Want to fix the TTC? Put MLSE in charge!
Fixing Toronto – Part 11
There is a solution for most problems, and the spate of challenges at the Toronto Transit Commission is no different. In this particular case, let’s just hand the TTC over to the folks at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Infrastructure is infrastructure, whether it be sporting or transit.
I’m not kidding.
I don’t pretend to understand the underlying friction between passengers and TTC staff. I’ve never had a particular problem myself with the folks on the front lines of the TTC. But I’ve seen plenty of passengers over the past few weeks who do such obviously stupid things: barging on before everyone is off the subway, opening the doors to the car as they close in the hopes of squeezing on, etc.
I don’t doubt that TTC drivers occassionally stop the bus to get a coffee, or may have dozed off at midnight in the collection booth. Or that the supervisors at Yonge and Bloor always assign a collector to staff a temporary fare collection box at the centre gate, at the expense of opening second booth on the east side — where he/she could actually do something useful when 75 people are lined up to do their business on the first of every month. But does that damn the entire system?
Apparently it does.
If you’ve ever attended a Raptors game, these negative customer experiences will be foreign to you. Somehow, the team at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment have figured out to put the right people in the right jobs, with smiles and an ever present helpful attitude. Not just the delightful ushers and cheerful security guards. Or the Power Pack. Even the guy who mops up the spilled ice cream is polite.
As we all well know, the business folks at MLSE have also figured out how to walk that particularly fine line: putting out a product that people want (nay, need), and charging just enough for that product to earn a profit. Wouldn’t that be just the ticket for the TTC?
Soccer at BMO Field might have appeared to be outside their core competency, but it is a resounding success from a standing start.
Someone at MLSE has a secret, and whether it is Larry Tanenbaum, Richard Peddie, Jim Leech or Dale Lastman, the TTC (or the new Mayor) should ask for the recipie.
Our City has such vast talent; let’s leverage it.
MRM
They’d probably make money, but wouldn’t Toronto’s transit service then become the worst in Eastern North America … bouyed only by occasional triumphs over Ottawa transit?
$15 beers would certainly fix the funding problems too!
That’s a great idea Darcy (price aside).
VIA Rail has a bar car, for example, so there’s nothing amoral about the idea. Wouldn’t the ride home go so much more smoothly if you could get a beer along the way? There would be something to do during delays, and Torontonians would get new opportunities to get to know each other.
I’m sure they do it in France.
Would also help promote RIDE programs by keeping drinkers off the road, and the TTC could turn the unused stop at Bay Station into a cavern-style nightclub.
MRM
Mark, I’m not sure if you’re small-l liberal enough to carry the vote, but have you considered running for mayor? Maybe in a few years when VC is in its next trough?
I think you could fit into John Tory’s space, squeezing Rossi out.
Thanks for the thought Brad.
My “small-L” Liberal credentials are thus: pro-choice, anti-capital punishment, believe tax rates are fine the way they are (given the economic circumstances), etc., etc. A seasoned Liberal Senator asked me to run last April as he had “a campaign team, donors, but no candidate.” I told him I loved my current job too much to think about it for even a second.
MRM
Good thing you chose not to run, Mr. McQueen, as I have read, somewhere, that “public service is a “thankless job”.