The TTC's Bad PR Clinic

So having moved out onto the Danforth, and no longer being within walking distance of work, I thought about starting to get a monthly TTC pass again. The price of a Metropass has gotten ridiculous over the last few years (it works out to a little over 48 rides a month if you buy tokens instead, which means if you work five days a week and ride to and from work every day, you still have to ride the TTC at least nine more times in the month just to break even) but I figured it would probably be worth it, with all the late-night shlepping home from karaoke that I do.

Pretty much as soon as the thought formed in my head, the TTC announced a price hike.

Then, on the heels of the price hike, a road crew did some damage to the roof of the subway tunnel on Yonge Street north of Eglinton Thursday, forcing a service shutdown/delay for most of the day. (This, granted, wasn't the TTC's fault and they did well just to get service going again that night instead of the next day, but everyone blames them for it anyway.)

Then, today, as I switched trains at Bloor/Yonge Station, I was greeted by TTC workers in their spiffy burgundy jackets handing out leaflets. Apologies for the delay the day before, perhaps?

Nope. They were leaflets scolding people to walk down to the end of the platform to avoid crowding.

Now, I have no problem with that sort of scolding on a bus or streetcar, where it doesn't matter much where you stand. But on the subway, where you might need to get on at one end of the train or the other because that's where your exit is? Idiocy. Pure idiocy.

And they paid union employees to dispense this idiocy rather than hiring a bunch of cheap college kids the way the marketing bloodclots who infect Union Station do when they want to distribute free samples of something. I do not wish to speculate on whether these union employees made time-and-a-half for their efforts.

And they do this on the heels of crying poor and announcing a price hike. Right before Christmas. In this economy.

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