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Frightfully Sorry for the Delay…

By Robin Rix

20080327_apologies.jpegTorontoist has considered numerous ways in which London’s transport system is leaps and bounds ahead of ours, including coloured bus and bike lanes, a $1.6 billion high-speed rail terminus, and an extensively renovated transport museum. While straight-up comparisons aren’t entirely fair to Toronto—London is bigger and denser, and the political culture is much more amenable to public spending on transport projects—some measures are so simple and affordable that they could easily be imported here.
Today’s example? Apologies.
If a train is delayed and at a halt, even for as little as 30 seconds, it is common practice for the driver to announce on the intercom system the reason for the delay, the location of the problem, and the expected duration of the wait. It’s a small touch that costs nothing, but it makes passengers feel more informed and more valued.
If delays are particularly bad, riders can expect—as the image shows—the transit system’s management to offer an apology for the delay, an explanation of the exact reasons for the delay, and an assurance that steps are being taken to prevent it from recurring. It’s also not uncommon for management to write directly to affected businesses, educational institutions, and other groups, in those cases where delays are particularly frequent or severe.
A key ingredient to a successful transport system is that users feel valued. If TTC management wants to get smart about customer relations, focussing some of its energies on apologizing, explaining, and reassuring, and offering proper direction to employees to follow its example, would be a good place to start.
Photo by Annie Mole.

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Comments

  • themoabird

    Having lived in London for more than 40 years, and the last six months in Toronto, may I just say that you are completely deranged if you think the London transport system is better than Toronto’s.

  • Mathew Kumar

    I disagree completely – and I’ve been to London more than enough to note the distinction.
    However, to be on topic about this post, this is exactly one of the things I hate about the TTC. You always to have to get inside the system (i.e. have paid your token) to find out that the trains are off. It’s very frustrating.
    Of course, waiting for streetcars is even worse…

  • Robin Rix

    Ah, but you commit a logical error, themoabird.
    The question is not whether one system is “better” than the other. The question is whether each system can learn things from the other. In some respects London is ahead of Toronto, and I do not think that I am completely deranged for saying so!

  • matty

    Toronto is a giant inferiority complex of a city.

  • agitpropre

    Hmmm – Robin, you are now at “some respects” – much weaker than the “leaps and bounds” you cite in your lede.
    My own experience is that both systems are much better than they were about communicating with passengers and apologizing as needed. There is a better understandng, it appears, that public transit actually has to compete with cars and that taking passengers for granted is not a good approach.
    Your basic point is of course correct – we can and should learn from other systems. Personally I would look to Paris before London…
    BTW I would not feature the high-speed rail link too highly in the ‘better thans’ side of the ledger. It has been deeply vexed for years – over-budget, behind time…

  • David Newland

    At the very least it would be nice to know what it means when you hear “99 St. Clair West, 99 St. Clair West” and similar cryptic announcements on the PA system.

  • Ling

    How is the Paris public transit system better than London’s? I’ve always found it confusing (and just as likely to break down/have delays).
    Plus, the Metro stations are dirty, stink of urine, and there are rats. Ugh.

  • Doggiez

    Ling: But at least in Paris, they give you a free croissant while you smoke your Gauloises. Hauh hauh hauh!

  • Robin Rix

    agitpropre (good moniker, by the way): my lede states only that there are numerous ways in which L is leaps and bounds ahead of T. As it does not exclude the reverse—that there are numerous ways in which T is leaps and bounds ahead of L—one cannot use the lede to deduce whether I think that one system is “better” than the other, which was themoabird‘s contention.
    On the point of high-speed rail: you are of course correct that its overall adoption in the UK was over budget and behind time (and is still deficient compared to the rest of Europe), but my earlier praise was limited to the recent reorientation of the route via north London into St Pancras (and the renovation of the terminal), which was, I believe, on-time and under budget.
    David Newland: there is—somewhere—a list floating around that deciphers all of the TTC codes. I think that “99″ summons a mechanic. I can’t seem to find it online.
    Ling: it is better in at least one respect: more Art Nouveau!
    Doggiez: I wish.

