TTC must earn outstanding title

Seeing Toronto named the “best” in any category would normally be cause for chest-thumping celebration.

The recent selection of the TTC as North America’s most outstanding public transit system of the year, however, has mainly been an opportunity to scratch our heads in wonder.

The award, handed out by the American Public Transportation Association, has been roundly mocked and derided in newspaper columns and on social media. After all, how many Toronto commuters can honestly say they are satisfied with, let alone ecstatic about, local transit service?

Rather than hold this prize up as a great accomplishment, the TTC would be better served to view this distinction as a kind of promissory note for future success — an honour that, while it has already been bestowed, must now be earned.

At a press conference Monday, transit commission CEO Andy Byford attributed the win to the TTC’s ongoing modernization plan. And, to be fair, significant updates have been made. Dozens of new, higher-capacity subway trains are now in service on Line 1, formerly known as the Yonge-University line.

But riders of Line 2, formerly known as the BloorDanforth line, are still completely reliant on subways that date primarily from the 1970s.

The TTC’s streetcar fleet, a transit feature that truly sets Toronto apart from other cities, is undergoing a gradual overhaul, with shiny new cars replacing outmoded old ones.

But the process, for which the TTC pledged Bombardier $1billion, has been seriously flawed.

As the Star reported in May, Toronto should have been enjoying over 120 new streetcars by spring 2017. Instead, we had 35.

The quality of those new streetcars has already been called into question, with some of the vehicles experiencing “significant technical failures” much sooner than expected.

Granted, new vehicles are not the be-all, end-all of an effective subway system. New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority serves more passengers and a far greater number of routes and stations with a subway fleet that includes a number of trains over 50 years old.

Toronto transit, meanwhile, is mired in a steady stream of day-to-day difficulties.

Recent statistics show the TTC averages 58 service delays per day. Between 2014 and 2016 the number of annual delays actually increased.

Many of those delays are caused by factors outside of the commission’s control, like passengers becoming ill, or suspicious packages being left on TTC property. Many others, however, are unquestionably within TTC control, like equipment failures or staff occasionally refusing to work.

The move toward long-term modernization has often come at customers’ short-term expense. Large sections of the subway are regularly shut down on weekends while the TTC does work on the tracks or upgrades its signal system.

In recent years, the TTC has seemed frequently to be playing catch-up, fixing broken air conditioners on subways trains that reached 32C last summer, or repairing pneumatic systems that froze up on streetcars in the winter of 2015. This is not yet a transit system deserving of awards and accolades. It could be, one day. But that will require strong management of serious problems like Bombardier’s streetcar delays. It will require strategic planning to better balance service upgrades with customer convenience. And, as the Star’s Edward Keenan writes, it will require continued funding from the city.

The mission statement to modernize is in place. The recognition of our system as world-class has been attained. All that’s left now is to live up to it.

Let the Toronto Transit Commission’s recent award be a promise of things to come