TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[yrt+viva=1system]

Steve Munro now has his take on this up............and he's no more charitable than any of us have been; he stopped one step short of saying the Mayor is actively spreading a lie w/the hype over service increases, but he is clearly not amused; and I don't blame him!

Service Improvements That Aren’t

Today, May 12, the TTC implemented many changes to its services as detailed in my previous article. TTC Service Changes Effective May 12, 2024 Earlier in the week, on May 7, the Mayor Chow and…

stevemunro.ca

We need to get the mainstream media to pick up on Steve's piece here and get a mic in the face of TTC Chair Myers and the Mayor.

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

TTC Management (including Rick Leary) hides and deceive the Board by hiding data or spinning data in a way to make it all is happy-go-lucky with the system. When it is clearly not. In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

 

[Northern Light]

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

The Mayor's office is not is not unfamiliar with Steve Munro, and many others who could and would provide some objective advice, some even for free, and more for pay, which that office can fund.

No excuses.

Also, I have a day job and its not in transit, and yet I have no difficulty reading the service summary, I don't understand why it would be too complex for some. Be that as it may, its easy to provide a straight-line directive. "Improvement shall be definied as a shorter wait time for vehicles as experienced by the rider"

What concerns me here is how much the mayor's office and the chair's office knew this was a load of @#$@.

If they did and put it out anyways, that's awful; but it might actually be worse if they're as obtuse as you suggest.

In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

Now this just isn't accurate, the TTC (the Commission) is very much controlled by the Mayor/City; and that Commission does have hiring/firing power over the TTC CEO and can claim additional senior hiring/firing authority should it wish.

If the Mayor's office would like a list of legally sufficient reasons to terminate Mr.Leary's contract I'd be only too happy to oblige.

Its a choice not to exercise the power available to one's office.

Let''s add, that if they really wanted to avoid a nasty, open fight w/Leary, they could just buy out his contract, that would be 'mint' from his point of view, and I would contend very much undeserved; but to the City its hardly a rounding error and it would be worth every penny to get good quality management installed.

 

[DSC]

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

TTC Management (including Rick Leary) hides and deceive the Board by hiding data or spinning data in a way to make it all is happy-go-lucky with the system. When it is clearly not. In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

Yes, of course Councillors (and civilian TTC board members) cannot know anything but some of them DO seem to know nothing. I am not in transportation but can understand at least some of the Reports they get and if they ever used the TTC themselves they would know that the whole system is VERY poorly managed! I think the current crew of Board members MAY be a bit better than normal, Dianne Saxe seems to ask good questions and the new Chair (Myers) also seems to be more on top of things than some I have seen.

 

[DirectionNorth]

The Mayor's office is not is not unfamiliar with Steve Munro, and many others who could and would provide some objective advice, some even for free, and more for pay, which that office can fund.

No excuses.

Also, I have a day job and its not in transit, and yet I have no difficulty reading the service summary, I don't understand why it would be too complex for some. Be that as it may, its easy to provide a straight-line directive. "Improvement shall be definied as a shorter wait time for vehicles as experienced by the rider"

What concerns me here is how much the mayor's office and the chair's office knew this was a load of @#$@.

If they did and put it out anyways, that's awful; but it might actually be worse if they're as obtuse as you suggest.

By their own standards, it's technically^1 the truth. Lies, damned lies, and statistics, as they say.

It is definitely fair to say that someone at the City, whether that be TTC staff, Rick Leary's office, or Chow's office, made the decision to intentionally mislead the public on TTC service.

Now this just isn't accurate, the TTC (the Commission) is very much controlled by the Mayor/City; and that Commission does have hiring/firing power over the TTC CEO and can claim additional senior hiring/firing authority should it wish.

If the Mayor's office would like a list of legally sufficient reasons to terminate Mr.Leary's contract I'd be only too happy to oblige.

Its a choice not to exercise the power available to one's office.

Let''s add, that if they really wanted to avoid a nasty, open fight w/Leary, they could just buy out his contract, that would be 'mint' from his point of view, and I would contend very much undeserved; but to the City its hardly a rounding error and it would be worth every penny to get good quality management installed.

It's probably more accurate to say that they don't care.

Even though there (may be) are legitimate reason(s) to fire Leary, I'd suggest that they let him go quietly anyways, unless it's really egregious. An open fight would be really nasty, and IMO, the last thing a new (and hopefully competent) CEO needs hanging over their head right after taking over. ^2

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

Agreed. Quality transit commentary is so difficult to come by these days. I don't think @Steve Munro is active here anymore, but this work is appreciated.

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^1 if you squint really hard and ignore the statistics that actually matter to transit users
^2 the only danger is that the press questions the reasons for paying Leary that sum, which would require the (volume of) evidence that he was performing poorly. Politically, Chow can do this now, and spin the hiring decision as "something John Tory did," but won't be able by next year. Now's the time.

