange Line 4 km and build 3 new stations. So I guess we can laugh at them for being slow?

And add to that the worst New Year’s eve to boot, and I might as well begin with it. I left for home later than I should have. Make that a lot later, 1.5 hours later. There was blowing snow although not too much accumulation downtown, and there wasn’t even too much of the stuff (from what I could see) at Finch station. But it was coming down hard, and one of the worst routes out of Finch station was made increasingly terrible as a result.

There was such a backlog that I eventually got onto the second bus that came along, and the driver initially refused to pull away unless some people got off and stopped blocking his mirror. Over an hour in, things at the back got a bit tense as words were exchanged between a standing woman who wanted to open the window to get a bit of air, and a man sitting down that didn’t snow being blown onto him. I think the consensus is, if you’re standing for over an hour on a bus while sandwiched in on all sides, you’re going to want some air too. And there were a lot of sandwiched people yesterday.

Over twenty minutes was spent sitting on a hill, not because the bus couldn’t make it up the hill, but because pretty much everyone else couldn’t make it and clogged the road. Eventually an opening appeared and the bus weaved in and out of the lanes dodging stuck vehicles. It wasn’t even a particularly steep hill, but given stop-and-go traffic conditions, it’s a lot easier to get stuck on a slushy and somewhat icy hill.

But speaking of sandwiched people, there was a lot of that today, too. What boggles the mind is if anything, the roads were worse this morning than they were yesterday morning. Sure, the snowplows came, when the storm still had 5 cm left in it. I waited a solid half hour more than usual for a bus, and buses did arrive, except they were so packed that a few people were able to squeeze in at best each time. My number eventually came up on the third.

It was an absolute slog until everyone got kicked off at Bayview. The bus was ordered to turn around and we all piled into the bus behind it. And then it was a slog to Yonge, but the road was actually clear in both directions so there was no hold up to get Finch station afterwards.

I think that all this being sandwiched on a bus for an hour plus two trips in a row got to me, and I was so out of it that I woke up just as the subway doors were closing, at Museum. And so I had to wait at St. George and head back south two stops. At least I got to see how the renovation (or “rejuvenation”) of Museum station was going. While it doesn’t blow me away, its purple paneling is a bit warmer than the unadorned concrete walls of stations along the Sheppard line, and it’s a lot less dated than the bathroom tiles at other Yonge/University/Spadina line stations.

I think it goes without saying that I missed my first class. The university should have closed today, like they did when the city got nailed last week.

Last night on the way home, the bus driver parked the bus and ran into the Country Style on Yonge for a coffee. First time that’s happened, so it was amusing. After the fifth time, I wouldn’t be so sure.

The driver of 7117 on route 53 is either a hero, or an asshat. It depends on whether you’re on the bus or trying to get on, and I was lucky to get in early. Past some unspecified point, the bus became a quasi-limited stop route like 53E, not picking up any more passengers despite the bus not being too packed. But unlike a 53E, people could leave at off at local stops along the way, provided they got to the doors fast enough.

Instead of staring in shock and confusion as the bus drove by, one guy made an attempt to knock on the door and run after the bus during a congested stretch of road. It wasn’t nearly as packed as when I got on, but the driver didn’t open the door. The guy ran to the next stop over, actually, to no avail.

Those who got the short end of the stick should file a complaint. Bus number 7117 on route 53, got to Bayview Avenue at 8:30 am today.

As for me, I’ll stick to 53E during rush hour and spare myself the drama.

A buddy and I stood outside Roy Thomson Hall for two hours on Saturday. We stood where the map is centered, a bit north of Wellington near the left octagonal structure. The line had run out the entrance, out Simcoe, along King, down the east side of the concert hall, and down the stairs to where we were. It would eventually snake back north towards King, and go around the oval back down towards Wellington, behind that left octagonal thing.

And despite the line, I think pretty much everyone got in. At least those who were in line when the doors opened. There were still people arriving at 3 pm thinking that no one would be there because, you know, it’s only Oscar Peterson and it’s only a free concert.

They gave out tickets. Tickets! It seemed like overkill, even if it was just to make sure people didn’t steal seats. I’m keeping that and the program guide as collector’s items.

I sat in the balcony, house-left. Decent view, with the left side being blocked only when people rose to give standing ovations. A black and white close up of Oscar Peterson hung at the center on a large projection screen. A large portrait photo with his daughter Celine at 5 years old during a London concert sat on the left beside his Dusseldorf grand piano. Another grand piano, a drum kit, amps for bass and electric guitar was on the right. A microphone was at the centre for soloists and tall microphone stands were at the back for the choir at the end.

The choir was sitting in the choir lofts (where we sat for Firebird) for about a third or so of the concert, then disappeared to warm up.

