TTC, Your Apologies are Worthless to Toronto TTC Riders

If I had known that this TTC Town Hall meeting was just going to be a, "we're sorry but, it's mostly not our fault (TTC Workers Union), it's the TTC's fault (TTC Management)" fest, then I wouldn't have wasted my time tuning in to this propaganda session on a Sunday afternoon...

The last thing that I'm interested in doing is giving the TTC Union, as well as their scumbag Union Head Bob Kinnear, an opportunity to "move on" and get "closure" from the public, so that they can go forward feeling that the public outcry over the TTC is finally resolved.

And I hope that for those who attended, this didn't end up making them feel better, because truly, this solved nothing except try and gain some kind of sympathy for the TTC Union, a union which deserves nothing of the sort.

I guess for me, my main problem with this entire arrangement is that nobody from TTC Management was allowed to address the questions and comments from the Union and from the ridership. Sure, Adam Giambrone was there along with some of his TTC Cronies, but I don't even know if they were paying attention, or just playing brick-breaker on their Blackberries the entire time.

And that just opened the floodgates for Kinnear and his rag-tag group of TTC representatives to just blame blame blame TTC Management for 95% of the problems raised by the public. I say 95% because they at least accepted that they do indeed slack-off, for which they attributed about 5% of the problem towards themselves.

They were also so superb at misdirection, deflection, and throwing red herrings out there (surprisingly politically savvy for a group of TTC Operators), that I found that maybe only 30% of the issues raised were actually given an answer which related to the issue. Well done TTC Union coaches!! Bob Kinnear could have done no better himself (except of course for the accepting of that 5% of the blame!).

Now, there was some value in this for the public, I have to admit. I mean, I felt so so so horrible for that one lady who in tears cried that when buses come too early, she misses the bus and has to walk forever in the cold winter to get to her connection. And also when they're late, she misses her connections and again has to walk forever in the cold. Or, when she actually is able to get onto the bus, they change the route mid-route, or just tell everyone that they have to get off due to a route change, and again she has to walk forever in the cold to her next connection. That was a horrible and heart-breaking story, and I totally totally feel her pain. I've been through similar situations where I'm on the streetcar headed back to the station from Eaton Center, and all of a sudden the operator announces that everyone has to get off and wait for the next one, for no reason... It just leaves you upset, angry and wanting some justice from the TTC, and after years of this happening with no recourse or anything, finally this year the public started fighting back.

So, I’m happy that finally that poor lady was able to get this issue off of her chest and bring it out in the open. It appeared that she really needed to, and that was the one and only thing that I can honestly say was a positive outcome from this entire production.

But that’s as far as it went in terms of satisfaction. After she raised that issue, the response she received from the TTC panel was “we're sorry, but it's not our fault”. We just receive a call or a text message, and we have to re-route. It’s the TTC's fault, not ours. And that's it. Now I ask you, how is that suppose to make the riders feel better? That didn't even give her hope that anything was going to be done about it. Just, blame TTC Management… We're just doing our jobs...

Well, as TTC Riders, we truly don't care whose exact fault it is, whether that is Management or the Workers. WE TRULY DON'T CARE!!!! WE BLAME THE TTC!!! ALL OF YOU!! When you drive past me smiling, waving and don't stop, I don't care if it's the driver's fault or Management's fault. When you change route mid-route, and either drop us off somewhere other than our intended destination, or just drop us off right there leaving us stranded, we don't care whose fault it is.

Until the TTC actually have a session where both the TTC Union and the TTC Management are open to fielding questions, and can respond to each other once the blame game starts, there's no point in having these sessions. All we're seeing is a continuation of the TTC Union blaming Management, and TTC Management blaming the Union.

If you think about it, isn't that the best approach for the TTC? If someone is blaming both of us (me and you) for something, and then I blame you and you blame me, and as a result, nothing happens, isn't that a great way of diffusing the problem?? I mean, my younger brother and I use to do that all the time with our parents... When my Mom would scream, "who ate all of the chocolate cake?", we would both respond, "it was him, no it was him!! He's lying, no he's lying!!". In the end, nobody could be blamed, and we were free to both share all of that chocolate cake again next time, and my parents didn't know any better... It worked out perfect everytime!

Great strategy TTC!! At least we can see that you work well together when it counts. You know, when Torontonians are asking for all of your heads on a platter.

--jackandcokewithalime



(Image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/veggiefrog/2276594781/sizes/l/ by veggiefrog on flickr
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