Being a frequent Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) rider it's easy to find reasons to complain about how the system is mismanaged. Try as one might, not to tilt at windmills, the pressure gets to be too great at times not to shout.
There was a time when I considered most of the TTC's problems the product of a dysfunctional union-controlled workplace. 2011 produced a plethora of complaints about sleeping subway attendants, missing-in-action drivers and downright dangerous-driving by some operators, none of which result in speedy and appropriate disciplinary responses. Union rules and practices are partly to blame, but so to is the attitude of management at the TTC that it's not worth the trouble trying to rectify these things.
It has become increasingly apparent that management - this appears to run from the most senior ranks to front-line supervisors - its primary mission is to provide employment for highly paid civic workers, themselves and union members. Operating a public transit system is incidental to maximizing employment; there is no real commitment to customer service. 2011 also saw the appointment of a customer service manager - a first - but after months of consultations and meetings with riders one cannot identify a single action taken to improve the user experience. What has resulted is the creation of a new department of highly paid bureaucrats and a reduction in bus service because the TTC is out of money.
A few things witnessed yesterday illustrated the misplaced priorities. Exiting the subway at Bloor-Yonge station, I witnessed ten TTC employees - one about every 10-15 feet apparently assigned solely to ensure passengers walked in a way TTC management deem correct. Those employees did not include ticket collectors, security personnel or cleaning and maintenance personnel. The TTC seems to think customer service is telling passengers how to exit a train. Those ten employees were doing nothing to help speed trains through the station and anyone watching could easily see their ineffectiveness.
Later in day, the TTC's subway public address system was blaring announcements about special holiday fares - three days after the holidays and the specials had ended. Does anyone in transit control pay any attention to the broadcasts or is it considered enough to slap in a tape recording and ignore it? Is it more about doing something/anything than doing something useful?
Upon arriving at Don Mills station to transfer to a bus headed for home, there was only a 10 minute wait. This was pretty good, given the wait for this "frequent service" route often runs to 20 minutes or more. But - there is always a but - when the first bus arrived and most of waiting passengers crowded aboard, the driver disappeared. In the next five minutes, three more buses arrived and departed almost empty leaving one busload of very tired and seething riders. Eventually we proceeded north on Don Mills - remember there were three empty buses ahead of us - followed by two more empty buses behind us, as I discovered when I de-boarded.
TTC management claims to be short of money and uses this as an excuse to raise fares while reducing service, but it doesn't seen to have any problems with running dozens of empty buses around the city every day. On the assumption that management is not ignorant of the fact the second, third, fourth etc. buses are of no use/benefit to riders, one has to conclude that management just doesn't care. Buses are running hither and yon, drivers are getting paid, employment is being provided. The only thing missing is service to riders. Meanwhile, as all these buses are running empty northbound, how many potential passengers are waiting at the south end of the route for a long overdue bus?
I often see half a dozen southbound Don Mills buses enter and leave the Don Mills station almost bumper to bumper and empty; I have never seen a TTC supervisor or manager intervene to turn one of those busses around and pick-up any of the couple hundred northbound passengers crowding the platform and waiting 15-25 minutes on this 3-4 minute-service route. I have no reason to believe the problem is unique to the route I ride. For TTC management it appears to be all about running buses rather than carrying passengers.
That would be improving customer service, but I'm forced to assume it's not one of management's priorities.
A more serious example is the recently announced decision to close the Scarborough rapid transit line for five years, beginning in 2015, to convert it to contemporary rolling stock. I first learned of the decision about 9pm one night upon reading a Tweet from the TTC's official spokesman, @BradRoss, and responded something about how only at the TTC could something like this take five years. I was surprised, given the time of day, that Ross responded within seconds about what a big job it really is and how wrong I was. I later learned that Ross was probably a bit touchy because he had had to "clarify" a statement his boss had made earlier that day that the job would really take nine years. Five years or nine, the schedule remains absurd. All this conversion requires is the installation of new wiring and replacing track on an existing exclusive right-of-way. In most international cities, the work would be completed without even interrupting service, or at most a few weeks of sporadic interruption. It's as long as the mayor promises it will take to dig tunnels and build a cross-town, underground rapid transit system twice the length. But this is the TTC, the same organization I watched from my office window take 3 years to install an elevator to carry handicapped subway riders about 12 feet from the concourse to street level. It's obvious the TTC gives no priority to providing a decent level of transit service to the people of Scarborough.
As a regular public transit user, I lament the current situation and despair that anyone at the TTC sincerely gives a damn about operating a reliable, efficient and comfortable transit system. Expect more on this theme as we proceed through 2012.
