March 14, 2008
A Million Little Pieces
Well, it's that time of year again: time to hate the TTC! This time, it's the threat of a distant strike and the Star's devotion of its usually excellent Fixer feature to all things TTC (and broken) leading the charge. When Eye's Dale Duncan recapped the past week, she remarked: "Maybe it’s just me, but rage against the TTC seems to be growing."
It's not just her. "Seems," though, seems to be the key word, and the sense of universal vitriol for the TTC is all a matter of perception. Even though the TTC has spent the last month announcing and rolling out lots of massive and minor improvements system-wide, things like pigeons and a pro-union video with messy math are drawing contempt and derision, and seem to be getting more than their fair share of attention. Complaints about the TTC don't accumulate so much as they snowball: people are always more happy to complain than to praise, and tend to focus on the bad more than the good anyway, especially when their money (or what feels like their money) is involved. The loudest and most vocal opinions are usually the angriest ones, and then rage begets rage, things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, etc. Hyperbole abounds: just look at one of the Star's Fixer articles, which—four days after promising not to "proffer outrageous quotes"—claimed that "Kipling was described in one email as a 'war zone' and it lived up to that billing."
The last time public sentiment seemed this strongly against the TTC was last summer, when fears of service cuts, a shutdown of the Sheppard subway line, and increased fares ran rampant after the organization made it clear that they had to cut costs to balance their budget. The TTC announced a limited and underwhelming survey, the results of which would be used to make a decision about the next steps to take. Torontoist decided to expand on the TTC's meager survey and conduct one of our own to measure both usage of and sentiment towards the TTC.
The data, from 2,212 respondents, came out differently than we'd expected. Even with tensions high, our numbers [PDF] uncovered a mixed but generally positive attitude towards the system and its staff. Of the 2,212 respondents, for instance, 50.6% said they had a mostly favourable or very favourable impression of the TTC, while 19.7% said they had a mostly unfavourable or very unfavourable impression. 49.5% said they had a mostly favourable or very favourable impression of the TTC's employees, and 18.4% had an mostly unfavourable or very unfavourable one. And just about 30% of people felt neutral about both. (A caveat: though it did get linked on BoingBoing and many local blogs, our survey did not extend far outside of our readership. Still, it's a decent metric, especially considering that the TTC's official survey got only 17,400 respondents, which means we're working with about 13% of the responses and a much fuller data set.)
Hiding in the torrent of comments that were filled out in the "any additional comments" field—most of them brief and having to do with the survey or the potential cuts—we received one really, really nice story:
Late in August, my elderly Mother had a mini-stroke while riding on a TTC bus. The driver not only noticed, but acted perfectly. He asked everyone to get off of the bus and called 911. He waited with her until the ambulance arrived, and described to the attendants what he had seen. She was taken to the Emergency Department of the local hospital and was well-taken care of. Thanks to the TTC, my Mother did not have complications from that!
Those are not the forged words of some card-carrying million-dollar union member—it's my mom, talking about my grandma. The Star got one such similar response, which ended with a concession that "As long as the TTC has drivers as compassionate and decisive as [a driver who watched out for the letter writer's safety], I am willing to put up with a leaking roof or two." It's not that we can't or shouldn't criticize or scrutinize the TTC—we absolutely should (and we, the Torontoist we, do quite often). But the TTC is not our enemy, and we are not theirs. It seems that we're losing sight of that.
Photo by David Topping.
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I don't have a problem with what the TTC's offering its employees. its a cost of living raise and scaling back on unnecessaary goodies given to TTC employees, such as paying for their provincial health tax and a weekend wage premium.
I don't hear of many other jobs with weekend wage premiums. I don't think emergency room physicians and nurses get a weekend premium, do they?
The TTC is clearly falling apart in front of us and doesn't provide this growing city with enough subway lines of the beloved airport express we dream of (from Union station, not from a bus). the subway stations look like hell and the employees don't seem to care.
I would be a proponent of privatizing the TTC...
That is a great experience the reader had with her mother... then again, what normal human being wouldn't have helped in a situation like that? I just heard of an old lady who slipped on the ice yesterday and fell and broke her arm. She was all alone, a taxi saw her and stopped to help her and took her to the hospital. See? just a reasonable compassionate person helping a fellow human.
I'd love the TTC to break down for us exactly how many people work at a subway station - ticket takers, maintenance, cleaning staff, etc. I bet we'd consider them to be overstaffed rather than understaffed. I think it boils down to workers not giving a shit and not really wanting to work hard.
