Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

Every once in awhile my spam catcher works in overdrive and holds a legitimate message. No idea why, maybe it tweaks upon a few key words here and there. I’m reprinting a message sent to me, via a comment on the TTC mess. Although I’ve approved the comment to show, I thought it should get a better viewing:

Please distribute this widely.

You may have heard that OCAP is having a TTC action (see below). We are looking for help with flyering.

Flyering Times:

1) Outside/Inside Broadview Subway Station:

Tuesday, December 8th: 4:30pm

2) Outside/Inside Dundas West Subway Station:
Wednesday, December 9th: 4:30pm

Also, if you would like to sign up to to do outreach, or organize a separate leafleting time, please email us at the OCAP office at: ocap@tao.ca

Lastly – if you have access to a photocopier let us know.

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Angry about the TTC Fare Hike?

It’s time to make transit affordable!

Public Action Against the Transit Fare Hikes
Saturday, December 12th
1pm
Toronto City Hall (Queen and Bay)

The Toronto Transit Commission is facing a $100-million deficit in its operating budget for next year. On November 17th the Commission ignored community outrage, and instead voted for a TTC fare hike of 25cents/fare and an increase of over 10% per monthly pass. In the new year, they expect us to pay $6 for ONE round trip on transit! Riders already cover more than 80% of TTC operating costs and it is by far the least-funded mass transit system in North America. This increase is outrageous and unacceptable – and we should refuse to pay!

Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about shortfalls and deficits. We cannot forget where these deficits come from. When the economic
crisis hit, the federal and provincial government quickly found BILLIONS of dollars of public money to bailout banks and corporations.

Now these same governments want us to believe that they can’t find any money to support public transit? As usual, big business gets bailed out, and the people get sold out. Worst of all the bourgeoise socialists affiliated with the NDP on Toronto City Council behind such trying to end the special diet and trying to prevent those eligible for Ontario Works from receiving it.

For poor and working people in this city, especially for families, transit costs are already too high and often unaffordable. This fare hike will hurt the people who are already struggling to make ends meet. The TTC deficit should not be loaded onto the backs of people who need transit.

It should not be paid for by riders and it should not be paid for by the workers who run the buses, subways and streetcars.

Paying more for transit is only one attack on already inadequate public services. Lay-offs and deeper cuts to all essential services like Welfare, Disability, and the Ontario Drug Benefit are coming next if we don’t fight back. Our communities demand affordable transit, real income levels, affordable housing, childcare, and education.

Transit is a necessity and it is a basic right. Not only are we fighting this fare hike, but we are demanding that transit be federally funded and affordable for everyone. If we mobilize, and together refuse to accept this fare hike, we can take back transit.

Come out December 12th

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
ocap@tao.ca / 416-925-6939

http://www.ocap.ca

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.

[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.

Oh you just know I’m going to be like a dog with a bone over the TTC, don’t you. I just read this on the CBC’s website:

…repairs above a subway tunnel just south of the St. Clair station may have compromised the tunnel’s integrity, according to the Toronto Transit Commission.

A contractor not associated with the transit authority was “cutting about an 18-inch-wide [46-cm-wide] trench — the kind of trench you see for laying cables and whatnot — not realizing that below that roadway was a subway tunnel,” TTC spokesman Brad Ross told CBC News.

The TTC has “real concerns” the weakened portion could collapse into the tunnel, Ross said.

This oops is steps away from where I live. A collapsed tunnel could potentially weaken the apartment building I live in. I realise this is a remote possibility, but the threat is there. This is not a simple “oh dear”. This was a colossal blunder by the contractor who had no business doing a job if he was so ignorant of where he was working.

I refuse to believe he did not know there was a friggin big tunnel under where he was working. It was his job to be aware of what he was doing. How could anyone in this city not be aware of what that big rumbling thing is underground – even above the jackhammers you could still hear the subway rumble away beneath us. Did he think they were rather largish moles?

So how much is the TTC going to raise our fares to cover this little fiasco? How much are we on the hook for? I think we should demand the contractor pay for the entire repair job.

