3 collectors charged in TTC fare scam

[Dilla]

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/673264

Up to $20,000 stolen at subway stations
Jul 29, 2009 04:30 AM
ROBYN DOOLITTLE
STAFF REPORTER
Three TTC employees are accused of stealing as much as $20,000 in fares over the course of a year – less than three dollars at a time.

In the past week, three ticket collectors at some of the city's busiest subway stops – Union, Queen and Eglinton, all on the Yonge line – have been charged with theft under $5,000, as well as multiple counts of failing to collect a fare.

Toronto Transit Commission officials were alerted to the alleged fraud by a concerned rider, who noticed that after paying cash, they were simply waved through the turnstile by the collector. The employee is supposed to pass the fare back through the booth's window for the customer to deposit in the collection box.

"There's a couple of scenarios," said Toronto police Det. Rob Ermacora. "Someone will come up and give $5, but instead of breaking the bill, what happens is they'll give back the two and a quarter and keep the $2.75 (cash fare)."

Similarly, he continued, if someone bought four tokens, the suspect would pass the rider three, then pocket the fourth instead of putting it in the fare box.

The TTC's special constables launched an investigation with the assistance of Toronto police using surveillance cameras – there are two pointed at every collection booth – and undercover officers.

Yesterday morning, Toilane Fountain, 57, of Toronto, was arrested at the Queen station. Anthony Alfano, 65, of Whitby, and Kiran Sachdev, 56, of Toronto, were charged last Wednesday.

Each has been suspended without pay and will be fired if convicted, an official said.

Sachdev made more than $125,000 last year, earning a spot on the Ontario government's so-called sunshine list of public-sector salaries published annually.

He is to appear in court Sept. 3. The other two accused are scheduled to appear Aug. 31.

The transit commission estimates tens of thousands of dollars have been stolen, said TTC chair Adam Giambrone, who added the agency collects $900 million a year in fares.

With files from Tess Kalinowski

Yet another reason to automate this job. As if we needed it.

 

[Swamp Thing]

Holy crap.

$900 million a year in fares sounds like a lot. But I guess it goes pretty quickly when you're paying fare collectors more than $125,000 a year.

 

[DavidH]

Holy crap.
$900 million a year in fares sounds like a lot. But I guess it goes pretty quickly when you're paying fare collectors more than $125,000 a year.

They're not. This guy is someone who put in an incredible amount of overtime and basically spends his life sitting in a box. It's not typical of most fare collectors by a long shot.

Of course, this gets into the question of whether this amount of overtime should trigger the hiring of new collectors instead.

 

[rbt]

Of course, this gets into the question of whether this amount of overtime should trigger the hiring of new collectors instead.

A single ticket collector at this level? No. 5 or 6 at this level? Perhaps.

What we don't know is the percentage of shifts which were over-staffed (nobody called in sick and spares were left with nothing to do) or right-staffed.

As a manager, I'm going to call the person who takes overtime regularly since it means calling fewer people. If overtime is still granted by hand, this would cause a very small number of people to get a majority of the overtime available. If they call me, the manager, daily to ask if extra work is available you better believe they'll get it.

530 shifts per year could be over-staffed and a few individuals could still get 100 extra shifts per year of overtime. Assumption of 2 shifts per day, 365 days per year for a ticket collector.


Spreading overtime amongst more staff is probably something to consider. Let everybody put their name into a computer system with availability and have the computer prefer people who don't work much overtime. Overall pay will be the same but there will be fewer people on the $100K list; so the public image might be better.

I'm also assuming the computerized system would reduce manager workloads a touch, making it a break-even or better proposition.

 

[Dilla]

Or, we could just replace these people with machines (like most modern cities in on the planet) and overtime would no longer be a problem ever again. That sounds like the easiest solution to me.

 

[DavidH]

Or, we could just replace these people with machines (like most modern cities in on the planet) and overtime would no longer be a problem ever again. That sounds like the easiest solution to me.

"Easiest"? Well, if you ignore implementing Presto across the board, building barriers or some other system to prevent people from just jumping turnstiles in unmanned stations, and addressing the customer service problems for people who need assistance.