  • friend68

    I have often thought that putting up simple pixelboard signs that would display announcements regarding delays would be very effective and would be a world better than the rare and cryptic messages you get distorted through the speaker system.

  • Amanda Buckiewicz

    David, the “299 Bloor 299 Bloor 299 Bloor” is calling on the mechanic at that particular station to fix a problem. Consider every time you hear that called over the PA… that’s how many times the subway is breaking.

  • paul_isaacs

    I have to agree with poster themoabird here (even with the “deranged” part).
    I moved to Toronto in 2003, but I’ve lived in London on-and-off for thirty years, and the transport system is absolute hell.
    If anything (with the exception of the wonderful Oyster card system) it’s gotten worse in the past ten years: ridiculously expensive fares, even more delays, random station closings, etc.
    You don’t really understand how bad London Transport is until you’ve tried commuting to work from the suburbs. By comparison, my frequent trips out from downtown Toronto to York University or Thornhill have generally been quick and hassle-free. In the past few years, I can think of handful of occasions I’ve had to wait for a bus/streetcar/train longer than ten minutes. Those delays aren’t unusual in London — even at peak time — and on the Northern Line, Thameslink and most bus routes, they’re actually the norm.
    Incidentally, those “apologies” (as pictured above) are a joke. London commuters don’t want apologies — they want their money back. Trust me, the TTC needs improvements, but London is the last place it needs to learn from.

  • dudeTO

    In Toronto somebody would complain that the poster is written in the wrong font.

  • rek

    dudeTO – Thank god you said it and not me.
    In Japan if the subway is even 10 seconds late the driver is fired and his family shamed for 11 generations.

  • atomeyes99

    to answer a posted question:
    i think they announce “299 St Clair West” when they see a cute girl on the subway platform at St Clair W station. its code for TTC employees to go scope out chicks.

  • andrewe

    With reference to paul_isaacs and themoabird, I conjecture that their experience with Toronto transit is limited to the subway system, which is as fast and reliable as any in the world.
    The dividing line between those who think Toronto has great transit and those who think it has terrible transit seems to be drawn between those who rely on the subway (great) and those who rely on the streetcar (terrible).

  • eddrass

    Here we go:
    99 Subway Line Mechanics
    299 Supervisor – Line Mechanics
    800 Photographers
    http://transit.toronto.on.ca/subway/5007.shtml
    Thanks, t-t!

  • mattalexto

    In Japan the train aren’t late, not even by 30 seconds. The trains stop in the same position everytime and there are lines on the platform telling you where the doors will be. Everyone knows where they’re going and nobody stops abruptly in the middle of the floor for no reason causing everyone behind them to ram into each other.

  • paul_isaacs

    Actually, andrewe, I use streetcars and buses more often than the train. They can be tardy, but again, that sense of gratuitous frustration (an everyday problem in London) is much less of a problem for me here in Toronto.
    Incidentally, I’m not trying to institute a pissing contest here between London and Toronto, they’re both lovely and annoying in the different ways — but it’s hard not to supress a giggle when someone compliments London Transport, the bane of my (and most other Londoners) existence.

  • Robin Rix

    We agree, paul_isaacs! No one, least of all me, doubts that there are deficiencies, some severe, in London’s transport system. But there are things to admire about it as well, and in some respects it is leaps and bounds ahead of Toronto’s.
    eddrass: Thanks for that.
    t rek: I believe that recent legislative changes have reduced the shame to nine generations…

  • themoabird

    Robin
    You said:
    “Torontoist has considered numerous ways in which London’s transport system is leaps and bounds ahead of ours,”
    which shows that you just don’t get it. The transport system in London is a nightmare (I used it pretty much everyday for 20 years).
    Do you know how much it costs to get a single fare on the Underground (if you’re a tourist, for example)?
    It’s more than CDN$8.00.
    The problems are:
    1. Cost;
    2. Delays;
    3. Early shutdown (the transport system shuts down at midnight in one of the world’s major cities);
    4. System failure (old infrastructure – it breaks, all the time);
    5. Overcrowding (you can’t get on, you can’t get a seat); I used Victoria underground station most mornings. More often than not it would be locked. Too many people on the station.
    6. Cancellations;
    7. Dangerous (try riding the Northern Line at night);
    8. Industrial action (last September the whole of London was paralysed by a series of strikes);
    9. Lack of information – yes, one of the major complaints is that nobody tells you what’s going on (though that has got better);
    10. Too hot in summer (you’ve read the stories about people being hospitalised in the summer after getting caught in tunnels, right?)
    The list is endless. I realise you think you know what you’re talking about. But really, you don’t. If you told people who use the system regularly that you’re holding it up as an exemplar for good practice, they’d be rolling in the train aisles with laughter (only it’d be too crowded).