I’m still on a bender regarding the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) and it’s rude staff. Today I had my fill of it. I also need to apologise to all the 17 TTC workers I spotted in front of my building. You see I live over a subway line and there has been work going on over and on the line now for over 2 years. 2 FRIGGIN years of noise. Only part has been the TTC, the rest is some contractor who’s workers love whipping around in bobcats tearing up trees and landscaping. I’ve written about the endless disruptions to our lives in previous posts.

WELL…. what we’ve been waiting for has finally happened. Wait for it … the idiot contractor managed to cut through to the subway line and compromise the structure of the tunnel. Which meant a major part of the subway was closed down. From Bloor Street to Eglington – off you go to the mythical shuttles.

It takes a great deal of skill to manage damaging a subway tunnel. I guess the contractor wasn’t supplied blueprints with big letters that read “DON’T CUT HERE”.  I’d love to know how this was managed. It’s kind of hard to make this kind of mistake, after all you know you are working over a major subway tunnel, and you have been for over 2 years… 2 f@cking years of jackhammers, trucks, bobcats, hammering, tar, building and tearing down sections, more jackhammers, cement trucks … it should not come as a surprise there is a big honking tunnel under you! And if it was, then you have no business doing any work over a subway line. Look I’m angry because my building is feet away from your blunder. I keep flashing onto how catastrophic this could have been.

So… I apologise to the 17 workers I saw this morning and unjustly maligned. Now I know why… they were waiting for the structural engineers etc to show up. That also explains why everything got sooooo quiet across the road. Someone knew they had committed a very, very big boo boo and halted the work.

The workers are down there trying to make the tunnel safe again. And on behalf of all of us that rely upon the subway to get around Toronto – THANK YOU. They will be at it for hours. I just found all this out now at around 6:30pm when I was returning home.

***** Warning ***** Rant is resuming. Catpaw is on a roll, better go get that tea before continuing, it’s gonna be a long rant.

TTC service was halted at this station around 1pm, just after I got off the subway. When we went back out at 2pm we asked the ticket taker if the subway service had resumed (there had been a power outage at a different station earlier, and we wanted to go down into the area). We didn’t realise there was a new problem at our very own station. The TTC worker looked at us and said “I dunno. There’s some kind of problem somewhere”.

DUDE!!! THE NEW PROBLEM WAS AT YOUR STATION! GOD ALMIGHTY ARE YOU THAT LAZY THAT YOU CAN’T EVEN FIND OUT WHAT IS GOING ON??????

I have a question for the TTC commission. Do any of you have phones? Do any of you know how to use them? Can any of you communicate? Couldn’t you have told your ticket takers where the outages were? Oh… or did you tell them and as usual they were too friggin lazy and surly to give a straight answer …and let’s talk about the “shuttles” the distorted announcements kept talking about during rush hour. Yea… no service from Bloor St to Eglinton – that is Bloor, Rosedale, Summerhill, St. Clair and Davisville out of action and not a single useless lazy assed TTC booth attendant could take the time to tell anyone where the shuttles were (no shuttles just go out to Yonge St and catch a bus oh yea that’s fun), or in the case of 2 booth attendants at the Pleasant St entrance at 6:25pm tonight, couldn’t even bother looking up to answer someone’s question. They ignored the woman until she knocked on the glass to ask about the shuttles. Even then she was stared at as if she had fungus on her face. She had to ask twice before one of them would answer. 2 times before she was told to go out to Yonge st and catch a bus.  And how much are you people paid?

When we were returning home, we hoped the subway disruption would be over. We didn’t know the problem was so severe. Of course the TTC has a strict “keep the customers in the dark and let their anger fester” policy, so there were no announcements as to the nature of the problem. Look, again this is addressed to the TTC commission – a little information would have calmed people down and defused a lot of anger. But of course you can’t manage that. On the way back the announcements about the disruption were blared out on the subway cars only. We heard no announcements at track level that service would not go further than Bloor. The announcements that did come through on the subway cars were so distorted, everyone was shaking their heads trying to understand the words. Honey, here’s a hint, move the mic away from your mouth and do not shout. So much for the new announcement system upgrade. Waste of money if no one knows how to use a mic.