It may well be worthwhile - but "easy", it isn't going to be. The "easiest" thing, as always, is business as usual.

 

[Dilla]

We don't have to wait until presto. The turnstiles would be repleaced with others like what we have in unmanned stations already, or London, England's. Then machines to dispense tokens, day, weekly, and monthly passes. This would all pay for itself over time. This will have to be done when the Presto cards come into play, anyway, so let's just get going on it now.

 

[hkskyline]

They should automate the whole process and have people buy tickets at machines only.

Alternatively they can start issuing receipts and if customers don't get one they ride for free.

 

[DavidH]

We don't have to wait until presto. The turnstiles would be repleaced with others like what we have in unmanned stations already, or London, England's. Then machines to dispense tokens, day, weekly, and monthly passes. This would all pay for itself over time. This will have to be done when the Presto cards come into play, anyway, so let's just get going on it now.

And what about people who don't use tokens now? The machines would have to read tickets and monthly passes - and then how do we ensure that people are using the *correct* media and not - for example - inserting senior tickets in when they are not seniors?

I'm not against the idea - the idea of having to wait in line to enter a subway station is ludicrous. It's just that doing it now would involve spending a lot of money solving problems that would be solved anyway in a few years, and then spending more money redoing things when Presto comes.

If this were a cheap thing to do, I'd agree - why wait. But the costs to do it now would be substantial and a lot of those costs (e.g. more vending machines in stations) would be obsolete in a few years when Presto comes to the TTC. How likely is it that money will be available for a short-term rework of the fare control system when Presto is coming? It's far more likely that it would simply be dealt with as part of Presto.

 

[Dilla]

David H:

Point taken, you're right. It's just a shame it isn't moving along faster.

 

[AGTO]

The machines would have to read tickets and monthly passes

Eliminate the tickets and continue using the existing card readers on the turnstyles.

It's just that doing it now would involve spending a lot of money solving problems that would be solved anyway in a few years, and then spending more money redoing things when Presto comes.

They're spending money putting bike racks on busses, installing aircondidtioning on streetcars (arent' they replacing them?) They spent millions on automated stop announcements...because the drivers aren't capable of calling out the stop themselves?
they spent millions on cameras and 4 to 8 channel DVR's for each streetcar and bus.
I don't think "future planning" is their forte.

 

[DavidH]

They're spending money putting bike racks on busses, installing aircondidtioning on streetcars (arent' they replacing them?) They spent millions on automated stop announcements...because the drivers aren't capable of calling out the stop themselves?
they spent millions on cameras and 4 to 8 channel DVR's for each streetcar and bus.

I'm not arguing with any of that - but I still don't see funding available for a Pre-Presto change to fare control. And if it were, I'd rather just see the money spent on getting Presto going sooner.

In fairness to the TTC, they may have the hardest time implementing Presto of ANY of the transit operators, because they are the only ones that have to deal with fare-controlled areas in subway stations and what happens to those if you no longer have an attendant sitting there. By comparison, GO's physical implementation is simple.

 

[AGTO]

I'm not arguing with any of that - but I still don't see funding available for a Pre-Presto change to fare control.

You're arguing that they don't have the money for presto, and I agree...they don't have the money for this other stuff either.

 

[DavidH]

You're arguing that they don't have the money for presto, and I agree...they don't have the money for this other stuff either.

Well, I was arguing more that they don't have money for costly short-lifetime things that will be replaced by Presto. And unlike Presto - where there is some federal/provincial funding and at least the chance more - there is no chance of funding an expensive stopgap to automate (old style, that is) the current fare system. But yeah, money for their Presto implementation is in short supply, and they HAVE to do that, at least on some lines (TC, streetcar lines as they will go POP) and it will make no sense to not do it systemwide then. Given that, adding another short-lifetime fare project on will just make matters worse.

If Presto weren't coming, then yes, I'd say at least consider automating things

 

[AGTO]

Well, I was arguing more that they don't have money for costly short-lifetime things that will be replaced by Presto.

yes, I get it, I'm agreeing with you.
The streetcars are goin gto be replaced with in the next few years, yet they're spending millions on Aircondidtioning, security systems and bike racks. These are short lifetime things.