2)Implement steep fines to help pay for the cleanup and restrict food/drinks onto the system. If you're riding the TTC subway you don't need to eat. If you need to eat, then get off and eat. Steep fines ranging from $50-$500 with strong enforcement will help to get people to stop leaving newspapers and their trash on the stations and in the trains.
The TTC used to have such a rule (no eat/drink) and fought hard to keep it that way, a court struck down the rule (part of TTC By-laws) on the grounds the TTC was overreaching its authority (I'm thinking 20 years ago now?)
As to outsourcing.....perhaps. I'm certainly not a fan of the way the job is done now; but honestly I think it has more to do with management in many ways.
A few weeks ago I was coming home late, and saw the overnight cleaning crew at work at my local station........as my bus wasn't there......I thought for a few moments and couldn't resist, and went up to one of the cleaners and asked about the state of things from his perspective.........here is what I learned.
*** I don't know any of what's below for a fact, this is just anecdotal stuff I was told****
1) He was very proud of the job he did; and pointed out what was being done; but admitted some of his fellow workers didn't work as hard or smart as he would like.
2) He felt the above problem was due to a TTC decision to change the way cleaning crews work. That they used to be teams of five, responsible for 4-5 stations, and one person was the supervisor/crew-chief. Now, apparently crews are 2-3, and there is NO supervisor. He said this created a problem because no one on the team is the boss, or has the right to 'order' anything done. So while they have a check-list to-do; its completely up to the whims of a given crew as to whether or how it gets done. No one is accountable. Managers do check the work or visit site from time to time; but not daily.
3) We talked about ceilings and brake-dust; he said he wanted to clean them, but the TTC doesn't have the sky-ladder (the raising scaffold) at every station, more over, because the TTC has thought to put various wires exposed on many ceilings ( actually protected by a cover, but below ceiling level) many workers refused to use the ladder to clean the ceiling as they were afraid of electrocution. The TTC doesn't force the issue or hire outsiders to do the work.
4) I asked about track-side walls; this made him maddest, he said they used to clean them from the platform level, just by turning off the local power to the third rail for that station. He has no idea why they stopped that, some years ago; but there was no good reason as far as he was concerned. (note, this set to start again, at St. George this fall as a pilot)
Sounds to me like there's plenty of room for improvement in-house; not sure how well managed any outsiders would be. Maybe they could outsource the management!