At today’s special meeting of the TTC Board, the expectation was that Rick Leary would be dismissed as CEO. This was not to be, for reasons yet, if ever, to be revealed.
Problems with Leary’s performance go back some years, and he is Andy Byford’s worst legacy. His original hiring was intended to bring a focus to operations as Byford’s deputy based on a supposed reputation from his stint at York Region improving operations there. Needless to say, there is a huge difference between a sprawling bus network with mostly infrequent service (YRT has fewer than 600 buses) and the TTC’s bus, streetcar and subway operations.
Leary came to YRT following his retirement under a cloud from Boston’s transit agency, the MBTA, quite a step down in the scale of systems. In Boston, a serious collision on the Green Line (the streetcar subway which has been a major part of the City’s transit system for over a century) led to a Nation Transportation Safety Board condemnation of the safety culture at the transit agency (then the MBTA). Leary was supposed to address the report at an MBTA Board meeting, but never showed up, and retired shortly afterward.
When Byford left TTC to become President of the New York City Transit Authority (one component of the larger Metropolitan Transportation Authority), Leary succeeded to the CEO’s role. There were warning signs of problems from early days with the abrupt departure of many of Byford’s TTC management team, and stories of a hostile work environment. Some were pushed out, some waited until their pension numbers were favourable.
Leary was known to have a quick temper, and stories of a poisonous work environment were common. TTC Board meetings became tightly scripted sessions with rehearsed presentations and responses to likely questions. Leary fit in well with the Tory era which, we now know, had a strong desire for news that “everything is all right” and the minimization of problems, especially fiscal ones.
Labour-management relations left a lot to be desired, although Leary’s moves to outsource some aspects of system maintenance responded both to the hawkish stance of some Board members, and carried over a program started under Byford.
Previous articles here have flagged the shortcomings of the CEO’s Report with metrics that hide more than they tell. Service quality is reduced to “on time performance” with the naive sense that vehicles leaving on time from terminals will magically provide even service across their routes. That, in turn, led to a scheduling regime that favoured padded travel times, and a “no short turns” operating policy that did as much harm as the problem it was intended to fix. More subtly, what was lost was the need to actively manage service, including the necessary skilled staffing, to deal with constantly changing conditions.
Another troubling problem is the size of the transit fleet unmatched by service. This problem existed before the covid-era service cuts, but worsened as service was reduced. Many elderly and/or less reliable vehicles could be sidelined without affecting service. However, as new buses are delivered, the excuse of an old fleet will not hold up, and the fleet should be out on the street, not sitting in garages and carhouses.
This has staffing and budget implications that have not been part of TTC’s planning. The question is not just can we run more service, but how much and how soon. Leary’s history on that point is dubious. After John Tory’s election as Mayor in 2014, he acknowledged that the system had been starved for resources under the Ford administration, a position for which then-candidate Olivia Chow was ridiculed during the campaign. Tory bought the TTC an extra 100 buses, but almost all of them went into the spare pool, not into regular service.
The degree of collusion between TTC management and John Tory’s office was on full show during the 2023 budget debates when the TTC, that is to say Leary, refused to release details of service changes even when they were requested by Councillors and Board members. Keeping secrets won’t hide the information, only delay the public’s seeing what happens with service on the street.
At the end of Byford’s era at TTC, there was a plan for Line 2 renewal including a replacement fleet, new carhouse and yard, automatic train control, power and station upgrades. This plan never saw the light of day, and Leary instead pushed a scheme to rebuild the existing Line 2 fleet. This would avoid a capital spending crunch, but would also limit service growth, including on the Scarborough extension, and expose the TTC to a potentially unreliable aging fleet of subway cars. In time Leary reversed his position, but key years and momentum were lost.
Most troubling has been the matter of safety. In June 2020, there was a “near miss” at Osgoode Station where a train leaving the pocket track nearly collided with a northbound train on the main line. The issue here is not the signal design, training and operational procedures that made this possible, but that Leary withheld any report of the incident from the TTC Board almost a year after the incident. This should have been a firing offense, but Leary remained in his position with an explicit Board directive that major incidents of this nature be reported immediately.
The SRT derailment that abruptly ended service on that route in July 2023 was very public. The full investigative report into its causes has still not been released although an overview was presented at September’s Board meeting. At this point it is not clear whether deferred maintenance was the culprit, but there are unhappy echoes here of another period of TTC financial constraint and maintenance cuts that led to the crash at Russell Hill.
Again the issue is whether a growing problem was not reported, or worse not even detected. This scenario has been seen on other transit systems where operations degrade through make-shift arrangements like slow orders over poor track while the repair backlog grows. We simply do not know the current state of the TTC, and the political focus has been entirely on maintaining service.