I love this bit from the TorStar article:
"Councillor Adam Giambrone, who chairs the TTC, says the people who've complained about deteriorating conditions are wrong, and that the stations are cleaner than they were a couple of years ago, according to system audits."
Yeah, right. System audits. Pffft. I know we've had a lot of snow this winter, but the stations are the filthiest I've even seen them.
Wow that whole TorStar pile of stories is depressing. And infuriating.
I have always fantasized (OK, I'm weird) about running my own private transit buses. These would run on major streets (Yonge, Bloor, Queen, for example), cost a Toonie, and have transfers valid for the entire day. They would stop only at major intersections (Yonge and Bloor, Queen and Yonge, etc.)
Before anyone says this is outlandish, about 130 or so years ago, Americans protested the high cost of postage, and an alternative to the U.S. postal service was formed, which sold much cheaper postage, and lasted for a few years. This is why, to this day, US postal rates are among the cheapest in the world, or so the story goes.
Why not have SOME alternative to the TTC, for pity's sake? After all, there are many bus lines out there servicing different parts of the province, and God only knows how many go to Casino Rama on an hourly basis. As Torontonians, we need to prove a point to the TTC, which is a monopoly. Why not have private bus lines?
When I moved to Toronto in the early 90s, the TTC was always accepted as one of the world's best subway systems and was something that Torontonians took great pride in. Then, funding went slash-slash-slash and then slash again and we were left in a state of suspension—no money to upgrade track or overhead wires, let alone revamp or buy new vehicles.
The TTC has a lot of problems, but I still believe Torontonians want it to succeed and have the resources is needs. I was on the system yesterday and it was packed, smelly, and infrequent, but I was thinking how much I root for the TTC despite its shortcomings. We really, really, really want the system to be great.
As for the staff, I've seen the shitheads like everyone else, but I've generally found them more frequently nice and friendly, though most of all, they're completely neutral. The thing that makes me totally furious is when they bark angrily through the ticket booth speaker when someone doesn't realize that some of the change that was returned has to go in the fare box. Tourists have no idea that when you pass a twenty under the window and you get change back, that you haven't actually paid for your fare.
I think one of the TTC's biggest issues is that it is horrible at PR. As I've said before, they're good at running a fleet of vehicles, but they're deficient when it comes to the experience and perception of the actual riders, who are ultimately their best ambassadors.
In other words "your impressions of the TTC are false. Just ask my mom".
50% may seem like a high number of overall positive impressions, but in both cases your numbers show that the TTC is failing one in five riders. Hardly a ringing endorsement!
Whenever this topic comes up someone always has an anecdote about how some TTC employee saved the day, or just smiled at the right time. As fortunate as that is, how many stories do we have about surly, disrespectful, and derelict employees? Enough, evidently, that there "seems" to be a growing anti-TTC zeitgeist. Do the former really wipe the slate clean for the latter? I don't think so.
Does spotting signs of a stroke and responding as trained justify yearly threats of strike from people less accountable to the public than the kid pushing you to upsize your McBurger? $25/hr for unskilled work, with apparently no public relations training, with full union backing? I don't think so.
"$25/hr for unskilled work, with apparently no public relations training, with full union backing?"
How do you know that it's unskilled? Have you ever driven a 40-foot bus? Have you ever operated a streetcar? Do you know how to repair the electronic equipment on electric traction vehicles? Are you an author of the TTC's driver training program - do you know for a fact that there is no public relations training?
I am not a TTC employee, but when you make statements without factual back-up it just adds bile to a discussion. Who knows, some people might think that you're overpaid and unaccountable in your job, or even unskilled. Are you happy and friendly at your job all day every day? It's easy to be a critic when you're not doing the work and don't have all the facts.
You want $10 an hour bus drivers for working split shifts, mid-week nights off, being yelled at and worse? Good luck.
I for one would like the TTC to pay attention to customer complaints, and learn from past strikes. Anyone else remember the eight-day-long strike of 1991? To many, this was the last straw -- many former passengers said "F-it!" to the TTC, and bought cars (I bought a new bike). In the golden era (1980s), I remember the TTC having an $8 million SURPLUS. What happened? Was it Howard Moscoe who screwed everything up, or is it now Adam Giambrone, for not paying attention to the present situation?
Are TTC drivers "Worth a million"? Is anyone, for that matter?
I love it when people suggest that privatization is the way to improve mass transit in general, but in the case of the TTC it's especially hilarious. There's no such thing as a successful mass transit system anywhere in the world that turns a profit on its own merits. They're not supposed to. You put money into the system, and you get mass transit, the benefits of which are less traffic (and thus less money spent on roadwork), less smog, less congestion, more pedestrian-friendly streets, et cetera.
