M II A II R II K
Senior Member
Vancouver good, Toronto bad? Not quite
Mar. 13, 2010
WENDY STUECK and DAVE McGINN
Read More: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/vancouver-good-toronto-bad-not-quite/article1499617/
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Vancouver: Drivers are tolerant and an illegal dog just attracts grins. On its westbound route, Vancouver's Number 10 Hastings bus trundles by the shabby storefronts of the Downtown Eastside and past Shaughnessy mansions. During a recent morning rush hour, a man got on the bus on its way downtown, patted his pockets for change and shrugged. He didn't have the fare. "Whatever, buddy," the driver said, pulling away from the curb. In the space of the next six blocks, two other people boarded the bus without sufficient fare. Those trips, and the driver's accommodating reaction, may not be official policy at TransLink, the agency responsible for transit service in Metro Vancouver. The no-fare pickups occurred in a neighbourhood where many residents are poor.
FARE PLAY
On three other buses, all leaving from downtown the same day, I step on board as a drivers' headache: with an expired transfer, with insufficient change ($1.75 for a $2.50 fare) and with apparently no clue where I'm going. Each time, I am either waved aboard or patiently directed to the correct route.
PEOPLE SKILLS
Drivers do what they can to avoid and defuse confrontations, veteran driver Bob Glowa said as he plied the Number 10 route. "You have to be able to deal with things that are out of the ordinary. You have to have a thick skin," said Mr. Glowa. In training, drivers are told not to risk their safety for the sake of a fare. In 2009, there were nearly 150 assaults on drivers in metro Vancouver. I ask them what it would take to get kicked off the bus. A lot, they respond. And would they let me on with my dog? Maybe, if it was in a cage. I tell them about a man I've seen on the bus with a ferret tucked inside his coat. Maybe it was an assistance ferret, Mr. Strachan quips.
RIDING WITH MY DOG
TransLink allows trained and certified assistance animals on its transit services, provided they are equipped with a proper harness and that their owners carry proof of the animals' certification. I don't have a certificate, but I do have a dog. He's a cocker-lab cross: knee-high, golden-haired, with brown eyes fringed with lavish lashes. He often attracts smiles and attention. On SkyTrain, which we board without buying a ticket, he's a star. A young man cuts short his cellphone conversation to pet him. If people ask, I tell them he's in training to be an assistance dog. When they ask what for, I say job-related anxiety and that he's already pretty good at it. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimated TransLink fare evasion of $6.4-million, or 2.1 per cent of 2006 fare revenues totalling $309-million. The highest fare evasion rate, of 5.4 per cent, was on SkyTrain, according to the same report. The report found that there is a less than 1 per cent chance of fare evasion resulting in a ticket.
In connection with this story, Wendy Stueck donated several rides worth of bus fare to the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society.
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Toronto: Staff give useful advice and people help with strollers
You think you're so great, don't you, Vancouver? You just hosted the Olympics. You've got gorgeous scenery, mild winters and plenty of good vibes. And apparently your transit system likes to pat itself on the back for all-around great customer service. Sure, the Toronto Transit Commission has been taking it on the chin lately (getting caught sleeping on the job will do that), but is it really so bad? On Tuesday afternoon at rush hour and again on Thursday morning, I rode the Rocket to see what the rider experience is like these days on the TTC.
FARE PLAY
Maybe no one thinks a guy in his 30s with an adorable child in tow is trying to cheat the system, maybe they're just too busy to check. Regardless, no one ever checks to see if I've paid when I walk in through the rear door of a streetcar. When I got on the Dufferin bus mumbling about how I forgot to get a transfer, the driver just waved me on. It's nice to be trusted, but it costs the TTC a lot of money. The transit service has a fare evasion rate of approximately 1 per cent. Estimated revenues this year are $940-million, so 1 per cent is a significant chunk of change.
GETTING DIRECTIONS
Standing at the ticket window at the Lansdowne subway station, I notice a lineup building behind me as I ask for directions to St. Lawrence Market. The collector doesn't seem to mind the logjam I'm creating. She smiles and tells me the best way to get there. Later, on the Queen streetcar, I approach the operator and get his take on how to get to the market. He tells me the quickest route and then wishes me a good day. The bus driver who took me down Dufferin was much the same. Were these people told from on high to be nicer since the uproar over a fare collector caught sleeping on the job? If they were, it's working.
