TTC: The Great Canadian Train Robbery

It is no secret what respect I have for the TTC – the Toronto Transit Commission. As blogged earlier, the TTC just keeps providing reason after reason for one to admire how persistent, illogical and cruel human obstinacy can really be.

In these tough economic times, the last thing one should have to worry about is getting to work – never mind not having any. Yet, the TTC honchos think the only way they continue their work is by passing the fare buck.

It’s swift, merciless, and packs pure brute force. You gotta respect that.

And all this as if the TTC isn’t already one of the most expensive transit services of its size and kind in North America.

The whispers began earlier this year, rather, it was just a convenient leak from the TTC itself, to see how public opinion formulates. Then, recently they finally hit the nail even harder by gaining momentum on the new, more expensive fare structure.

Finally, all the facade of hearing ‘public opinion’ came crashing down as the new TTC increased fares were voted to be in effect by a small group of persons. Supreme Soviet would’ve been proud.

And just then, as blogTO reported, there was this bizarre and completely idiotic set of instructions by the TTC to sell no more than 5 tokens at a time. For the uninformed, buying in bulk of 10 tokens saves us some money – 10 tokens for $22.50 as opposed to 1 token for $2.75.

But the farce didn’t stop there. It would not have been the Canadian way if the TTC’s Empirical Council of Supreme High Command had not appeared to ‘react strongly’ to token hoarding by actually spending $50,000 more on printing temporary TTC tickets for a limited time! That would even make the Union angry — I think — as this amount is good to hire one more TTC employee for a year!

I have said it before and I will say it again: the “Transit” phenomenon in Toronto, I think, is a racket run on the principles of the mob: We don’t need you, you need us for protection. Our way or the highway. (Don’t know much about the rest of Canada, so pardon the title.)

When TTC affairs are run by people who are detached from the very usage of it, the TTC just feeds on its own patrons, the riders.

Or, may be you’d want to correct me by saying that all those who make decisions for TTC actually take the transit as their main daily transportation?

Ha.

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Update: I came across this organized initiative to let our voices heard: TTC Riders. The cynic in me sees it as of little or no use, but if you believe things can change, go there and send an email to the High Council of the Supreme Command.