Brad Ross’ Difficult Week (or: What’s Up with the TTC’s Surface Routes?)

I feel for Brad Ross, long-time spokesperson for the City of Toronto and now Director of Corporate Communications for Accordion City’s public transit system, the TTC. He has to put up with smartasses like me needling the TTC for a lack of originality in their signage, and in the past week, he has to help manage the PR fallout from some notable mishaps on the TTC’s surface routes:

This morning: a head-on collision between two streetcars (one going west, the other supposed to be going east, but turning north) near Bay and Dundas streets. Given that streetcars are restricted to the rails on which they run, you almost have to try before there’s any possibility of a head-on collision.
Yesterday morning: A bus driver suffers “a seizure or some other medical problem”, causing the bus to swerve, smash into a median, a light pole, and several parked cabs, finally coming to a stop a kilometre away when it hit a tree.
Last Tuesday: A bus driver was charged with drunk driving after a passenger, concerned about the way the driver was behaving, called the police on a mobile phone. The driver was instructed to drop off all the passengers and police were dispatched. He was issued a breathalyzer test and found to be over the legal limit and was both arrested and fired.

For my limited communications with Brad and from reading the papers, I know that Brad’s a straight-talking, articulate and responsive guy, which is what the TTC is going to need in light of this week’s surface route troubles. I wish him all the best — this isn’t going to be an easy week.

Joey deVilla

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Wendy says:

June 11, 2008 at 12:31 pm

I was just on the subway and listened to two TTC employees (apparently both off-duty drivers) chatting about the accident this morning. A few of their thoughts:

"When I heard about it, my first thought was ROOKIE."

"It's Stop, Look, and Go, man."

"This is our worst nightmare."