But in the case of the TTC it's especially laughable, because the TTC is noteworthy for generating such an incredibly high percentage of its operating budget from fares. It's probably gone down a bit from previous years thanks to the promised reinvestment very gradually starting to show up, but remember, for nearly twenty years the TTC operated with a budget that was eighty-five percent coming from fare income - more than three times what the average mass transit system's fares are as a portion of budget.
I feel sorry for the average TTC worker, who, as the public face of the system, takes all kinds of shit that he or she has no control over. No wonder they're burning out all over the place.
For every complaint I have against the TTC (for never keeping schedules, for idling their stinky buses all over the place, and for making my 6.5 km morning commute last anywhere from 25 to 60 minutes), I have a complaint against the average TTC rider. People just don't know how to use a public system, or they behave as if they're in their own private car: pushing, littering, blocking doorways, racing old ladies for seats, refusing to move to let others on in -15 degree weather, and just generally being rude and selfish. We love to blame the TTC for everything, but riders could also take a cue from Tokyo (talk about overcrowding) or London and improve the experience for everyone with a bit of simple etiquette training. No, seriously, move your damn ass to the back.
ETCB, wouldn't the high reliance on fare revenue mean that the TTC is that much closer to being self-sustaining? A slightly higher fare and some cost improvements, and you're looking at a profit (ignoring capital investments). The point is that the more that you rely on fares, the easier it would be (all else being equal), to have a competitive private operator enter the market (assuming similar fares/costs) or to privatize - there is relatively little subsidy that would to be made up for in the private scenario. Its less laughable.
I would argue that if the TTC's service delivery was on par with our expectations (expedient repair schedules, right-of-way surface routes, more buses, more trains, longer service on some routes, buses ON TIME, etc.) we wouldn't really be too concerned with the friendliness of the bus drivers.
I'd rather not wait 25 minutes for the Jane bus southbound during afternoon rush hour than to be smiled at when I flash my Metropass. I paid for the service, not the warm fuzzy feelings triggered by white enamel.
Cleanliness is another matter and I agree with the comments above. However, I also wish there were less pigs on the TTC. I saw a man go through a McDonald's meal on the bus last night and use the floor as the garbage. The aftermath included fries everywhere, a sundae cup oozing onto the floor, wrappers, and ketchup all over some of the poles. I would have said something but he was much bigger than I am. Point is, janitors and laziness aside, riders often leave trash everywhere too.
I don't get this animosity with the TTC staff recently. They deserve a cost of living increase - get over it. Unskilled? Will you drive a bus at god awful hours 10 hours straight - and get shit on by the ridership as a whole? Well, that's why they get paid what they get paid. You think the staff are bad now? See who shows up for interviews when you offer this work at $12/hour.
I've a few known TTC operators. And yes. Some are undoubtedly BAD. But there's no such thing as an asshole-free company is there? So consider listening to their stories and the unwarranted abuse many take, and then tell me if you would smile all the time.
The TTC not in the situation it is because of its workers or the union, it's because the funding situation, and cracking down on the union won't solve this, neither will privatization (think Mel's Sheppard Line Debacle x 100). People much smarter than me will tell you that about one-quarter of the TTC's operating budget comes from government sources. That's the lowest among transit systems in North America. That's why your fares keep going up. That's why there's been a reduction in service in recent years. In the extreme anti-union nightmare scenario, a few million here and there in additional costs toward a new collective bargaining agreement wouldn't make a dent in that.
Wanna hate on someone? Hate on your provincial/federal elected officials.
The TTC also has one of the lowest rates of government subsidy per rider in North America.
Rude employees? Surly attitudes? In a customer service capacity? You're KIDDING! That never happens when I go to a retail store or a restaurant. NEVER!
I wouldn't use Tokyo as an example of transit civility, as employees pack riders into subway cars with sticks.
Dipp: "Will you drive a bus at god awful hours 10 hours straight - and get shit on by the ridership as a whole?" Umm, TTC drivers don't go for "10 hours straight," as they frequently take breaks, or spend a few hours doing one route (College streetcar, for example), have a few hours off in-between, they do another route, like the Queen streetcar.
That said, I agree with you about fewer pigs on the TTC. But isn't littering epidemic everywhere, not just on TTC vehicles? I will frequently chase after a litterbug who dropped something (usually a Tim Hortons coffee cup or pop can), and thrust it into his or her hand with the retort, "Excuse me, you dropped something." The world in not your garbage can!
My satisfaction with the TTC is inversely proportional to the amount of time I have to spend on surface routes.
If you can get there by subway, it's fast and easy and convenient. And if there's stupidity or rudeness on your car, you can bail out at the next station and wait for the next train without paying another fare.
