TTC CEO Rick Leary has announced that former Councillor and TTC Chair Josh Colle will return to the TTC in the position of Chief Strategy and Customer Officer effective July 15. He has several years of consulting work for various transit agencies in Canada and the US in a variety of roles.
Colle will come into a difficult position where the TTC faces much more serious problems than his term as chair ending in late 2018. There are severe challenges with ridership, service attractiveness, budget, operations, maintenance and capital funding. The City’s hopes for a strong TTC role in attracting travel from cars onto greener modes, notably transit, are not supported with funding and service beyond a stand-pat level.
Within the TTC there are issues in the management ranks, although “Strategy and Customer Service” is not first among them. Better and more reliable service sound like they should be customer service priorities. Without staff to drive and maintain vehicles, a reliable fleet and infrastructure, and an ethos that looks first within the TTC to solve problems, all the strategy and smiling faces will not get people on transit.
The TTC faces a severe backlog of maintenance and quality control problems that have been downplayed or hidden for some time. A near-miss subway incident, deteriorating track, the Scarborough RT derailment are only part of what is seen publicly. There are unseen issues such as subway work car reliability that contribute to infrastructure issues and recently an all-day shutdown of Line 2. Work is deferred for want of appropriate equipment. On the streetcar system, problems with track are “solved” with slow orders as streetcars tiptoe through problem areas, and we know from the Auditor General’s report that overhead maintenance planning and record-keeping leaves much to be desired.
We do not know if the passenger fleet condition — subway trains, streetcars and buses — constrains the amount of service that might operate. All three modes have considerably more spare vehicles than needed for routine maintenance, and this allows the less reliable ones to be set aside, a particular problem with the bus fleet. In theory, the TTC could run better service, but they do not have the budget to operate it, and we do not know if all of those spare vehicles could actually run if they were needed.
Hundreds of new hybrid and battery buses, plus 60 more streetcars are on their way. The TTC trumpets its green fleet initiatives, but is silent about vehicle reliability and durability. The recently published Five Year Plan foresees only modest growth with the system still running below pre-pandemic levels in 2028.
All of this leaves Josh Colle sitting in an organization he does not control. If he is truly going to handle “strategy” at more than a superficial level, the TTC must take the need for renewal and transparency to heart. Whether the current crop of managers can or will do this is quite another matter.
Steve Munro 
On the topic of the Subway, specifically the Yonge Line, is ATC being used to the full capacity? I’ve been noticing that subway delays are very common now with ATC to the point that there are significant bunch and gaps in service. And there is always “service adjustment” which seem to me to further compound the delays and bunching.
Or has the TTC quietly turned off ATC?
Hope to hear more if you have more information.
Steve: ATC is on and operating, but the service today is nowhere near its capacity. It’s benefits show up when there are parades of trains, and they can run more closely together than before. This is good for clearing stations like Bloor. Running the line at the full capacity ATC could handle required more trains than the TTC owns.
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For a moment I thought Leary had announced that Colle was returning to the TTC to replace him as CEO. A subway derailment leading to no service in Scarborough for years, repeated unscheduled closing, some of the worst streetcar bunching on record, bottom of the barrel rider satisfaction… What’s it going to take to get this guy fired?
Steve: Leary is rumoured to be negotiating his exit, and seems to be feathering the nest for a successor.
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Josh Colle got Rick Leary the job, so Leary is returning the favor. And with Josh Colle being a former TTC Chair/ Councilor, im sure his connections with the rest of council will go well. And also his dad, a current Councilor, I expect Rick Leary to have even more job security for the reminder of his term with this hire.
Wow!
Just looks so unethical, and how bold they are about it.
Another position to look out for, is the Transit Policy job under Jamaal Myers. Any updates on that?
Steve: That has been filled for some time.
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I don’t want to get you or your source in trouble. But Leary working on an exit strategy? I was convinced he was going to stay for the rest of his term to 2026. I guess it makes sense to work on an exit strategy for future employment relations.
That’s some exciting news.
If the rumor is true, I wonder if Jamaal and Chow have already been looking around. I thought Adam Giambrone wasn’t the best choice considering he was a former councilor. But seeing Josh Colle with this recent hire at TTC, Adam might be worthy of another look.
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Whatever year it was, I did a dep to the TTC Board urging AVOIDANCE of any further legitimizing work for any further extension north of the Yonge subway but Mr. Colle Jr. wasn’t convinced, and while thankfully there was a motion by other Commissioners to avoid doing the work/extension, it lost on a 3-3 [tie] I think it was. Tough luck for some of us, I guess. And the federal Liberals were/are also part of problem, though not as severely stinking bad as some other of the ‘polluticians’.
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