Those who follow TTC announcements of delays will recognize the frequently-used term “operational problems”. This can embrace a wide variety of issues ranging from operators who do not show up for their shift to disabled vehicles, derailments or power system failures. Over Leary’s tenure, the amount of information giving specific explanations for problems has declined sharply, and Leary himself is rarely seen as a spokesman and explainer for the TTC. This is much unlike Andy Byford who could articulate problems and more importantly a desire to fix whatever underlying problems might exist.
If Leary had been removed, the challenge faced by a new CEO would lie in rebuilding the management structure, gaining the trust and dedication of 15,000 employees, presenting a credible and thorough recovery plan and budget for Toronto’s transit system, all while keeping the lights on and the wheels turning. Leary is not the man for that job.
No, gentle reader, I am not going to write yet another article about what the TTC should be doing. We’ve been around that bush a few times recently. The context yet to be set is the amount of money the TTC will have both for day-to-day service and maintenance, as well as capital funding for key projects.
Toronto’s political preoccupation, with good reason, is on the housing and affordability crisis. Transit will not be front of the line for funding, although it is a key service. Into this uncertain future should come a new CEO and revived management.
This is a significant failure for Mayor Chow. A too-timid TTC Board has missed the chance for renewal of its senior management.
Steve Munro 
Do you have readers at City Hall? Councillors? Members of their staff? Please assure me that you’re not preaching into a void here!
Steve: Yes, I can assure you that I have an audience at City Hall.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Is there actually any evidence they were even discussing Leary? Couldn’t it have just been some other business that they wanted to keep confidential and then someone just made up the rumour based on assumption.
Steve: I have it on very solid authority that this was the topic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Even without outsourcing and competition, it may help to have an authority-operator framework between the city and the TTC, with objectives and performance metrics defined, monitored and reported on by the city. This would require a team that does not exist at the moment. And it would also help to have a deputy mayor focused on mobility overall.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What bothers me, is that if one goes to speak at the TTC Board for some strange reason, they won’t let you speak on Rick Leary’s CEO monthly report at the top of the agenda.
“Freedom of Expression… but only the items we ALLOW you to speak on”
Steve: This was a change introduced by, of all people, Adam Giambrone years ago to have reports that were “action items” and “information items”. Speaking to an “information item” can be challenging. The TTC’s procedure provide:
This is not a helpful restriction because it puts some key items beyond debate. Information reports also cannot be use by Board members to introduce motions as that would be deemed to be new business without notice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m very interested to learn more. With what is public so far it’s difficult to classify as a failure vs a missed opportunity. Certainly something needs to change; I have friends within the TTC feeling burnout and lack of trust, with riders who’ve lost trust too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why didn’t Olivia just use her strong mayor powers to oust Leary?
Steve: The TTC is a “Local board”, not a “division” of the City and hire/fire of the head of a local board is not in the strong mayor powers.
I cannot help thinking that somebody didn’t count the votes and went into the meeting thinking it was a done deal, but was surprised.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d be interested to know who voted no, and why. Oh to be a fly on the wall.
I’m certain Matlow and Myers were in favour of removing Leary. I would think Moise was also in favour given he’s an NDP and would side with the Mayors wishes. I’m equally confident that Holyday opposed (is the Pope Catholic?!). I wonder if Saxe’s legal background clouded her judgment (may have wanted to avoid a messy aftermath)? And not surprised Ainslie voted no.
What’s your thoughts?
Steve: First I am waiting to see the list of who actually attended. I don’t want to make assumptions before ferreting out whatever inside info might emerge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
One of the news stations needs to do an investigative report on Leary.
LikeLiked by 2 people
He has everyone in fear of losing their jobs then shuts them up with payouts and NDAs once he pushes them out the door. He’s a sociopath who’s been a plague to the TTC since he got on all those years ago. No one is willing to put what he’s done pen to paper and put their name on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a rumour circulating that they didn’t count the votes ahead of time and that the process wasn’t fair.
According to Brian Lilley at the Toronto Sun, only Myers and Matlow voted to oust Rick Leary. He also claimed the successor was being flown in i.e. Adam Giambrone.
The process not being fair likely had to do with the fact that Rick Leary is currently on vacation unable to defend himself.
Take it how you will but they played their cards and I can see Rick Leary being pressured to resign.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Moise ran with progressive backers but is very much a Liberal and is very fond of Tory. His vote is not necessarily reliably aligned with Chow. He has faced some constituent pressure though – notably a lot of them were upset when he rushed to endorse Bailão. I wonder if in camera he’s less concerned with appearances.
Steve: Both Moise and Saxe are “progressives” who have been rather disappointing. That said, it is clear that the basic advance work of counting the votes and making sure supporters showed up simply was not done. This is Politics 101.
LikeLike
Mr. Munro, you also left out how Mr. Leary has personally stood down security efforts which includes but not limited to using mall-style security officers, refusing to bolster SC ranks, firing SCs for making an arrest on the 501 just to name a few.
