The TTC is adding trains to its rush-hour service and tweaking subway operations behind the scenes to give riders more breathing room in the peak hours and cut journey times in off-peak hours.

Transit users will also spend less time sitting at terminus stations following a series of operating changes that kick in immediately after the Thanksgiving weekend.

The improvements come at no additional costs, will relieve crowding in the short term and lead to greater subway reliability in the longer term, says the TTC’s new deputy chief operating officer, Mike Palmer.

The most obvious change will be the addition of two trains during the rush hour on each of the Yonge-University and Bloor-Danforth Lines. With each train carrying about 1,200 riders, there will be more space on the platforms and in the subway, he said.

Palmer has also tweaked the adjusted train and crew scheduling so that operators will be able to finish their shifts on time more often. The reduced overtime costs will help pay for additional train crews.

Other measures will be less obvious to riders, but Palmer, who worked in operations on the London Underground for 29 years, is convinced they will translate into better customer service. Once fully implemented, the TTC should be able to put through its target of about 25 trains an hour on the rush-hour service rather than the 21 or 22 it achieves most days now.

Trains will no longer be allowed to sit in terminus stations at Kennedy, Kipling, Finch and Downsview. A new rule will require them to move off the platform within 30 seconds of a green signal.

“We know what really cheeses customers off is a train hanging around at a terminus. There may be a good reason for that but it’s slowing the service down, so we want to get these trains out as quickly as possible because as soon as they’re out the next one comes in,” he said.

The TTC is changing the way crews switch trains at the end of the subway line — a practice called step-backs.

At terminus stations such as Kennedy or Downsview, the operator and train guard normally get off the subway and wait for the next train to arrive before getting back to work. That gives them two or three minutes between trains to go to the washroom or have a drink of water. But if the trains are running late, which is often the case, the operators don’t have enough layover time to get that break and they end up boarding the next train late.

To get those trains off the platform sooner, the TTC is implementing double step-backs for its crews. That means the crew that just got off the train waits two trains before returning to work, giving them “a more realistic” break and allowing another crew to move the train off sooner.

Another key change will be the way trains go in and out of service after the rush. For years, the TTC has sent trains departing service all the way to the end of the line at Kennedy or Downsview before turning them back to the yards at Greenwood and Wilson.

The effect has been a queue of trains waiting to get into the storage yards, taking up platform space at the terminus stations and slowing in-service trains to a crawl as they await their turn at the end of the line.

Starting Oct. 14, about a third of the trains heading out of service will go straight to Greenwood or Wilson. That should speed up service along each line.

“These platforms at Downsview and Finch and Kipling and Kennedy are really valuable space and I need to use them as efficiently as I can,” said Palmer.

He admits there will be an inconvenience factor for customers riding the trains just after rush hour. They will sometimes be asked to get off the train at Wilson and wait for the next subway to take them to the end of the line. Eastbound riders on the Danforth line will be asked to exit at Pape and wait for the next train to Kennedy.

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But Palmer says he’s absolutely convinced the changes will ultimately get those riders to their destination sooner because the trains will be moving faster.

The TTC is also going to make more use of its Davisville subway yard, which has room for about 12 trains. By doing that, it will reduce the time it takes to get trains into service on the south end of the system and increase the scarce off-service hours track crews get to maintain the subway by about half an hour. That’s an extra 30 minutes transit workers will have to do the track work and pick up the rubbish that leads to service interruptions on the subway.

“By simply rearranging the last trains I’m giving my engineering staff another half-hour at night and it’s costing me absolutely zero. That extra 30 minutes is pure work time. Half an hour at night now is next year’s reliability improving,” said Palmer.

Since being recruited to the TTC in the spring, Palmer has been studying and experimenting with changes to practices that have become institutionalized at the TTC over years — schedules and operations that worked internally but, in some cases, actually hampered customer service.

One example: Track crews used to do inspections during rush hour, something that slows the trains to ensure the safety of workers in the tunnels. That has stopped.

“I’ve put an embargo in so no one can go trackside before 10 a.m. or between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.,” he said. “The focus now is we want to get people into work. We’re not going to slow trains down.”

The TTC considers rush hours to be between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“What I’m trying to do,” said Palmer, “is make some changes, see what the effect is, measure it, see what the improvement is and then say, ‘That worked really well. Let’s do a bit more of that or let’s do a bit less of that.’ ”

He is reluctant to make too many changes at once, admitting that it can be confusing and counterproductive.

But Palmer has more moves up his sleeve. He wants to try a program he calls “four at 40.” It would be an attempt to reduce stops where trains stop the longest — crowded stations like Bloor, St. George, Union and Eglinton — to no longer than 40 seconds. If the stations clear faster, he reasons, the trains move quicker all the way down the line, with less time for crowds to build up on the platform.

In exchange for better commuter service though, TTC officials say there’s no way to avoid more weekend and early evening closures as subway crews tackle long-standing issues, including the repair of the track bed north of Bloor to Eglinton.