Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

[We] apologize for all the delays. There’s really no way to deal with hundreds of thousands of people converging on one transportation corridor
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone November 19/09

hmmm… the TTC has never dealt with any halts on the system before yesterday? They never had to deal with massive crowds? Service has been perfect up until yesterday? I find this notion rather curious.

Mr. Giambrone might I suggest you give your head a hard shake! Your statement suggests the TTC has NO plans for crowd management. I find this as hard to believe as the one about the contractor who didn’t know there was a great fricken subway tunnel under the road he was cutting. This also suggests you are NOT doing your job in ensuring such plans are up-to-date, and staff know how to use the plans.

The TTC was surprised there were so many people at the Eglinton and Bloor stations during rush hour.  What kind of little ivory tower do you people live in. The platforms see thousands of people pass through them. It doesn’t take a degree in crowd management to spot a potential problem if one of the stations is closed. Hell it happens on a regular basis here in Toronto.

Mr Giambrone let me help you out with a few tips and facts:

The TTC moves approx. 466,700,000 bodies last year. That’s a lot of people using public transit. From your own TTC website, I found the following statistics on the number of people who move in and out of the main subway stations daily:

• Bloor (Yonge-University-Spadina) – 191,800
• Yonge (Bloor-Danforth) – 188,600
• St. George (Bloor-Danforth) – 122,000
• St. George (Yonge-University-Spadina) – 121,100
• Union – 95,300

That’s a whole lot of humanity. If, as you state, there is “no way to deal with hundreds of thousands of people converging on one transportation corridor” then might I suggest the entire TTC management structure resign forthwith because you are endangering our lives.

During the power outage a few years back when the ENTIRE city was blacked out, the TTC did an amazing job marshaling buses and getting us around the city. Sure it was miserable, but we still managed. Oh and there were NO trains or street cars running then.

Subway stations are closed because of accidents on occasion. Sometimes during rush hour. I have seen staff – in what seems to be the distant past – down at platform level ensuring people knew where to go and that there was a problem. This time staff were conspicuous in their absence. I hit 6 subway platforms yesterday (I do a lot of travel on the TTC – it’s my primary mode of transportation in getting to appointments around the city) and did not see a single TTC employee giving instructions on what to do. NOT ONE. No, on the contrary, all we heard were muffled or distorted announcements (only on the trains, not on the platforms and I hit 6 platforms yesterday). The announcements were (as it turned out) telling passengers to avoid the Bloor/Yonge station but nothing about avoiding Eglinton.

Mr Giambrone, this was an emergency situation. Why weren’t TTC employees on platform level telling people about the problem and advising people of alternate routes. Why is every situation dealt with as though it were some state secret? Knowledge is a powerful weapon. Why weren’t we told what the problem was and that it was unknown at that point how long it would take to repair. Leaving us in the dark ensures a couple of things: tempers flare and people become agitated with the growing crowds.

And please don’t hand me anything about that’s what the public address system is about. It is difficult to hear it on a crowded train, half the time it isn’t even used, or the person is so distorted we can’t understand them. Also, the address is for broad announcements. A few staff members at platform level directing us to alternate routes would have moved all of us along much quicker.

You and the TTC staff were shocked at the volume of people getting off at Eglinton? Stop playing silly buggers with the politicians and start travelling to the stations. It is always busy. At rush hour it is a nightmare. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? Eglinton is a major transfer hub. Of course there is going to be thousands of people there. Ask anyone who rides the TTC and they could have told you this would happen.

Believe it or not there are books out there on crowd management theory. Buy some…or if, as you would have us believe the TTC has no plans to deal with large crowds – hire a firm that deals with crowd flow management. Or better yet, look around your office and see if there is a binder collecting dust that deals with this issue. I’m sure if you looked real hard you will find it.

The primary problem was the TTC treated us like we were unimportant. Staff didn’t help, didn’t care. A few were out there doing there best, desperately trying to control the pushing, angry crowd of people trying to get on the shuttles. I applaud them. They were the inadequate few. The endangered few. The situation could have gotten completely out of control in a snap. It is amazing no one (including the few staff sent out into the nightmare) could have been trampled to death.  There should have been dozens of employees out there on street level directing people as well as on platform level.

I’m fed up with the TTC… I’m going to abdicate my responsibilities as an adult and go draw pictures of birds for the afternoon.

Stumble it!