If you have to wrestle 200 other people to get aboard a bus or streetcar, and sit beside a dude who forgot to take his monthly bath, or a girl who plays an actual set of bongo drums at maximum volume throughout the entire route (with no reprimand from the driver), then it blows. And bailing out and re-boarding to avoid the idiots will cost you another couple of bucks.
Dipp, I agree, the TTC is dirty because many riders don't bother to clean up after themselves.
I could be wrong, but I think that you're not allowed to eat on the subway in NYC. Maybe we could have a similar rule in Toronto. And the ticket fines could create a new source of revenue for the TTC, thus eliminating the funding crisis!
"I love it when people suggest that privatization is the way to improve mass transit in general, but in the case of the TTC it's especially hilarious. There's no such thing as a successful mass transit system anywhere in the world that turns a profit on its own merits."
I think U.K.-based First Group do.
The TTC should be privatized. No corporation worth its salt would ever allow themselves to be represented by a product as shoddy as our current transit system.
I have nothing against the operators, even though they are sometimes rude. It's the system that's broken.
I usually get around town on a bike. But every now and then I ride the TTC. It's disgusting. But it fits in perfectly with a city that allows an eyesore like Yonge Street to exist.
Doggiez: While I generalized/exaggerated the shifts and concede this doesn't apply to all, there are definitely 10-12 hour shifts among TTC workers. A lot of these folks work long days. And yes yes, of course they get breaks, etc.
The talk of privitization and competing with the TTC is about as stupid as it gets. The reason we have the TTC is because the private sector was terrible at public transit and there's no reason to think that's changed.
Not to mention that so few routes turn a profit that it would be idiocy to launch a competing transit service. Plus, you'd need a license to operate and good luck convincing the city to give you one of those.
On transit workers: I've filed complaints regarding four transit workers in my life. The complaints range from a ticket collector smoking in a station to a ticket collector who took out his disdain for his job out on high school students. In each case the complaint was taken and followed up on, and I was thanked for registering the complaint. Why does management thank you for your complaint? Aside from good customer relations, it's one of the only ways they can root out bad employees. Unless a worker does something that is so terrible that it demands they be fired immediately, dismissing an employee takes a record of failure that will stand up in the event a worker takes their dismissal to an arbitrator.
Robert Lubinski - I certainly didn't say there are no positions in the TTC that require skills, however sitting at a booth and handing out change isn't one of them.
When part of your job is constant interaction with the public, but you can't be fired for being a total jackass to paying customers, or reprimanded for being 20 minutes late (talk about taking a lesson from Japan!) you are unaccountable.
You imagine horror stories of $12/hr bus drivers -- have you stopped to consider how much better the system could be with $20/hr drivers who have to account for every complaint filed against them? The ones that don't pass muster as the public face of the TTC wouldn't be around for long. We don't tolerate it from McTeens, why should we be forced to put up with poor service from adults (perhaps skilled)?
The TTC is not dirty because of slobs eating McDonald's on the bus. The TTC is dirty because of water damage to subway platform ceilings, brake dust building up for weeks and months, station ceilings being torn out and left that way for years, half-assed temporary signs, dingy light fixtures, unrepaired cracks in the walls, and basic maintenance/cleaning not being done often enough. I'm sure much of that can be blamed on funding in one way or another, but that doesn't change how people see the TTC.
Ken C: The point of private bus service would be primrily to make a point, that point being: there is an alternative. The TTC is a monopoly like Hydro. Let's not forget what happened to Bell Canada once competitors came along, like Sprint and, later, Rogers. Customers left like rats from a sinking ship. The TTC, like Bell Canada, has had it far too good for far too long.
There are tons of tour operator bus lines out there already. Yes, any difficulties getting permssion to operate a independent bus services would be stalled by Mayor McCheese and his little leftist buddies at City Hall. But wouldn't it be glorious to see Giambrone's reaction to an alternative system to the TTC?
"The [bus drivers] that don't pass muster as the public face of the TTC wouldn't be around for long."
As far as I know, the TTC has difficulty finding drivers as it is. Whereas there's no doubt that being a collector is a sweet gig, being a bus driver combines all the excitement of driving along the same road ad nauseum with all the fun of being assaulted on a semi-regular basis.
The fact that there are stories like the one in the letter to the Star David linked to makes me feel proud of humanity:
I had a similar experience over the weekend, when I was trudging up Yonge Street, just north of York Mills, during a snowstorm. An empty northbound Blue Night bus pulled up beside me, the driver opened the door, and waved at me to get in. I told him I was only going one block, but he said that didn't matter, that it was better to be in the bus than walking in the storm. And so he graciously took me the one stop to my street.
