After experiencing a sudden jump in the number of required subway slow-speed zones for safety purposes last year, TTC officials are moving ahead with an increase in the number of detailed scans of the track network.
Throughout this week, a specialized crew from South Carolina is travelling on over 140 kilometres of the TTC subway tracks to conduct a deep scan of the infrastructure using a track geometry system.
Using a complex system of cameras, lasers and computers, engineers retrofit a subway car with all their equipment to run on tracks across all lines that make up the network. Depending on the data being collected, it can be a slow process with trains sometimes required to move at around 12 km/h. The whole process can take eight or nine days.
The crew is looking for changes to tracks from operating specifications, and those changes can be a matter of just millimetres — things not easily visible by the human eye. Lasers project lines over the rails and computers compare the images and data with templates on file.
Reporters were recently given a tour of the retrofitted train at the TTC’s Greenwood Yard, which is where most Line 2 Bloor-Danforth trains are kept.
“Gauge is probably the simplest. Gauge is just the distance between the rails, so how far the rails are apart,” Jason McCarthy, a senior engineering technician with Mermec Group, said when asked what the most common problem is that crews encounter.
The complete network scans, which cost around US$250,000, used to be done annually. TTC staff has now bumped that up to twice a year with one scan happening at the beginning of spring since winters with cold, wet weather can cause noticeable environmental-related impacts to exposed track infrastructure.
It was in early 2024 when a geometry scan identified nearly two dozen areas that required restricted-speed zones to be put in place, affecting a large portion of the subway network. Trains can slow to around 10 km/h, which can add several minutes to a commute depending on how many zones are in place.
As part of the operations of the subway network, issues can also be identified through visual track patrols carried out every 72 hours and through video surveillance.
Fort Monaco, the chief operations and infrastructure officer for the TTC, reiterated that many slow-speed zones are in place because tracks are off by “millimetres, half inches, three-quarters of an inch.” Officials noted that if there is an area where there is a serious risk (such as derailment or other major issues), that would prompt a closure.
“Just because there is a restricted-speed zone, it doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. It’s safe because of the restricted speeds,” Monaco said.
Some of those zones can be in place for as little as two days or can last for months. He said the average time for a slow-speed zone to be in place is around 22 days. Complicating repair times for tracks or sub-track infrastructure are the repair windows crews have (by the time the subway system shuts down and reopens, there’s only about an hour to 90 minutes of uninterrupted time across the network) and the availability of supplies and parts.
It’s hoped the extra scan each year will pay off in different ways.
“I think that would be the big benefit of doing it biannually so you’ve got those assurances that not only [you’ve] addressed it, but it stays addressed,” Monaco said.
“We don’t know what we don’t know, but certainly the idea would be, you want to give yourself as much time as you can to as quickly as possible address those so they don’t come back.”
He acknowledged the difficulties the zones create for TTC riders.
“My sympathies do go, and my apologies do go, to the customers because we totally appreciate the inconvenience that it does have. I will say, though, that this is meant for safety. We need to maintain the track to the appropriate industry best practices,” Monaco said.
In late November, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority made local headlines in Boston after officials announced they were able to eliminate all slow-speed zones on the subway system’s red line for the first time in at least 20 years.
Could the elimination of slow-speed zones be a reality for the TTC in Toronto?
“I think the aspirational thing is to think a little differently than what we’ve currently been thinking,” Monaco said.
He said Boston had to close the line for five to seven days to conduct track repair work, and added some closures lasted three weeks — something that would be very difficult to do in Toronto.
“I think the point is we need to increase our maintenance window and be a little bit more creative because the current formula right now, we think, really needs challenging and needs to be looked at,” Monaco said.
“We need the time to get the assets replaced. We need the time to get it fixed. We want more trains. We want more people. We want tighter headways. That comes at the cost of deterioration of assets.”
Meanwhile, the results of the latest geometric scan could be in the hands of TTC engineering and repairs crews by mid-June. The results could mean another round of restricted-speed zones.
