This morning (November 20), I was honoured by the Canadian Urban Transit Association with one of their two 2024 Excellence awards. In my case, it was for decades of transit advocacy, and my co-winner, Blaire Sylvester, won for her work transforming Norfolk County’s transit system from a fixed route to an on-demand model. You can read about the award winners and their accomplishments on CUTA’s Award Winners page.
Two other winners, both of Lifetime Achievement Awards, deserve more than a passing “hat tip” from me.
Scott Haskill, retired Chief Strategy & Customer Officer at TTC, had a long career born of an interest not unlike mine riding the transit system with his father. Through decades of changing political contexts, Scott was always a professional, honest and open, to the degree he could be, when talking about transit.
Ted Wickson, who died in January 2024, received the award in memoriam. He worked in various roles at the TTC including the Advertising Department which also housed some of the TTC’s archives. Even after leaving the TTC, he provided deep knowledge of the system’s history, and co-authored a book celebrating the centennial in 2021.
One day early in his career, there was an office downsizing and clear-out. Ted had to cull through thousands of glass-plate negatives to decide which the TTC would keep, and which would be discarded. Several fans descended to rescue items the TTC did not want and provide them a new home. The remaining TTC collection is now in the Toronto Archives, and Ted changed the way the TTC looked at the importance of historical material.
(The subway station design paintings by Sigmund Serafin were among the rescued items, and they stayed in my care for decades until going to the Archives.)
All three of us, and many others in transit management, are unrepentant “fans” of public transit. Less complementary terms we hear include things like “trolley jolly” and “foamer”, and not a few suggestions that we can be ignored because of our monomania. (A recent thread on Facebook had a particularly nasty example of this which I will not repeat.)
Yes, some of us can be obsessive about bus numbering, or fantasy maps, or other arcana, but I can think of many areas (sports, motor cars, plants, Broadway musicals) with equivalently detail-oriented folks who are not ridiculed for their knowledge. In each case, the issue is not what you know but how you use that walking encyclopedia.
People with long, deep memories can be troublesome for so-called professionals. In some transit circles (you know who you are) a common “communications” technique is to co-opt people as cheerleaders. “You love transit so you must love our project.” When that does not work, turn to ridicule and gaslighting. “You’re the only person who isn’t on board.” I hate to break the news, but it is not my job, nor that of any community group, to provide cover for bad planning and management, and especially not for incompetence.
When I started this blog back in 2006, one goal was to provide an alternative, detailed view of transit issues in Toronto beyond the level local media would cover. (There still were local media then, although the decline had set in.) There was a growing interest in all things urban, how cities worked, and how Toronto could be a better place. I have watched a generation of urban activists grow up, and I hope to have contributed to their knowledge of transit’s role and possibilities.
In turn, I have learned a lot listening to all those voices, and my own voice is less lonely today. Toronto is a better place for all of them, for that critical mass of activists.
Sitting here with my nice glass plaque, I think back over a lot of Toronto history, good transit years, and some that were horrid. But they should not be forgotten. Some of the pitfalls of the 1990-95 recession resurfaced only recently in the pandemic’s aftermath and the revelation that TTC maintenance was not quite up to scratch. Political cycles when we try to just “get by” can be catastrophic, although the effects are not immediately obvious.
There is a continued need for transit advocacy, holding management and political feet to the fire. I look forward to seeing the work of new generations who may, in time, get their own awards.
Postscript:
Personal thanks to Chris Prentice for my nomination to this award, and to Andy Byford who provided a glowing letter of endorsement.
Steve Munro 