It's so easy to forget that there really are wonderful people employed on the front lines of the TTC. But there are. Streetcar drivers in particular, but bus drivers, too, are frequently much more helpful, humourous, and generally good-natured than they have any right to be, given the shit they so often have to take.
Right, and as I said the professionalism and/or kindness and/or whathaveyou of anecdotal drivers doesn't erase any of the things wrong with the TTC.
Doggiez: In response to your dream to operate a private bus company, that exact idea is already employed in Tel Aviv. They have minibuses that go along the exact same routes as the public buses but have no schedules and move according to how full the minibuses get. They are cheaper by ten NIS, will pick you up where you are on the street, and run 24 hours. (It's also a really good way to make friends.)
I actually uses these minibuses (called shayroot, or "service") a lot more often than the public buses, especially because there are no public buses on the sabbath in Tel Aviv
Ling: The food-free subway system is Washington, DC's. It makes a helluva difference.
"Let's not forget what happened to Bell Canada once competitors came along, like Sprint and, later, Rogers. Customers left like rats from a sinking ship."
When we moved house Bell wanted to charge $75 dollars to move the line. Rogers were offering free connection and other discounted services and we weren't tied to the number so my wife called Bell to arrange termination. The drone at the callcenter tried to persuade us to stay as "they really valued us as a customer" but declined when she offered to stay a Bell customer in return of Bell just waiving the fee (not even to match the free call waiting etc). Drone couldn't do that.
That's how life in Toronto with private competition to the TTC would be like. They would "value our business" but the streetcars would still rattle and the subway roof still leak.
If anyone cares about the Israeli exchange rate and currency, I was mistaken to say ten NIS; I meant ten agurot (which is like ten cents)
Basically, the public buses cost 5.10 NIS and the private ones cost 5 (except on the sabbath, then it's six), or in CDN, 1.45 vs 1.42.
ETCB said: "There's no such thing as a successful mass transit system anywhere in the world that turns a profit on its own merits."
I guess that depends on what you mean by mass transit. In many developing countries, privately operated share taxis are the most prevalent form of mass transit. I was in Istanbul a couple of years ago, where the local "dolmus" system is recommended by guidebooks, and exists alongside a relatively clean and efficient public tram/subway system.
I think it would be interesting see a share taxi system operating in Toronto, if only to embarrass the TTC into operating better service.
Jonathan Goldsbie said: "As far as I know, the TTC has difficulty finding drivers as it is. Whereas there's no doubt that being a collector is a sweet gig, being a bus driver combines all the excitement of driving along the same road ad nauseum with all the fun of being assaulted on a semi-regular basis."
I have heard this before, and I find it hard to believe for one simple reason: given the number of cab drivers on the streets, there is no apparent shortage of people willing to drive around the city for long hours at risk of life and limb. I would be exceptionally surprised if the average cabbie would refuse a chance to trade his gig for one with union salary, pension, and benefits.
Hundreds and hundreds of people apply whenever the TTC advertises for drivers (which isn't that often), so uhh, no, they don't have any trouble whatsoever finding applicants.
I know someone who went through the hiring process - interviews, tests, driving, etc - he got to a certain point, failed one thing, and that was it - he was out, no second chances.
Any job at the TTC is a good union job for people who don't want to work that hard. Do your hours, get your pay, end of story. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
To say no one wants to be a transit driver isn't correct. What is correct is that few who are qualified to be a transit driver want to be a transit driver.
And if you think any taxi driver could just as easily drive a bus, I guess you don't hold your much value in your personal safety.
I can't wait for the headlines if there's a strike on April 1
IT'S NO JOKE
TTC'S ON STRIKE
I always though the TTC was pretty clean, especially the subway...definitely smells and looks better than some other subway systems I've been on. Is that just me?
having said that, just because I've seen dirtier doesn't mean the TTC is 'clean' :-P
In response to Rachel: sheruts are examples of jitneys, or group taxis. Jitneys exist is many cities around the world. Toronto badly needs them.
Good ol' TTC... on the way in to work this morning (Queen streetcar #4227), the driver had one of his TTC buddies standing behind him the whole way, blocking the seat for anyone wanting to sit behind the driver. This sunglasses-wearing, open-mouthed gun-chewing asshat wouldn't even move for an elderly lady who urgently needed to sit. Another example of TTC distain for its ridership!
The best way to let the TTC know how you really feel about its service -- both compliments and complaints -- is to email head Adam Giambrone directly at councillor_giambrone@toronto.ca