OPINION: TTC – The Better Way
Posted March 25, 2010 10:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Courtesy TheMarkNews.com
The TTC has sure taken its hits in the last few months. Far be it for me to add my own cheap shots. I prefer to look at the positive things about our transit system from my vantage point as an enamoured spectator:
1. This being the 21st century, I wish we could at least have a 20th century national transit strategy, but I acknowledge that it will never happen. Nonetheless, I find it quite fair that Canada, land of equally missed opportunities, justifies its failure to fund intercity high speed rail by also failing to fund inner city low speed rail — unless it fits into the massive propaganda campaign that is federal government stimulus.
2. Successive Ontario governments have clearly demonstrated that TTC operating subsidies are for wimps. And so Torontonians can feel superior to the duped citizens of global cities with expanding transit systems who selfishly enlist higher levels of government to improve their quality of life. TTC riders pay 70 per cent of operating costs through fares, the highest burden of any North American city with a comparable system, and the property taxes of Torontonians pay the rest. Canada’s and Ontario’s respective contributions to ongoing costs: zero and zero. The $121 monthly cost of a pass (vs. $70 in Montreal) makes me proud — it’s like we’re already a separate province, just without any powers.
3. Even without subsidies, the TTC demonstrates a remarkable ability to extract huge amounts of money from riders and throw it down a giant hole. Toronto’s population increased from 2.2 to 2.5 million between 1986 and 2006, a rise of 14 per cent. The increase in rides on the TTC over that time: barely one per cent. The increase in kilometres traveled by TTC vehicles: five per cent. The increase in cash fare over that span: $1 to $2.75 — that’s 175 per cent more for a service that carried the same number of people almost the same distance! Where did the increased revenue go? Sure, much of it went to cover the subsidy gaps, but a lot of it was probably spent on the increasing salaries of…
4. The deserving TTC management and Amalgamated Transit Union, who always do right by TTC employees — kudos to them. For example, by resisting the implementation of smartcards, the TTC successfully fights dehumanizing evils like “basic efficiency” and “long-accepted international standards.” Compassionate employers that they are, they let grown men and women watch tokens fall into a glass box while sitting behind a glass cage, eight hours a day, underground.
5. Speaking of efficiency, on the TTC, it’s one person, one fare, whether you travel five feet or 50 km. The TTC gave up on zone-based pricing years ago. It must have been too fancy and complicated — or maybe too logical and economical. Either way, a $3 fare to travel three blocks on the streetcar still manages to be a dollar cheaper than taking a taxi. Yes, the rate of fare increase is 150 per cent faster than the rate of inflation, but a TTC ticket should still be cheaper than hiring a cab for at least three or four more years. TTC chairman Adam Giambrone should know: he has researched transit alternatives, sparing the city costly consultants’ fees, by spending $3,000 in 2009 on cab rides for himself.
6. Although customer service is very difficult, TTC workers refrain from passing judgment on riders, unless said judgments are anonymous or done by the union chief. TTC operators care so much, in fact, that, in order to neutralize complaints, some will wait until the middle of the night to strand customers during a bathroom break.
7. Speaking of neutralized complaints, tens of thousands of official complaints are made against the TTC every year, and they don’t even need an ombudsman’s office to handle them all. That’s a remarkable display of resourcefulness. I hope that whiny new customer service panel doesn’t rock the boat.
8. As customer service is so important to the TTC, we should expect GPS-based vehicle tracking info sometime soon. And if it doesn’t work, Google Street View has plenty of archived pictures of approaching buses.
9. You have to admit that wildcat strikes, although dangerously inconvenient, have a pretty cool name. TTC union chief Bob Kinnear must look in the mirror every day and whisper to himself “You’re a Wildcat, Bob.” I would too if I had power to suddenly inflict pain on millions of people.
10. The “Downtown Relief Line” — what a weird name for a subway. I’m glad we’re not building that one, however desperately needed it is. After the DRL proposal (first planned as a necessary part of the subway network 25 years ago) is ignored yet again, “downtown relief lines” will more appropriately refer to places where homeless people stand around waiting for their soup.
11. The St. Claire Streetcar right-of-way proves that, no matter how colossally you mismanage a basic infrastructure project for seven years, an extra two minutes saved per ride will be greeted with smiles for miles and miles.
12. Twenty years ago, we started the Eglinton subway. Then we decided it was too expensive and we filled it in. After a massive increase in the population of the GTA since 1990 and our desperate need for a direct link to Pearson airport, we decide to build an LRT instead, with a fraction of the capacity that the Eglinton subway would have had. Thank you to everyone involved for proving ambition, vision, and determination are not cost-feasible in city planning.
13. It may seem like a waste not to connect the Sheppard subway to either Downsview or Scarborough Town Centre, but I can’t wait for the day I get to ride along the Finch LRT, transfer onto the Yonge Subway, ride down to Sheppard, ride the Sheppard subway to Don Mills, transfer to the Sheppard East LRT, and make it to U of T Scarborough in time for the Pan Am Games opening ceremonies at the marvelous new aquatic centre. I know what you’re thinking, I better leave now.
14. The Jane LRT (really, Jane?) will intersect the Eglinton LRT. I know whenever I see those four empty fields at Jane and Eglinton I think “what we need here is light rapid transit in every direction.”
15. TTC managers who pay their girlfriends to take photos for them rightfully get fired. What’s most heartening about this otherwise mundane scandal is that, by only hiring her for $50,000, the TTC would actually have saved money.
16. Ticket booth operators, when asleep, are generally in a good mood.
17. Bus drivers, when drunk, are more likely to give you a transfer even though you forget to ask when you got on. Also, have you ever tried flashing a strip of uncooked bacon at a distracted driver instead of a transfer? I have, just for kicks, and it works!
The Mark News is Canada’s online forum for opinion and analysis.
