CEO notice to all staff

Dear colleagues,

Last evening, you will have heard, there was yet another robbery at Chester Station. This is the second such robbery at the station in almost as many months. In late August there was a robbery at Christie Station. In the first Chester robbery, and the Christie robbery, police are confident the same individual is responsible.

I am just relieved that no one has been injured in any of these cases.

Police now have CCTV images of last night’s robbery. We’ll await word on whether they believe it was the same individual responsible for the robberies in August.

Working with police to apprehend a suspect or suspects, is a priority for me. Armed robberies are incredibly serious and dangerous for our employees, of course, but also the public. We all remember, too well, the robbery and shooting at Dupont Station in February 2012. The assailant of that cowardly attack remains at-large. The TTC issued a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of that individual, who, it is believed, robbed the station on two previous occasions. The reward stands.

I will be speaking, personally, today with Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair about these robberies. The police are working hard on them, I know. Just last week, police held a news conference to seek the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect in the August robberies.

In the last 18 months, we have revamped the Collector Booths, making them even more secure than they were prior to the Dupont shooting. We have also added debit/credit machines for Metropass sales to reduce the amount of cash in the system; further fare media sales via debit/credit are coming soon. New CCTV cameras and monitors were added to booths to act as a deterrent (would-be robbers can see their images being captured), but also provide very clear images to investigators. And two-way radios are in every booth for your added safety when opening and closing a station.

I look forward to writing to you next about an arrest. In the meantime, thank you, as always, for your professionalism and hard work.

Andy Byford
Chief Executive Officer
October 7, 2013