  • Patrick Metzger

    Hong Kong has a terrific transit system – the subway is amazing, the streetcars are scenic as hell and even the buses work. And a bus driver actually smiled at me once.

  • Skippy the Magical Racegoat

    So we’ve deduced that both subway systems suck, but London’s has aspects that are better than Toronto’s (and possibly vice versa). These four very specific aspects were clearly delineated by the original poster.
    So do you wanna drop it now, themoabird? We don’t care about the Tube’s problems. This is a Toronto blog, we’re looking for ways in which to edify our local system. Nobody’s suggesting that we try to integrate London’s problems into our own, nor are we suggesting some sort of outright “swap” (which would be an engineering nightmare, come to think of it).
    I think it is you who is the one who does not “get it,” even after you were thoroughly owned by Robin’s first rebuttal.

  • Ling

    I like the Berlin transit system. It’s like riding on the honour system, because you can enter the subway without paying. But they have random spot checks, and if you don’t have a ticket, they’ll give you a big fine.
    It’s kind of awesome, especially because the ticket officials are plainclothes. Just the kind of system one would expect in a former Nazi, former Communist society.

  • Miles Storey

    I’ve lived in London and Toronto and it’s amusing to listen to people praise and criticise one or the other. I’m beginning to wonder how much of peoples opinion is coloured by expectation rather than experience.
    There are of course good and bad things about both systems. London’s biggest problem is inefficiency and cost, it’s ridiculously expensive to ride the Tube or commute into London (we’re talking second mortgage) and, while there are some outstanding projects like St Pancras, overall it’s very hard to see value in the transport system around London. I don’t commute by subway in Toronto but I use it often enough and it certainly seems more efficient and roomier than the Tube. It’s also hard to beat the cost of the TTC—but I think anyone coming from London to any other major city would marvel at the cost.
    I’ve always loved London’s underground, as someone who grew up as an expat riding the Tube when I was a kid was a magical experience that’s always stayed with me. It’s sad to see how the government has all but abandoned the system to private practices and we’re constantly paying for it. While themoabird is right that a lot of the infrastructure is old, some of it made sense. A power cut in London shut the Tube down last year even though backup generators have always been part of the system. However they were mothballed by profit-minded administrators who couldn’t see the point in them. Shut downs like that cost the city millions in peripheral penalities.
    London’s administrators’ biggest failing is that it sees the transport system as an ‘enterprise’. While I’m all for free trade etc public transport should be nurtured and subsidised in any large city, it’s just too essential to be left to private enterprise. It’s almost inevitable now that the Tube will be sold off by a government more Thatcherite than the Iron Lady could ever have dreamed.
    What ails all public transport systems is inefficiency, and the solution to that isn’t to throw money at the problem or to give up and sell the network out from under the people.

  • themoabird

    Oh yes, Skippy, thoroughly “owned”.
    Only in some strange parallel universe does the statement:
    “Torontoist has considered numerous ways in which London’s transport system is leaps and bounds ahead of ours”
    equate to:
    “The question is whether each system can learn things from the other.”
    Fool.

  • ltrethew

    Sorry, but the tube sucks. I’d take the TTC anyday. Consider going hundreds of feet underground, (where you can’t help but think of the 31 souls who burnt to death down there in the King’s Cross fire, not to mention the London bombings) navigating a totally overcomplicated system of four foot tunnels and then going into a hot, cramped little coffin of a subway where people look at you angrily if you sneeze. Plus, delays happen way too much on the tube and the supposed “info” you receive while trapped down there amounts to little more than “we seem to be experiencing a delay.” No shit, we figured that out already. So, really, who cares about a few apologies? Didn’t make my commute any brighter.
    Yup, I really don’t get this slagging of the TTC. Ease up already.