As for the concert, you can decide for yourself, since CBC Radio 2 is hosting the concert audio, but do it within a year since that’s the hosting length. I’m not that into jazz, but pro performers are pro performers.

In terms of mood, the concert was generally sombre. The playing of OP’s 1985 Berlin performance was the most energetic point, and no one ever matched that going forward, opting for more reflective pieces.

On that note, Herbie Hancock’s piano performance was decidedly non-jazz. It was…Impressionism almost, but he ventured into the realm of atonality or just really complicated polyharmony that I didn’t grasp. The amount of audience coughs was noticeably higher and I don’t think it was that enthusiastically received.

He burned us electrical engineers, though. Burned us good. It was his major until he decided to become follow OP’s footsteps. If it wasn’t for a record he’d heard that had OP as pianist, he would have wound up as “just another electrical/electronics engineer.”

:/

You’re not supposed to record the concert or take photographs, but that didn’t stop anybody. Some guy had a compact video recorder out during the performances, the guy beside me had a small digital camera.

The flashes really came out when Herbie stepped on stage. I understand why, but it’s still disrespectful. The man took a red-eye flight (and then had to leave right after his performance) not to wave to his fans and have them photograph him.

The concert was supposed to be about 2 hours long and wound up closer to 2.5. On the subway trip home some obviously drunk guy got on at Bloor and sat beside us, where he proceeded to talk to himself and to us even though we didn’t reply. Maybe he imagined us talking back? He almost exclusively muttered and was generally incomprehensible. Drunk at 7 in the evening, ’nuff said. My friend noted it was a small miracle that he knew to get off at Davisville.

I burned through my margin and arrived slightly late for class Wednesday because someone decided to jump in front of a subway train at Union station. It’s kind of surreal how the TTC is diplomatic about it, calling it an “emergency situation caused by a personal injury at track level.” It’s understandable to not talk about suicide attempts for fear of encouraging them, but everyone knows what it means to suffer an emergency track level injury.

I was actually on the subway sitting not too far from an unoccupied driver’s booth, when the radio erupted, although I couldn’t make anything out. At the next station, York Mills or Lawrence, the driver made mention of a delay due to a “power outage” at Union station.  After a bit of digging, I read that when a person contacts a train, the power is cut so that trains cannot enter the scene until after, um, things are cleaned up, I guess.

Does cutting power imply disabling a block spanning St. Andrew station to Wellesley station? Because when the truth came out, we all got kicked off at Bloor, with the requisite train traffic jam three stations beforehand. They ran shuttle buses between stations, but I opted to take the Bloor-Danforth line to St. George station, where I waited about 15 minutes for a southbound train that would get me to Queen’s Park before turning around at Osgoode station.

Being affected by or being around medical emergencies when commuting is still a dubious novelty. I think I’m quickly becoming hardened against such things, though. Someone tried to die, probably did while succeeding in drawing everyone’s attention posthumously.  I’m just looking at my watch wondering whether the professor will have erased the first blackboard by the time I get to class.

There are some things that maybe should be said, but aren’t for fear of being attacked by an emo high school kid.

This afternoon’s bus ride was held up for about 5 tense minutes as this guy argued with the driver, using such creative arguments like flawed logic, false generalizations, and profanity, over why he should be allowed on the bus with a student ticket. The driver parked the bus and radioed TTC security, and waited. The guy simmered throughout the stand-off, finally leaving the bus after failing to argue briefly, swearing as he did so.

That was about the only right move he made, as he would have likely been fined for much more than the cost of an adult fare, once a TTC officer showed up.

I can empathize with his situation, but I draw the line at committing a serious offense like harassing TTC personnel. I once attended summer classes downtown (I hesitate to call anything in the city a camp). I got dropped off at Warden station, and had my block of student fare tickets in hand, and for the first week and half or so, I walked through the turnstiles under the auspices of a smiling old man after I had dropped my ticket into the fare box.

Things changed once the smiling old man was replaced with a stern younger man with glasses, square jaw, and trimmed beard, not unlike this guy. That was entirely coincidental. It’s just what I remembered, and that was a bit of a traumatic experience so I deem my memory more credible than it usually is.

Description aside, he was the one responsible for locking the turnstile, and he ordered me to pay the adult fare because I didn’t have student photo ID. Now here’s where my situation diverges with the guy on the bus. First, I didn’t lose my head. If anything, I was confused, not looking for a confrontation. Second, I had change in my pocket. The guy claimed that he was a student and therefore had no money. I was 11 or 12 at the time, and I had change at least.

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I could make up the difference between a student ticket and an adult (cash!) fare, but he was now down a student ticket, which was $1.40 before the fare increase, and with no means to make up the difference. I would also be freaking out, no doubt, but is there any point in getting belligerent?

