I've been denied back door boarding on streetcars several times, once as recently as a couple of weeks ago. It boggles my mind how ill informed some drivers remain. I guess it's a microcosm of the "I don't give a shit" reality of these union jobs for life employees.
That's what I hate about the TTC--a complete lack of care for the experience of their customers. It's proof of payment, and the rules say it's all door boarding. After POP rollout on the 509, I was regularly been denied rear-door boarding by CLRV/ALRV drivers, probably about 80-90% of the time, even during peak hours at very busy stops, which is utterly absurd. It has gone down to about 20-30% in the past couple of months since system-wide POP, though it should be noted the 509 got POP back in March 2015. What's more is that back when 80-90% of the CLRVs on 509 were refusing to open their rear doors, I'd always go to the front and ask the driver why they didn't open the rear doors, and about half the time they said the route
was not POP, to which I asked them to take a look out the front doors to the large placard stapled to the stop pole that said it had been made POP as of whatever date; the other half the time they said it was none of my business/they didn't feel like it/some other rude reply angrily yelled at me.
For the first few months,
every single time this happened I made a point of filing a complaint with the TTC, recording the exact location+car number+time of the incident. After filing a complaint for every single incident and reaching the 100 complaint milestone a few months in, I was getting irritated by the fact that at least three quarters of my complaints had an e-mail acknowledgement but
no follow up despite always requesting one, and the other quarter had something like "we appreciate you taking the time to contact us, we will be sure to address this matter". Also, amazingly, even a few months after POP was rolled out I got at least one or two replies a month from TTC customer care informing me that the 509 was not a POP route--upon e-mailing them a link to the POP page on the TTC's website, I was normally not replied to again. Despite being told they would "address the matter" I noticed that it was often the same drivers on the 509, over and over again, doing this, indicating that no, nothing was being done. The entire time, including asking to speak to supervisors, I received nothing but runarounds and empty promises that okay, we apologize,
this time we'll actually do something about your complaint for once.
This sort of thing used to disappoint me, but fortunately I no longer expect base competence or decency out of the TTC or its operators. The cherry on top of the cake was when, a few days ago, I showed my metropass to the driver at the front doors on a CLRV, and he acted annoyed and condescendingly informed me that he didn't need to see my pass since it was a proof of payment route. There are multiple reports to @ttchelps of the same thing--customers confused because most operators yell at you for not showing a pass at the front doors (while the rules say you don't have to, and both Brad Ross and @ttchelps have both confirmed you don't have to) while others go out of their way to inform you that you don't have to.