  • rek

    I know I’ve brought this up before, but…
    Seoul’s subway is fantastic:
    1. The platforms are huge and clean, despite having vending machines and little magazine/snack kiosks
    2. there are walls of ticket machines and card rechargers as well as 2-3 service windows
    3. you can pay with your cell phone
    4. seniors ride for free (back up and read that again)
    5. stations double as a quicker way to cross major intersections (stations have 8+ exits at the corners of intersections)
    6. detailed system and station maps on the platform walls
    7. very little advertising in the trains and virtually none at all once you reach platform level
    8. the whole system is quadrilingual (Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese)
    9. average (distance-based) fare is under C$1.25
    10. the subway goes to other cities!
    I don’t recall there being a single delay in the 6 months I was there.
    Forget the Underground, let’s learn from how they move millions of people in Korea and Japan.

  • Doggiez

    No one has ever answered the biggest TTC mystery of all: why the f@!k doesn’t the subway got to the airport???

  • Robin Rix

    themoabird:
    Ah, I think I see the confusion.
    My original lede was: there are numerous ways in which London’s transit system is better than Toronto’s.
    I think that you are reading it as: there are numerous reasons why London’s transit system is better than Toronto’s.
    They are different statements, and therein lies the disagreement.
    The former statement, I would argue, is true. I use the London transport system daily, after more than 20 years of using Toronto’s transport system. Aspects of London’s system are better.
    The latter statement may or may not be true. Some aspects of the TTC are superior to London Transport, and vice versa. Personally, I have no opinion on the question.
    These blog entries concern themselves with the former statement for the reason that no single transit system is likely to get everything right on its own. Taking the good points from other cities, and disregarding the bad, is a strategy that Toronto (or any other city) would be wise to adopt.
    For the avoidance of any and all doubt in your or anyone else’s mind, these blog entries do not concern themselves with proving or disproving the latter statement.
    t-rek:
    If I ever move to (or, heck, even visit) Seoul, I guarantee an article.

  • themoabird

    I know I should leave this alone, and I will, but I just don’t think you guys appreciate how good Toronto’s transport system is comparatively.
    It’s not just the tube that’s a mess in London. The commuter trains are overpriced, crowded and frequently late. In the Fall they don’t run because of “leaves on the line” (the new train stock was lighter than the older stock; the consequence is that the trains lose traction as soon as the leaves fall off the trees). I have been on commuter trains that don’t run because of “the wrong kind of snow”. Any kind of snow fall paralyses the system (note how the photograph attached to this story is explaining that the tube was messed up because of snow; I was in London in January 2007, there was no snow to speak of – maybe 1cm).
    The buses are the same. You can’t get on them in rush hour. They bunch (because of traffic flow), which means you get no bus, then three come along. At night time, they’re dangerous (the bus drivers have to be protected from passengers by a barrier, because they’re likely to get assaulted).
    I’m sure there are problems with the TTC (there’s an overcrowding issue, I realise). But really – it’s a joy to use compared to London.
    Right, I’ll shut up now, you’ll be relieved to hear.

  • paul_isaacs

    Themobaird: I wouldn’t worry — according to the writer’s bio, he lives in London. In 2 months’ time, he’ll be just as much of a gibbering wreck as we were.
    Incidentally, I’m biking home today.

  • themoabird

    Robin
    I see, I think. By “ways” – you mean “specific things” or something?
    Fair enough, but I think that’s misleading, or not necessarily pertinent, since not all “ways” are equal.
    It might well be the case that a high school hockey teams is better than the Leafs in many ways (as you mean it), but it isn’t going to mean much once they’re on the ice.
    In other words, there are real differences between the London and Toronto systems if what we’re talking about is their ability to get large numbers of people where they want to go in a timely and efficient manner. London is a bit nightmarish.
    But I accept that maybe we see things differently because of a “familiarity breeds contempt” kind of thing.
    What will be interesting is whether you feel the same way about London in a year’s time! :-)

  • themoabird

    Paul
    “Incidentally, I’m biking home today.”
    Ever tried that around Hyde Park corner!? :-)
    (I promised to shut up, didn’t I. Oh well!)

