I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to blog today, but I do now! First off, I absolutely respect your opinions and hope you don't take any of this personally. Now on with the show! Here is Vicki's blog entry in response to my blog entry. And here is my response to her response, which will no doubt lead to a blog crossover that will rival anything that has been attempted with Marvel's X-men franchise....
I want to clarify a few points:
- I support the idea of public transit. But I do not support the way that this particular public transit system is run. Just because they are in the business of public transit does not mean the TTC is unquestionably good.
- I do not believe that the average TTC worker has the stressful job described by the union boss in the following statement: "Our operators have to stay alert every single second under incredible pressures to meet precise schedules." I challenge anyone to argue that statement is not an exageration.
- When confronted with the fact that ridership has been dropping for the last 10 years (due to other job actions like slowdowns and strikes), the TTC decided that the solution was to clamp down on ridership fraud such as forging tickets and misusing transfers. So everytime you take transit, you get treated like a potential criminal. Hey, that's sure to increase your ridership, TTC.
- I feel that TTC management and union are selfish and not efficient at using resources. I can specifically cite the Sheppard subway system as an example of squandered resources. Both management and unions supported this project.
- I do not blame all TTC workers, but there are some bad apples that are rude to patrons, and I generally feel that the TTC is not kind to their patrons. This strike is one of the most striking examples of that. (It's a pun! Get it? Oh well...)
- Ladies and gentlemen, you are being punished and exploited for your dependency on the TTC. Make sure you never forget that.
Flocons De Mais
2 comments:
Well played, Flocons de Mais. Well played.
The only qualm I have with handing control of Toronto's public transit over to the province is that I think even less money would go to downtown transit, especially if (and sadly, when) another Conservative government gets into power. After all, the bulk of Conservative supporters are outside of the GTA.
I can't judge exactly how a Liberal provincial government would handle a GTA transit, but if they can do a better job than what's currently in the works, then I'd say go for it.
Subsequently, I'll get you yet, gadget.
I totally agree with the misuse of resources on the Sheppard line, I live at Steeles and Don Mills. It actually saves me 10 minutes if I get off the bus at Finch/Don Mills, take the Finch express to Finch Station and travel downtown every morning. I can't help but say that deciding to build the subway at Shepard is a very poor design decision. Also building the Sheppard line is more expensive. If the line was built at Finch, less buses are needed and during normal operation, only 2 operators are needed for every train plus 8 or so operators at the station instead of 30+ operators for buses and some of these buses are totally empty from time to time. This is operation cost that can easily be cut down by having the subway on Finch. Even after the Shepard line was built, the Finch line is still busier than the Sheppard line.
Anyways, all you really need is a credible person to do an analysis on how the TTC operations and prove to our government how crappy the TTC really is, and how the TTC is stealing from the public purse.
Just one last comment, TTC employees are getting paid way too much for their null skilled work, getting paid $20+/hr to sit at a booth to collect tickets?! Wonderland pays not much more than minimum for the same thing. High wages like this will cause inflation to happen, not good not good!
Cheers to everyone who thinks TTC is retarded.
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