So.. is the fare increase worth it? Not on your life. When, and only when the TTC  has a major shift in it’s attitude towards the paying customer will I be happy. I do not begrudge fare increases – they are a fact of life. But when I am treated like an idiot with no right’s to ask civil questions, then I become very uncooperative.

Here is my new manifesto - feel free to use it:

I will treat you politely and with respect. I, in return, expect it back. When you treat me like dirt I will not politely stand by and allow it to happen. I am going to stay put, IN THE LINE, until you acknowledge my existence and answer my question. Uttering monosyllabic responses or anything with the word “dunno” in it does not count. Your response must be in full sentences.

If you rap on the window and point to a sign 3 feet above my head and act as though I have no right asking a question I will, in return, bang on the window and point out the sign is too high, please lower it.

If you argue with me because you misheard me (because your nose was stuck in some stupid book, rather than paying attention) I will refuse to respond, I will simply reiterate my request until you either do as I politely asked, or you call transit cops to remove me. Your choice.

I will not respond to your surliness. If you throw the TTC pass just out of reach in the slot so it doesn’t slide down I will politely tell you I will not reach in for it please pass it out. I will continue to say this until you get a clue and behave in a civilised manner.

I reached my limit of patience today.  I will no longer cooperate with this culture of  laziness and entitlement.  I treat people with respect and I WILL RECEIVE IT BACK.

Local transit (TTC) fares are increasing again! Quite a bit – a monthly pass is increasing from $109 to $121. Give them applause folks because they backed down from the proposed increase to $126. I think cooler heads prevailed when they realised there would be a complete revolt at such an unconscionable increase during a recession.

The kicker for me is the fact we are paying for increasingly surly service. I’ve had a couple of minor set-tos with a ticket takers over their rude behavior during the past year.  The fellow down at the St Patrick station comes to mind – and if you are reading this I’m the one that called you a complete burk for refusing to answer my question. Was it so hard to let me know if you were going to be getting anymore TTC passes in? Did you  have to keep hammering on the sign that said you were out of them? I wanted to know IF YOU WERE GETTING MORE IN!! As I said “burk”.

How about the ones who treat us like we are pariah. I’m thinking in particular of one at St. Clair that keeps reading a book rather than acknowledge the customer who is standing there waiting to be served. The one that hassled me because I didn’t say Metro Pass. I said TTC pass and he just stared and kept saying a what? Pardon me all to hell.  And yes it was me that called you a jackass with “a thinking impediment”.

How about the bus drivers that don’t turn on the system that announces the stops? Is that such a difficult job? Or the truely aweful drivers that think it’s a game to see how many passengers they can send hurtling to the floor as the stomp on the gas/brakes.

Oh and here is my favourite – the conductors on the subway that slam the doors shut prematurely. This happens on a regular basis at the Summerhill station and St. Clair. Tell me how I can be slammed into the doorway while entering a car with NO ONE exiting. I was already on the platform waiting. I took one step onto the train and WHAM I was caught between the doors. When they didn’t open some man grabbed me and pulled me in. I had door marks on my jacket and I had bruises on my arm. It bloody well hurt. I’ve had other close calls because the conductors are too quick to shut the doors.

And don’t get me started on the “Please let us know” hot line. Waste of time. I suspect it is manned by people that trash our complaints.

News flash people, without us, you do no have a job. That doesn’t mean you should be abused. But respect is a two way street. Something the TTC union seems to be forgetting.

Now… why have I gone on such a rant? Remember that big f*cking hole in the ground I complain about? The one that has caused endless noise? Well I went out the door today around 11am and counted 17 TTC employees standing around drinking coffee and water and chatting. I thought hmmm… the number has increased from the 10 I counted earlier in the day, standing around chatting. I came home about 10 minutes ago and guess what? They are all still standing around talking. This – is – not – unusual!!!! How many times have I looked and seen 1 or 2 people working and a larger number standing around? If I conducted business like this I’d be FIRED. Where is the supervisor? Did he/she overestimate the required number of bodies so grossly? This saga has been going on 2 years now and they still can’t figure out how many employees they need?

I object to yet another increase in the TTC fare just so we can continue to pay for bad, surly service.