 

[T3G]

Unfortunately the media already drank the cool-aid and has already portrayed it as a service increase, so it's pretty much too late to make it seem like it's anything different than what it really is. That's unless some media outlet's investigative team decides to dig into how inadequate the TTC's "service" has been these days.

The reason for that is because many newspapers are nothing more than free mouthpieces for various public and private organizations. Most investigative pieces don't do well enough to financially justify them for the paper, but advertising, clickbait, and outrage porn get the job done.

 

[Jonny5]

The reason for that is because many newspapers are nothing more than free mouthpieces for various public and private organizations. Most investigative pieces don't do well enough to financially justify them for the paper, but advertising, clickbait, and outrage porn get the job done.

This site provides me far more directly relevant raw news and refined analysis than almost all of the Toronto legacy media (a small number of exceptions are still out there), but what gets me is it has been that way since I joined and you can see how long that's been on the left. A long time. I still don't get local news obsessions with "a car crash in Milton" as lead stories, or national news providers like CBC with "Outrage: West Jet loses luggage with wedding dress for bride's Mexico wedding!" But I guess now media is about a continuous and never ending stream of breaking developing updates

 

[ARG1]

In fact, we have several (occasional) lunatics right here on UT.

Crud, I missed the party

 

[T3G]

I still don't get local news obsessions with "a car crash in Milton" as lead stories,

At least Milton is somewhat local! What I despise most of all is Constant Panic 24's neverending coverage of heinous crimes committed in small villages on the other side of the continent. Why must this odious channel play in just about every establishment in southern Ontario?

 

[Amare]

The biggest issue is the Mayor via the TTC Board and Chair do not have the time and technical comprehension capacity to understand the reports that TTC Management put out.

TTC Management (including Rick Leary) hides and deceive the Board by hiding data or spinning data in a way to make it all is happy-go-lucky with the system. When it is clearly not. In the end, the Board has zero power to coerce Management to implement policy and follow through with directives from City Hall. TTC Management knows the game well and knows that the Board and Chair has zero power to force change (eg. gave up power and delegation during Covid for “efficient decision making”).

We are all thankful that Steve regular runs a blog on the TTC, as this is the only place where the technicalities are dished out, the lies are unearthed and the true situation appears.

The thing is, all it takes is a 5 minute read from the TTC's own service summary to deduce that what they did with service was a grand reallocation scheme and had the board/mayor looked it through they would've seen that something is fishy.

I myself didnt need to do an extreme deep dive to figure out that service is being degraded for many routes, and improved for others. That automatically triggered the reallocation alarm bells in my mind. If people who work in the city dont know how to take time out of their day to sniff this stuff out, then I really dont know what to say to them.

 

[DSC]

If people who work in the city dont know how to take time out of their day to sniff this stuff out, then I really dont know what to say to them.

I suggest "Wake up, do your job"!

 

[allengeorge]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1789976000555634974

Line 2 is having a really bad time lately, no?

I wouldn’t be shocked if people stop using the TTC after all these problems…

 

[Northern Light]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1789976000555634974

Line 2 is having a really bad time lately, no?

I wouldn’t be shocked if people stop using the TTC after all these problems…

Three major shutdowns, at least 2 in AM rush in 8 days. Yeah, its been a bad bit.

It certainly isn't helpful to attract or retain ridership.

But to tie this back to Rick Leary's Management culture........

This is the result of a work car spilling fluid (not identified) on the track overnight.

They apparently didn't clean it up, all hands on deck, and instead pushed trains into service this morning.

Operators then reported skidding/slipping and being unable to stop on time at the next station (over-shooting into the tunnel).

The TTC then nixed service and went to clean up the mess.

What kind of culture of safety is this? (we'll do something about this if it causes a problem, not before)

 

[allengeorge]

This is the result of a work car spilling fluid (not identified) on the track overnight.

They apparently didn't clean it up, all hands on deck, and instead pushed trains into service this morning.

Wait - what?! I didn’t realize that. That’s egregious.

I’m torn as to what the right move to do is (big believer in blameless port mortems as long as actions are actually taken as a result) - but that seems like a massive self-own.

 

[Northern Light]

Perhaps @smallspy could shed some light on the above.

 

[smallspy]

Perhaps @smallspy could shed some light on the above.

Not too much more - you've covered most of it already.

The fluid that was spilled was from a work car, and it was hydraulic fluid used for propulsion, so it was quite a quantity. By the time they were able to get the car safe enough to move, service was starting, and - as you note - the decision was made to go ahead with it, with the thought that the fluid had not affected the running surfaces of the rail.

Of course, that turns out to have been a bit of an oversight on their part.

The spill is substantial enough that it may be late morning before they're able to reopen the line.

Dan