Steve: I left out a lot of things.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Does ‘the public’ actually know when Mr Leary’s contract will expire? One assumes that if the Board were thinking of dismissing him it must not be ending very soon.
Steve: No, we don’t know when the contract is up. There was a rumour that it was renewed recently, but I don’t know who was Mayor at the time if so.
LikeLike
This is indicative of a political failure. And it’s going to cost the Commission a lot of money.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Leary looks like he outplayed Chow and Jamaal, all while being on vacation. You really can’t make this up. This is a failure for Chow and Jamaal.
Rick Leary might have to reintroduce himself at the next board meeting, and have his own song, in response to Adam Giamborne. That’s going to be awkward.
Leary truly is the big man on campus.
Rumour has it that other managers from various TTC departments were given the pink slips? Can you confirm Steve? But I guess if they weren’t successful in getting rid of Leary, the rumours might not be true.
I wonder if this will impact Adam Giamborne return, and instead go with someone else for CEO. I also hope Adam Giamborne didn’t quit his job thinking he got a secure gig in being TTC CEO. Is Adam Giamborne currently unemployed?
I guess we won’t know much until Rick Leary is back from vacation. Hopefully with a tan and probably a big smile.
Steve: The TTC’s HR Committee sure has a lot to talk about, but whether they will is another matter.
LikeLike
From The Star dated March 31, 2022…
Rick Leary is not worth more than Andy Byford, even with inflation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really annoying to see Leary try to make jokes during meetings and laugh in a crazy like a former transit chair Stintz. On top of that he seems to very secretive make the work atmosphere not a good one, and not making good changes for transit. I hope in the future they do have the votes to remove him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So, I don’t know in-depth details of Toronto politics, but I don’t see how Leary is a winner here. As I understand it, Chow lost this attempt at getting rid of him, but knowing that the person who is _effectively_ your boss wants you gone doesn’t make any management easier. Does Leary have any other allies in positions of power? It’s not like the province will suddenly give TTC money or resources when he asks. Or is he being kept in the job purely for sake of spiting the mayor for a few months? He might get the salary, but I am guessing that CEO contract given out under Tory has generous severance that make this much less of a factor. What does he have to smile about, a run for mayor in 2026?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Steve, given this entire sad, sorry episode, I’m reminded of a famous quote, “If you come for the King, you better not miss”. Unfortunately, Chow et al, not only missed but missed badly, making themselves look foolish and embarrassing at not having the experience or the ability to ‘read the room’ as it were. In advancing hastily and haphazardly, Chow, Myers and their advisors arrogantly assumed the votes were there for the taking, while making no apparent attempt beforehand to ensure they were.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Steve been reading you more the 40 years. As an ex TTC PLANNER, Superintendent, who left 22 years ago, and been working in USA in transit could not agree more about Leary’s temper hostile work tendencies as secretive approach. He is no David Gunn.
Steve: The blog is only 17 years old, so you must have been reading me somewhere else 40 years ago 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anyone who didn’t vote to have Rick Dreary Leary shown the door is proof yet again that many of those with the power don’t actually USE Toronto’s transit system.
For, if they did, they would see Every. Single. Day.:
As stated above, at least Andy Byford was a comparative apologist to City Council and the then transit-unfriendly TTC Board, fighting for scraps, whereas Mr. “Leery” won’t even apologize as he gives the side-eye to anything that might prove remotely helpful to transit users or the morale of all his staff. Talk about rising to your level of incompetence and staying there….
It is amazing – and amazingly sad – how the very real problems of “ego” and “inertia/inaction” of Rob Ford, Doug Ford, right-leaning councillors on the TTC Board and John Tory have wasted 10+ years of potential progress towards realizing a *real* “better way” transit system. But, again: if you don’t actually use the TTC, what do you care?!
For too long, the system rot has (had) to be dug out at the roots which, ironically, means, in Rick Leary’s case, starting from the top.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Leary’s lack of performance and not releasing data led to not pissing off board members that think “no news is good news”.
Another factor is the TTC staff attitude -including unions- : your job is safe if you do nothing and say nothing.
Other than people facing employees (that have no clue about Leary), the rest of TTC staff enjoying a pleasant -equal to couple of hours – work shift.
Whoever objects, will be audited and their performance will be questioned (although they may have worked twice of their peers, such as 4 hours per day).
Who has not sinned can throw a stone!
Try to find someone without sin!
Steve: I have a problem with the allegation that non-public facing TTC employees work only two hours a day. As for finding someone without sin, I suspect that you won’t find one looking in the mirror.
LikeLike
C’mon now, how do you or anyone else expect Rick to see how the service is operating when he never takes it or understands what his customers go through on a daily basis. It’s hard to see what’s happening on the TTC from behind the wheel of his F150 from his home to his basement parking spot at 1900 Yonge Street.
LikeLike