  • Robin Rix

    Too easy: the Leafs have much to learn from a high-school team!
    I have been in London for two years. I retain my hope that Toronto will adopt certain aspects of London’s transport system, and—have no fear, anyone—I wish that London would adopt certain aspects of Toronto’s.
    Next topic: the ways that Canada can learn from England about responsible alcohol usage :)

  • David Topping

    To address some of the people commenting about how a post like this is unappreciative or overly-critical of the TTC: I’m a big fan of the TTC; I really like it, and I think it’s fantastic, and I’m as tired as everyone else of people “slagging the TTC.”
    But that doesn’t mean we can’t think of ways to get it better. I think looking at the “ways in which [one system] is leaps and bounds better” is one way to do that. That’s not to suggest the TTC’s is horrid or some war zone or something—just to say we can learn from the rest of the world. The Better Way can get better only through improvements; to suggest that we shouldn’t criticize or suggest ways to make it better says that it is perfect as it is now. And it isn’t.

  • themoabird

    “the ways that Canada can learn from England about responsible alcohol usage :) ”
    I really hope that’s a joke! :-)

  • TokyoTuds

    I agree with Doggiez above. It is unbelievable that there is still no subway or commuter train to Pearson Airport. I mean, utterly incomprehensible ….
    Tuds

  • leeeah

    - dudeTO: “In Toronto somebody would complain that the poster is written in the wrong font.”
    Seriously, the funniest and most true thing I’ve read on Torontoist. Ever.

  • jordan_darnell

    While London has alot of tubes and stops – Toronto is far more reliable – and in my opinion a better system. I’m living in London right now – my commute to work yesterday involved the picadilly line stopping and reversing half way to work! When was the last time you found an eastbound train suddendly reversing and going west. London’s system is full of bad execused delays, and vital parts of there system go down more often than not on weekends.

  • andrewe

    jordan_darnell: You mean it short turned? Unheard of!

  • robswizzle

    Prague and Budapest streetcars have a third set of doors in the back that really encourages the flow of people on and off. The driver is isolated in his compartment and it is up to the passengers to climb on board and punch their tickets on one of the machines that are attached to poles by each of the three doors. Transit police occasionally check tickets.

  • Jaime Woo

    Pearson is taxis’ land. I always hope for a light rail transit to Pearson, but it’ll be implemented as quickly as (my other dream) time-based travel. I can’t imagine too many businesspeople wanting to take the Express bus to Kipling when comfortable, but pricey cabs wait nearby.
    I’m no environmental expert, but wouldn’t a light-rail system also help save on emissions better than a horde of taxis?

  • paul_isaacs

    Um, you go to Kipling and get on the bus. Is it really that difficult?

  • TokyoTuds

    Paul, the beauty of a train line to an airport is not to be underestimated. Not only could thousands of passengers a day use the train, but hundreds (if not thousands) of airline and airport employees could do likewise for their commute.
    Check this out:
    http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/access/train/index.html
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_Express
    Cheers,
    Tuds

  • Doggiez

    Paul, to say “go to Kipling and get on the bus” is short-sighted, especially when comparing Toronto’s transit system to Zurich, one of my favourite cities. I fly in to the airport there, and the rail system is connected underneath. I get on the train, and go wherever I please, without even having to leave the building. To “just” go to Kipling Station is a monumental pain in the ass, especially for those of us who don’t live in High Park, Royal York or Mississauga. Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t have a viable connection from Toronto to the airport has to do with the number of airport limo and bus companies that would lose massive amounts of business if their services were no longer needed? If anyne running for mayor could convince me he/she would build a system to the airport — be it subway or monorail — that person would get my vote! Ask anyone who comes here visiting from Europe about Toronto’s connections to the airport, and they’ll look at you like we’re stupid… which we are, for not having better links to our own Goddamn airport!!