Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

I’ve been busy for the past few days. I have a lovely new 64 bit dual core lots of ram no more gerbil power for me laptop! I’ve spent an embarassing amount of time playing around with it. Oh dear, I am in love! Fast and powerful.  Too bad it couldn’t organise me and make my bed in the morning. Maybe next purchase.

Now… this doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my favourite hobby horse – TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) incompetence, tomfoolery and idiocy. The web is thick with stories from very, very unhappy riders. I hope the TTC management and city politicians are taking note of what is being said. We aren’t just unhappy – we are furious about the mismanagement and/or surly service. As I pointed out in an earlier post, there are entire studies devoted to managing crowds in time of crisis – there was not excuse – let me repeat that – NO EXCUSE – for the fiasco that happened when the St. Clair station was shut down.

I applaud the TTC for taking quick action in ensuring the tunnel safety. And to those who have blogged they don’t believe it was an outside contractor – I live on the street where the nightmare on Jackes Ave has been going on for something like 3 years of half assed construction.  Yea.. the TTC was innocent this time.

The problem was not in the tunnel closure, but in how badly it was handled. Oh and to rub salt into the wounds of all of us who were left confused and bewildered while underground – TTC chair Giambrone had the unmitigated nerve to say gee didn’t we handle the crisis well. Hmmm.. well.. to be honest … no. It was a nightmare of miscommunication, misdirection and bad crowd control. I have a hard time believing there are no contingency plans on hand to handle something of this magnitude. Toronto should thank the gods in heaven no one was crushed or trampled. Yea… you handled the problem… but not well.

Paul W. Homer, who writes a blog called Irrational Focus has written on this topic. You think I’m angry? Read his entry on the TTC fare hike and conditions of the TTC and you’ll get an inkling of how angry many TTC’ers are. He has an excellent idea – demand an audit of the entire system to find out where all the money is, why the subways are not being cleaned anymore, bad service and more.

If you’re fed up like me and you want to do something about it, then we have a very simple, tangible and achievable goal. We need to demand an audit. It’s our right. Spread the news, tell your family, friends and co-workers.

Well said Mr. Homer. I agree with you. Let’s find out why there is such bad service, why our stations are becoming increasingly dirty, why TTC operators treat us like we are a massive inconvenience, why there was no coherent plan to handle a fare hike, why TTC operators were invisible during the breakdown, why so many of us were left in the dark, why did so many booth attendants let people enter stations where there was no service.. oh the list is long and getting longer. Let’s throw a very powerful light onto this essential service.

Stumble it!