DIALLING UP
For as long as I have been riding the TTC, one thing has always been true: It takes forever for a bus or streetcar to arrive. On Tuesday afternoon, I waited close to 20 minutes for the northbound Dufferin bus. And when it did arrive, it was too packed for me to get on. By then, my kid was wailing. So I decide to call the complaints line. I tell a very polite customer service representative named Jeff that the bus takes a long time to arrive and is usually packed. He asks what time of day I'm travelling and whether it's s every day and says he will pass the information along for monitoring. The TTC received 31,532 complaints in 2009. Surface vehicle delays earned the top spot, with 5, 513 complaints. Next came 3,851 complaints about discourteous employees.
RIDING WITH A BABY
Taking my kid and stroller on the TTC, I imagine my fellow passengers shooting me laser-beam eyes of hate and loathing. But everyone turns out to be really friendly. No bus driver or streetcar operator ever offered to help carry my stroller up or down steps, but plenty of passengers did. At the Lansdowne subway station, it was a woman in her 20s dressed in business casual. On the Queen streetcar, it was a guy in black pants and a black overcoat and those big wraparound sunglasses that I once thought were worn exclusively by the obnoxious. On only one ride was I left to fend for myself - suggesting the city is hardly Toronto the Rude.
DAVE McGINN
*****
Transit / TRANSLINK
Total riders / 178.8 million, 2008
Total number of vehicles / 1,638 (1,300 buses; 258 SkyTrain cars; 40 Canada Line cars; 37 heavy rail cars; three Seabus ferries)
Number of kilometres operated in 2009 / 101 million
Customer satisfaction / Ranking based on a quarterly survey - 7.3 out of 10
Transit / TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION
Total riders / 471.2 million, 2009 (or approximately 1.5 million per day)
Total number of vehicles / 2,736 (1,782 buses; 248 streetcars; 706 subway and RT cars)
Number of kilometres operated in 2009 / 211.6 million
Customer satisfaction / Customer complaints were up 19.3% in January compared to the same period last year.
Mar. 13, 2010
WENDY STUECK and DAVE McGINN
Read More: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/vancouver-good-toronto-bad-not-quite/article1499617/
###############################################
Vancouver: Drivers are tolerant and an illegal dog just attracts grins. On its westbound route, Vancouver's Number 10 Hastings bus trundles by the shabby storefronts of the Downtown Eastside and past Shaughnessy mansions. During a recent morning rush hour, a man got on the bus on its way downtown, patted his pockets for change and shrugged. He didn't have the fare. "Whatever, buddy," the driver said, pulling away from the curb. In the space of the next six blocks, two other people boarded the bus without sufficient fare. Those trips, and the driver's accommodating reaction, may not be official policy at TransLink, the agency responsible for transit service in Metro Vancouver. The no-fare pickups occurred in a neighbourhood where many residents are poor.
FARE PLAY
On three other buses, all leaving from downtown the same day, I step on board as a drivers' headache: with an expired transfer, with insufficient change ($1.75 for a $2.50 fare) and with apparently no clue where I'm going. Each time, I am either waved aboard or patiently directed to the correct route.
PEOPLE SKILLS
Drivers do what they can to avoid and defuse confrontations, veteran driver Bob Glowa said as he plied the Number 10 route. "You have to be able to deal with things that are out of the ordinary. You have to have a thick skin," said Mr. Glowa. In training, drivers are told not to risk their safety for the sake of a fare. In 2009, there were nearly 150 assaults on drivers in metro Vancouver. I ask them what it would take to get kicked off the bus. A lot, they respond. And would they let me on with my dog? Maybe, if it was in a cage. I tell them about a man I've seen on the bus with a ferret tucked inside his coat. Maybe it was an assistance ferret, Mr. Strachan quips.
