TTC has improved... More please
Six years ago, a TTC Customer Service Advisory Panel issued a series of recommendations that made my head ache: it proposed an “audit” of the TTC’s “brand”; it fretted there were “few healthy food options within subway stations”; no word of a lie, it suggested slowing down surface vehicle routes to save people the indignity of running for a bus and missing it.
It was well- intentioned lunacy. If you’re on your third short- turning streetcar of the day, a rude driver might make you angrier — but regardless, your customer service score will be zero. In transit, “customer service” is little more than getting people where they need to be on time.
Under CEO Andy Byford, who recently marked five years on the job, some of Toronto’s major transit irritants about riding have diminished. “We have dramatically reduced the number of short- turns, long the source of complaint in this city,” Byford told a lunch audience at the Board of Trade on Tuesday. There are fewer and shorter subway delays, he said; stations are cleaner and safer; the shiny new air- conditioned streetcars are much nicer to ride; as Presto catches on, the dystopian insanity of waiting in line to exchange cash for tokens will disappear.
The Spadina s ubway extension will open in December, Byford noted. On Tuesday he sounded more bullish t han ever about the prospects Bombardier might meet its 2019 deadline for streetcar deliveries. ( I wouldn’t bet on it.) Automatic train control, which allows trains to operate closer together, should make rush hour on the Yonge line less hellish.
And, as promised, as of Jan. 1 you can ride the entire system with your Presto card, with no need of backup cash or transfers. If readers are out of order, TTC spokesman Brad Ross says drivers should ask you to tap when you exit the system. (If anyone tells you otherwise, please drop me a line.) Anecdotally, I’ ll say Metrolinx even seems to have fixed its flamboyantly dysfunctional Presto reload machines.
When improvements happen gradually, they can be difficult to appreciate. But customer satisfaction scores have trended upward under Byford. In the third quarter of 2016 it was 70 per cent. If you spend a lot of time among TTC- haters, t hat might sound high. In fact it was a big drop: a year earlier the score was 81 per cent. That dissatisfaction was concentrated on the Bloor-Danforth line, and Byford knows why: those ridiculously hot trains.
“It was no surprise to me that we saw that dip in customer satisfaction after we’d had all the problems with air- con on Line 2,” he said. “Without question, ( service reliability and quality) is the biggest driver” — which is just what I was ranting about six years ago.
One might reasonably argue all these improvements are nothing less than what Torontonians should expect. But Byford has been taking a victory lap lately. In November, he suggested he the TTC would be not just the envy of North America but something approaching “utopia.”
He made no apologies for his optimism on Tuesday. “My strongly held belief is that the job of a leader is to present a vision of the possible,” he told the Board of Trade. “I remain convinced that we will deliver on our vision of a transit system that makes Toronto proud.”
If that’s delusional, I’ ll still applaud the ambition. By rights, Byford should long ago have been driven mad. A transit CEO needs clear, reasonably evidence- based direction from political overseers who don’t constantly change their minds. A transit CEO needs to be able to count on stable, predictable funding. A transit CEO needs a city that won’t keep scores of streetcar passengers waiting so six people in six cars can turn left; a city that doesn’t allow traffic and parking as usual on major streets when the subway shuts down. A transit CEO needs a reliable supplier of rolling stock.
Byford has none of those things. ( Ironically enough, Tuesday’s Board of Trade event was sponsored by Bombardier, which recently forgot how to build streetcars. A senior executive introduced Byford.)
Transit riders have cause to be optimistic right now. Service is improving, the system is expanding and, crucially, money is flowing from three levels of government. Some on city council act like that will last forever — as if reopening the Scarborough subway debate for the eighth time presents no risk, only opportunity.
It won’t last forever. Imperfect, late, over budget and clumsily implemented as many recent TTC improvements have been, they add up to something significant. Torontonians should demand better, certainly — but not at the expense of more, and not at the expense of faster.