[Richard White]

Any guesses?

Maybe we should look to highly efficient systems that effectively carry a large number of passengers on constrained systems like those in Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore or Tokyo or we could look at a transit system have a rapidly expanded like Madrid which remains a successful model.

David Gunn ran Amtrak?

 

[TransitBart]

The better question is will the current rank and file depart for NYC?

Some very well may. He’ll need allies.

 

[steveintoronto]

Toronto's problem isn't the CEO. It's City Hall and QP.

Some very well may. He’ll need allies.

You don't take allies with you. You find them there. And he will have a lot.

 

[TransitBart]

Any guesses?

Maybe we should look to highly efficient systems that effectively carry a large number of passengers on constrained systems like those in Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore or Tokyo or we could look at a transit system that rapidly expanded like Madrid which remains a successful model.

Madrid or Hong Kong look like good sources of key people who have experience outside the TTC mould.

 

[MetroMan]

It turns out that the Madrid Metro General Manager who presided over the rapid expansion of an LRT + Subway transit network, is available.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ildefonso-de-matías-60b46a85/

Ildefonso de Matias spent 7 years as the head of Madrid Metro but stepped down in 2011 after a financial scandal that he was never personally charged with.

Madrid is known for its efficient transit network with high popular approval.

 

[steveintoronto]

It turns out that the Madrid Metro General Manager who presided over the rapid expansion of an LRT + Subway transit network, is available.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ildefonso-de-matías-60b46a85/

Ildefonso de Matias spent 7 years as the head of Madrid Metro but stepped down in 2011 after a financial scandal that he was never personally charged with.

Madrid is known for its efficient transit network with high popular approval.

It's also well funded and run at arm's length from political interference.

[...]
How has Madrid been able to achieve so much? Perhaps most crucially, its transit upgrades have enjoyed muscular political support. In 1995, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón was elected president of Madrid’s Autonomous Community, an entity similar to an American state, on a promise of building 17 miles of new metro track within four years. He made good on his word. In 1999, Gallardón, having delivered on his pledge and having exceeded it, won reelection on a platform to build even more ambitious metro expansions.

To raise the large amounts of money required and avoid European Union rules limiting government debt, policymakers devised a combination of public authorities and public-private partnerships. In the partnerships (used, for example, to build the light-rail lines), construction companies spent their own money to fund the work and received concessions to operate the new lines, earning revenues from ticket sales and subsidies from Madrid’s transit authority. But the subsidies are based on formulas that don’t shield the companies from risk if rider demand proves less than forecast.
[...]

https://www.city-journal.org/html/subway-lessons-madrid-13289.html

 

[TransitBart]

It turns out that the Madrid Metro General Manager who presided over the rapid expansion of an LRT + Subway transit network is available.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ildefonso-de-matías-60b46a85/

Ildefonso de Matias spent 7 years as the head of Madrid Metro but stepped down in 2011 after a financial scandal that he was never personally charged with.

Madrid is known for its efficient transit network with high popular approval.

A ver si habla inglés. I wonder if his English is strong? It is tough to lead a team strongly if you can not connect in their language. And to @steveintoronto ’s point above, he will need to be able to speak firmly with politicians at city hall. Public speaking in a second language is a significant skill.

 

[Johnny Au]

A ver si habla inglés. I wonder if his English is strong? It is tough to lead a team strongly if you can not connect in their language. And to @steveintoronto ’s point above, he will need to be able to speak firmly with politicians at city hall. Public speaking in a second language is a significant skill.

Relying too heavily on an interpreter will weaken one's argument, especially when not meeting with foreign delegates.

 

[WillTo]

Luckily I use NextBus, as unreliable as it can be at times. I live along a twice hourly route in TO.

However, after living on the outskirts of Sudbury, where a bus comes every 2-3 hours, I have nothing to complain about. (Toronto feels like heaven after that.)

I always ensure I'm at the stop well in advance of the bus coming.

I find the ETAs very unreliable if the bus has not departed yet. This is frustrating if you live at stop close to the departure point. Now you can look at the scheduled departure time and see the location of the bus, and assume that if the bus is waiting at the departure point or close to arriving there that the bus will leave at the scheduled time, but sometimes it decides to chill there and leave 10 minutes past the departure time, or 2 minutes early?!?

 

[TransitBart]

Relying too heavily on an interpreter will weaken one's argument, especially when not meeting with foreign delegates.

Exactly. He will need to sound convincing in his L2. Or second language.

 

[steveintoronto]

How do you say "Webster Effect" in Spanish?
https://torontoist.com/2016/11/webster-effect/

 

[MetroMan]

Relying too heavily on an interpreter will weaken one's argument, especially when not meeting with foreign delegates.

His LinkedIn says he speaks English.

I would be surprised if a CEO of a transit network like Madrid’s that relied so heavily on international suppliers and business partners didn’t speak English. Specially in Spain. Every Spaniard that I’ve come across had at least some basic level of English. English is standard in most European education curriculums.

 

[Richard White]

I find the ETAs very unreliable if the bus has not departed yet. This is frustrating if you live at stop close to the departure point. Now you can look at the scheduled departure time and see the location of the bus, and assume that if the bus is waiting at the departure point or close to arriving there that the bus will leave at the scheduled time, but sometimes it decides to chill there and leave 10 minutes past the departure time, or 2 minutes early?!?

I live next to Warden Station and see this all the time. Buses hold at a certain time while they chill at the station. It is a pain in the butt but not much can be done.

I don't miss the pre-GPS 30 minute headways. I used to take the 9 Bellamy at Birchmount and St Clair in the early 2000s when it was 30 mim headways on weekends. Buses would leave the station early or late but never on time. That was worse than a stuck GPS.

 

[TransitBart]

How do you say "Webster Effect" in Spanish?
https://torontoist.com/2016/11/webster-effect/

El efecto Webster. The letter W does not exist (or at least is not native) in the Spanish language and makes most Spanish speakers stumble. But I digress...

 

[TransitBart]

His LinkedIn says he speaks English.

I would be surprised if a CEO of a transit network like Madrid’s that relied so heavily on international suppliers and business partners didn’t speak English. Specially in Spain. Every Spaniard that I’ve come across had at least some basic level of English. English is standard in most European education curriculums.

No disagreement. But speaking a second language and being able to rally the troops in a second language are two completely different things. You have to sound like you are in charge or your new team writes you off as the “foreigner”. I have been in this position. It is a good challenge.