First off, he was obviously in the wrong. What do the rules say? TTC Student Discount Card, or get the heck out. The driver kept pointing to that very sign posted on the bus and said, “I need photo ID.” The guy kept gesturing angrily at his high school student card and claimed that this was somehow valid ID. Learn to read. Never mind that the high school in question isn’t even a Toronto high school, but a York Region high school, neither kind of student card is issued by the TTC. Toronto high school students should, in theory, get a TTC issued discount card themselves. As an aside, the same driver later allowed a Toronto student to board when he showed his student card, so there is some hypocrisy involved.

That he had previously paid a student fare with his non-Toronto high school student card “like a hundred times” (yeah right) and thus it is perfectly legal is fallacy number one. I’m sure people have exceeded the speed limit on hundreds, thousands of occasions throughout their lives, and have never been caught. That doesn’t make it legal, either. The guy was probably capitalizing on the fact that drivers were either nicer than the one he encountered today, were too busy to check his card, or were just ignorant of the rules themselves.

“All you bus drivers are the same.” I don’t understand this. If all previous bus drivers encountered let him get away with breaking the rules, and this one didn’t, they are clearly not all the same because we have found a counter-example. Stop spewing trash already. I wasn’t the only passenger staring at him with a “Need a tissue?” expression.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but it turns out that York Region students can, in fact, get a student discount card. This is progress because way back, I didn’t even go to a high school, let alone a Toronto high school, so I wound up buying tokens. In retrospect, I should have just bought child tickets, even if I did look a little tall for an elementary school kid. Maybe my birth certificate could substitute for photo ID that no elementary school would issue? Who knows. The past is in the past.

What would I do in that situation? If I knew about as much as that guy did, I’d probably try the same argument with the student card, minus the yelling and profanity. Knowing what I know now, I’d have added that York Region students can also pay student fare, and have the driver radio an inquiry if he insisted on TTC issued ID. If the answer was “Nice try”, that’s game and I’d have to leave, minus $1.40. But the ticket was already in the collector box so there was nothing more to lose, except my pride.

Of course, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t even be in that situation. I’d have gone down to Sherbourne station or to the temporary facility in Richmond Hill and gotten my discount card. The $5 fee is recovered in several two-way trips.

(Title from one of the TF2 Soldier’s trash talk lines)

What time was it? 1:30 PM or thereabouts. It was drizzling somewhat and there just happened to be a streetcar going in the right direction (a rarity) so I took it to College and Yonge. Outside of College Park, on the southwest corner of the intersection was an ambulance, and on the way into the subway station, I heard someone say, “Move to the right. Move to the right, please.”

A man on a stretcher was being pushed by some paramedics, surrounded by some police officers, a firefighter (maybe), and a man in a maroon TTC uniform. The man on the stretcher may have had an oxygen mask on him, I’m not sure. I didn’t feel compelled to stare.

“Is he alive?” a man asked to no one in particular.

“I don’t know,” quipped someone in the group.

I would think that, at least at that moment, he was alive, although it might just be that he can’t be placed into a body bag until pronounced dead by a coroner. I don’t know the answer to that, but I do think I would be weirded out by the notion of passing by a dead man on my way home.

A few weeks before that, I was on my way home, having gotten on the subway in rush hour at Queen’s Park and gone round the loop. Approaching College station, I overheard something on the driver’s radio about a possible heart attack victim. At the station, a small crowd had gathered, presumably around the victim. One of the passengers boarding said, “Poor guy.”

The only other subway incident that I was in the vicinity of occurred at Queen’s Park station in the early afternoon. As I was going taking the north entrance into the station, a woman was telling everyone that the station was closed, that “someone jumped in front of the subway.”

Police surrounded and denied access to the station’s turnstiles, and when I surfaced on the south side of College street, there were two ambulances, some firetrucks and police cars outside the westbound streetcar stop. At the eastbound streetcar stop the same woman was telling others that the station was closed, adding, “Usually they do this during rush hour.” I boarded the streetcar and headed to College station.

On the subway, a public announcement informed all users of the Yonge-University-Spadina line that, due to a “track level personal injury” at Queen’s Park station. the entire University branch between Spadina and Union was shut down. Note that track level is not the same as platform level.

What I thought to be a relative certainty, isn’t. Union station was out of, or not selling, tokens on the way to class and on the way home. Paradoxically, Queen’s Park station was selling tokens so I purchased my allotted five tokens and went to class. Of course, they were completely sold out around 5:30 pm, but so was Union station!

On the other hand, Finch station, which hasn’t been selling tokens at 6:30 pm for a while now, suddenly begins selling them with a ten token cap.

This could be indicative of supply-side problems, or that the TTC is changing high volume sites in an attempt to be fair to passengers while disrupting hoarders. And then there’s the possibility that it’s all dependent on when the staff decide to empty the turnstiles of their tokens.