RIDING WITH MY DOG
TransLink allows trained and certified assistance animals on its transit services, provided they are equipped with a proper harness and that their owners carry proof of the animals' certification. I don't have a certificate, but I do have a dog. He's a cocker-lab cross: knee-high, golden-haired, with brown eyes fringed with lavish lashes. He often attracts smiles and attention. On SkyTrain, which we board without buying a ticket, he's a star. A young man cuts short his cellphone conversation to pet him. If people ask, I tell them he's in training to be an assistance dog. When they ask what for, I say job-related anxiety and that he's already pretty good at it. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimated TransLink fare evasion of $6.4-million, or 2.1 per cent of 2006 fare revenues totalling $309-million. The highest fare evasion rate, of 5.4 per cent, was on SkyTrain, according to the same report. The report found that there is a less than 1 per cent chance of fare evasion resulting in a ticket.
In connection with this story, Wendy Stueck donated several rides worth of bus fare to the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society.
*******************************
Toronto: Staff give useful advice and people help with strollers
You think you're so great, don't you, Vancouver? You just hosted the Olympics. You've got gorgeous scenery, mild winters and plenty of good vibes. And apparently your transit system likes to pat itself on the back for all-around great customer service. Sure, the Toronto Transit Commission has been taking it on the chin lately (getting caught sleeping on the job will do that), but is it really so bad? On Tuesday afternoon at rush hour and again on Thursday morning, I rode the Rocket to see what the rider experience is like these days on the TTC.
FARE PLAY
Maybe no one thinks a guy in his 30s with an adorable child in tow is trying to cheat the system, maybe they're just too busy to check. Regardless, no one ever checks to see if I've paid when I walk in through the rear door of a streetcar. When I got on the Dufferin bus mumbling about how I forgot to get a transfer, the driver just waved me on. It's nice to be trusted, but it costs the TTC a lot of money. The transit service has a fare evasion rate of approximately 1 per cent. Estimated revenues this year are $940-million, so 1 per cent is a significant chunk of change.
GETTING DIRECTIONS
Standing at the ticket window at the Lansdowne subway station, I notice a lineup building behind me as I ask for directions to St. Lawrence Market. The collector doesn't seem to mind the logjam I'm creating. She smiles and tells me the best way to get there. Later, on the Queen streetcar, I approach the operator and get his take on how to get to the market. He tells me the quickest route and then wishes me a good day. The bus driver who took me down Dufferin was much the same. Were these people told from on high to be nicer since the uproar over a fare collector caught sleeping on the job? If they were, it's working.
DIALLING UP
For as long as I have been riding the TTC, one thing has always been true: It takes forever for a bus or streetcar to arrive. On Tuesday afternoon, I waited close to 20 minutes for the northbound Dufferin bus. And when it did arrive, it was too packed for me to get on. By then, my kid was wailing. So I decide to call the complaints line. I tell a very polite customer service representative named Jeff that the bus takes a long time to arrive and is usually packed. He asks what time of day I'm travelling and whether it's s every day and says he will pass the information along for monitoring. The TTC received 31,532 complaints in 2009. Surface vehicle delays earned the top spot, with 5, 513 complaints. Next came 3,851 complaints about discourteous employees.
RIDING WITH A BABY
Taking my kid and stroller on the TTC, I imagine my fellow passengers shooting me laser-beam eyes of hate and loathing. But everyone turns out to be really friendly. No bus driver or streetcar operator ever offered to help carry my stroller up or down steps, but plenty of passengers did. At the Lansdowne subway station, it was a woman in her 20s dressed in business casual. On the Queen streetcar, it was a guy in black pants and a black overcoat and those big wraparound sunglasses that I once thought were worn exclusively by the obnoxious. On only one ride was I left to fend for myself - suggesting the city is hardly Toronto the Rude.
DAVE McGINN
*****
Transit / TRANSLINK
Total riders / 178.8 million, 2008
Total number of vehicles / 1,638 (1,300 buses; 258 SkyTrain cars; 40 Canada Line cars; 37 heavy rail cars; three Seabus ferries)
Number of kilometres operated in 2009 / 101 million
Customer satisfaction / Ranking based on a quarterly survey - 7.3 out of 10
Transit / TORONTO TRANSIT COMMISSION
Total riders / 471.2 million, 2009 (or approximately 1.5 million per day)
Total number of vehicles / 2,736 (1,782 buses; 248 streetcars; 706 subway and RT cars)
Number of kilometres operated in 2009 / 211.6 million
Customer satisfaction / Customer complaints were up 19.3% in January compared to the same period last year.
