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14 Comments

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Duly Quoted: New Citizen Members of the TTC

In their first interview, new commissioners discuss their goals for the TTC.

By

Matt Galloway: “Do you ride the TTC?”

Alan Heisey: “I’ve ridden the TTC every week, probably my entire life. Not every day, but every week. I ride it as a family with my children on Saturday programs, and I ride it for work to meetings, et cetera.”

Maureen Adamson: “Of course. Not every day, but frequently.”

—Two of the four newly appointed citizen members of the TTC board, speaking on Metro Morning today. Heisey and Adamson outlined their key priorities—financing expansion, modernization, and most of all, customer service—but drew some early criticism from radio listeners in virtue of not riding the system every day.

Comments

  • Anonymous

    So they ride the TTC exponentially more than the Mayor. Unfortunately it sounds like Heisy hasn’t had to experience the dreadful rush hour experience. I’d say 80% the TTC is fine, it’s in the AM and after 4pm that it’s an absolute nightmare.

    • Anonymous

      “Exponentially more” doesn’t make any sense. “Exponentially” means a type of growth rate, not a relative (or absolute) level

  • Anonymous

    Heisey didn’t know how to call “transfers”.

    • Anonymous

      Good! Maybe she’ll vote to get rid of them.

      • Anonymous

        All of these issues will eventually be solved by the pathetically overdue Presto integration. Can’t wait to have it on every TTC vehicle/station. It makes riding GO much easier.

      • Anonymous

        I look forward to the down-voters’ explanation of why they think the current fare system is awesome. Particularly why it’s a good idea that you can’t get off a streetcar, go into a store for five minutes, and then continue on the streetcar in the same direction. Or why it’s awesome that if you try to use a transfer anywhere other than the exact crossing of two routes (again, maybe you wanted to pop into a store a block away, or maybe the bus took a while so you started to walk), the transfer will be rejected.

  • Anonymous

    What about the other two?

    • Anonymous

      Only these two were on Metro Morning, for some reason.

      • Anonymous

        The other two are deleting messages from the mayor, assuring them they had been endorsed.

  • Anonymous

    This is too discouraging. I hope they have the sense to resign, so that others with more transit experience and knowledge **stares meaningfully at Steve Munro** may make a constructive contribution.

    I’d sure like to know who got passed over for these sad sacks.

    • Anonymous

      If Steve Munro was made a transit commissioner, the Mayor would detail one of his quarterbacks to scrutinise every blog post and then, irrespective of whether true, accuse SM of leaking confidential commission information in an attempt via smear to neuter one of the TTC’s most coherent critics. Alternatively, SM would discontinue his blog and Torontoist posts and thereby discourse in Toronto in respect of transit would lose a mass of factual information distilled from the TTC’s turgid reports.

      In fact, Steve Munro is exactly the sort of “nerd” referred to in Paul Krugman’s post “Scoop Dupes” on his NYT blog today, whereas the new commissioners will no doubt be fawned on by the media for “background” of dubious quality.

  • Anonymous

    All the more reason Toronto needs a transit-user union to put pressure on Council and the TTC.

  • tommy

    Alan sounds like he wants to help, but is a bit out of his depth in terms of background. Maureen sounds like every know-nothing, contribute-nothing manager I’ve ever had the displeasure of working with. I’m sorry, if you aren’t taking the TTC everyday, especially during rush hour, you have absolutely NO purpose for being on the board. Council members can rep the public, citizen members need to rep the experience.

  • Belva

    If they don’t ride every day, fine. But if they don’t ride during rush hour (which it sounds like they don’t) or late at night or during a snowstorm, they have no idea of the true TTC that most people experience.