To Andrew Ilersich (EngSci 1T8, UTIAS PhD candidate), delays and slowdowns on the TTC subway have now become the expectation, not the exception.
After mapping out a route and arriving on time to a station, he said he’d often be met with a delay that would eat into his estimated time of arrival. Then he’d hear it: someone of authority trying to speak over the underground PA system, but all that GTA would be deciphered were tinny, inaudible-crackles.
Ilersich, a 28-year-old University of Toronto doctoral student in aerospace engineering, said the consistent disruptions while riding the TTC finally pushed him create the independently run website, TTCmap.ca, to help others like him who were feeling marooned by subway delays.
He said his map, which is mobile friendly, provides a service the TTC does not —clear and concise real-time information that tracks where there are long-term and short-term subway delays. He said it cuts out the need for commuters to navigate what he feels is a complicated TTC website and alerts system.
“I’d gone to more than one (TTC) station over the past couple of months to find that the bus or subway I was waiting for was never going to show up and navigating(TTC’s) website was a massive pain,” said Ilersich. “The reason I built this is because the TTC announcement system is pretty terrible.”