In today’s Star, Murray Whyte’s article states that I never worked for the TTC. That is an error, although one from very long ago.
I worked at the TTC for three years from 1966 to 1969, but decided that it was clear that there were limits to what could be done within the organization especially starting off from a lowly position. Streetcars for Toronto came along in 1972 launching my activist career.
This post is a summary of the major issues I have seen so far in the CIS data for the King route. The supporting detailed analyses will follow in separate posts, but I wanted to get the main issues out early so that readers would see where this is going.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimers
I wish to thank Bob Boutilier and Steve Perron at the TTC for making available the data that allowed this and many other analyses to come.
The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the position of the TTC. They provided the data. I did the analysis, and I am sure that there are changes and improvements that will come to light with feedback, official or otherwise.
For those readers who are ATU 113 members, I want to clearly state that my intent is not to point fingers at anyone, but to provide some of the raw material needed to address how service can be improved. Although CIS records them, I specifically asked that operator badge numbers not be included in the data I received from the TTC.
Inevitably, some dubious operating practices, most commonly “soaking” (running early so that your vehicle is near-empty and the operator behind is overworked), are clearly visible in some of the charts, but this is fairly rare. Indeed, I must ask how two vehicles can be left running nose to tail for hours with no intervention. The responsibility falls at least as much on line management as on the operators involved. Other problems are evident and far more common.
Steve Munro 