Friday, September 8, 2017

PRAISING.....ATTACKING.....TTC....BYFORD


TTC CONSTRUCTION LASTS LONGER THAN PYRAMIDS

There I was with my right arm and cane seized inside the subway door when the train left the Bloor/Yonge station with me still on the platform wondering what jerk was closing the doors and whether I would be able to write with my left hand. 
I ripped my arm out of the train's grasp. Only bruises while the cane was not dented, to my amazement. I tried revenge by shouting "asshole" in the open window of the train but I doubt that failure of a TTC employee heard me.
The crowd certainly did!
The little old lady standing beside me said we should complain about this. Which I thought was strange because she hadn't been the one grabbed by the door. She had just been part of the group who had dutifully waited for everyone to get off, only to see the first person trying to get aboard, me, seized immediately as if I had assaulted someone.
The TTC's technical excuse would have been that the train was packed, another one was right behind and it had space,  and despite my size, which means some call me Big John, I had been missed in the crowd by the employee failing to handle the doors.
Oh yes, it was 10.20 a.m. Which prompts me to wonder, again, why the hell the TTC loses so much money when the subway seems jammed no matter when I chose to ride it from Royal York Station because the vapidity of John Tory, 44 brainless councillors, and a clutch-and-grab of inept over-paid senior officials, means that downtown traffic is the worst in North America by every anecdotal or technical survey.
The TTC spends so much on labour costs, maybe three quarters of the budget because of the unions, that it can't afford to put real sensors into the rubber lips of their subway doors, like tens of thousands of elevator doors in this country have always had, so that they won't close on an arm holding a cane.
But back to the minority who ride the subway while being subsidized extravagantly by their fellow taxpayers.
Those of us who know something about transit after decades of observation beyond just riding the damn system think that Andy Byford, the Grand Pooh-Bah as CEO of the TTC, is a good transit man who must be undercut by the incompetents around him.
My belief stems from an incident where I fell on the stairs of the University/College subway station where for some bizarre reason the escalator was removed at the south-east corner of the intersection despite the hundreds who now have to labour up the stairs to the complex of five hospitals.
I was wearing tri-focals, which create a blur around your feet, so I thought I had reached the landing when I was still one step up. Not unusual for too many of us, but still painful. Then one year later, if you can believe it, I fell at exactly the same place, this time doing more damage.
I brooded about this and finally sent Byford an email at 8.30 in the evening, explaining what had happened and adding I had once been such a knowledgeable supporter of the TTC that I was offered a VP post. I received a reply 10 minutes later. Unbelievable! He had officials look into my suggestion that the last step before a landing or the platform have a special strip, like the yellow edge of the main station platform, to aid people who for some reason can't see very well and find the step and landing blur together.
He sent me their report two weeks later. They didn't agree with me and proposed no change, even though St. Michael's Hospital was said to be doing a similar study involving public buildings because of the many falls at curbs and on stairs.
Ironically, I have noticed since that all subway steps are not coloured the same. The stairs at Royal York  are two colours which form bands running the width, the dark one being the outer one, while at the TTC Davisville headquarters, the dark band is the inner one meaning the grey outer edge blends with the platform.
I still think the edge of the last step should be marked, but at least Byford had his people look into it. Council would still be trying to decide what official should be assigned not to do anything helpful, or maybe a change that would cost a few million after several months of study and advice from at least two consultants known to be friendly to important councillors.
In case you were wondering, I did not send an email to Byford complaining about how the subway car tried to make off with my right arm. I reasoned, ironically, that perhaps it was all my fault for trying to fight the crowds and get on the first train to come to an important station at 10.20 a.m.
You know, as far as the TTC is concerned,  rush hour is all the time.
But beware the alternative. If we're not careful, they will be hiring pushers to shove us in the doors like they do in Japan.



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