CEO's Report: January Commentary

Happy New Year! And Happy Lunar New Year to everyone who will be celebrating the Year of the Dragon in 2024! I want to begin my first commentary of 2024 by welcoming everyone back from holidays.

This year holds some exciting opportunities as we continue to transform and modernize the TTC to meet the needs of Canada’s largest city. Among them is the launch of our next 5-Year Corporate Plan.

We are updating the vision and mission statement for the TTC to further acknowledge the critical role the organization plays as the backbone of Toronto’s mobility network. The new plan focuses on the importance of the TTC to the future vitality of Toronto and the surrounding region. It also highlights the role the TTC plays in helping to solve larger societal issues, such as mitigating the impacts of climate change and creating access to opportunity for everyone.

We continue to monitor our boardings by mode on a regular basis to better understand and react to trends with our customers. As of mid-December, weekday boardings by mode continued to be highest on the bus network at 93 per cent of pre-COVID levels while streetcar and subway boardings were both at 70 per cent. Overall weekday customer use stands at approximately 80 per cent of pre-COVID levels while our weekend customer use continues to be well over our pre-COVID levels.

Diversity and Culture Group

Celebrating Black History Month
​Looking ahead, the TTC is proud to once again be celebrating Black History Month in February. Our campaign theme for this year is Moving Legacies: Celebrating Black Excellence in Toronto. As part of this year’s campaign, the TTC will be celebrating Black Torontonians on our vehicles and spaces, including the TTC’s first Black woman streetcar Operator, Irma James, and the TTC Board’s first woman Vice-Chair, the late Beverly Salmon.

It is inspiring each year to visit properties across the Commission and see employees volunteering their time assembling displays that showcase to their colleagues all the significant cultural dates and events on the calendar throughout the year.

As part of our 10-Point Action Plan on Diversity and Inclusion, we are committed to building an organization that truly represents and reflects the diversity of the city we serve. This is one more way we are continuing to build an even more inclusive TTC that is welcoming to all of our employees and customers.

People Group

New People KPIs for CEO’s Report
​The TTC has a long and outstanding tradition of celebrating its workforce. Our employees are the reason we can move millions of people every day.

Starting this year, we will be updating the CEO’s Report to include a set of KPIs focused on our People, and share some of the initiatives taking place across the property as we work to become a more inclusive organization.

In December 2020, for example, we committed that four of every 10 new Operators hired at the TTC would identify as women – and we have been very successful over the past few years. Last year, 41 per cent of new hires identified as women and the majority of these individuals also identified as racialized.

TTC staff have also been working on auditing our bathrooms to ensure they are inclusive, and we are looking at updating our uniforms to make sure they are wcomfortable for everyone. We also have several peer training and mentoring programs that are underway, and I am excited to share some of our successes as the year progresses.

TTC employees give back to the community
​The TTC Recreation Council’s dedication to giving back to the community once again shined brightly this past holiday season. Through a series of events and initiatives, TTC employees came together to collect thousands of toys, food items, and winter-wear for those in need and for various community organizations.

In an impressive display of generosity, more than 10,000 toys and 12,000 cans of soup were collected during these events. The food drive, fondly referred to as Soup Mountain, saw TTC employees create an astounding 12,000-can pyramid of soup, all of which was donated to the Veterans Association Food Bank.

The toys were collected through our popular Stuff-the-Bus events held across the city. These toys were then donated to organizations, such as Parkdale Peace Project, SickKids, Abuse Hurts, Community Place Hub, BGC Dovercourt, and Progress Place, spreading joy and happiness to children in need.

Thank you to all those who participated!

Strategy and Customer Experience Group

New ACAT members
​On behalf of the Executive Team, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new members of the Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit (ACAT). Starting their new three-year terms on January 1 were: Angela Marley, Chau Sheung Wong, Debbie Gillespie, Lori Bailey and Tammy Adams.

ACAT is comprised of Toronto citizens who advise members of the TTC on difficulties faced by people with disabilities and seniors, and recommends the elimination of barriers to accessible public transit. ACAT meets publicly online on the last Thursday of every month. Their first meeting of the year will be held on Friday, January 26, the day after the TTC Board meeting.

TTC is updating its Be Essential campaign
​Early in the New Year, the TTC will begin to feature new images for its Be Essential recruitment campaign. The TTC launched the Be Essential campaign in 2022. The campaign speaks to the important role the TTC plays in the lives of our customers who trust the TTC to get them around Toronto. Whether it’s to get to work, to appointments or to shop for groceries, millions of people rely on the TTC on a daily basis.

The award-winning campaign was developed to support hiring efforts and it positioned transit as essential to the well-being of Toronto. The campaign features TC employees in their work locations. The original campaign over-delivered in digital ads, and the TTC saw a 700-per-cent increase in unique views to the jobs page at ttc.ca.

Service changes in January
S​tarting on Sunday, January 7, the TTC made the following service adjustments, which focused on restoring seasonal service reductions made last month, essential changes for construction, continued adjustments to align service with ridership and service reliability improvements:

• Aligning service to ridership demand on – 7 Bathurst, 63 Ossington, 65 Parliament, 106 Sentinel, 925 Don Mills Express and 944 Kipling South Express.

• Service improvements on – 16 McCowan, 32 Eglinton West, 44 Kipling South, 63 Ossington, 94 Wellesley, 122 Graydon Hall and 129 McCowan North.

• Service reliability improvements on: 7 Bathurst, 16 McCowan, 17 Birchmount, 32 Eglinton West, 42 Cummer, 111 East Mall and 168 Symington.

Customers are advised to follow @TTCNotices on X or check ttc.ca for the most up to date information.

Wheel-Trans receives bequest from former customer
​Late last year, the TTC received a bequest from the estate of former customer Van Cam Nguyen. A bequest of $100,000 was made to the TTC to use for Wheel-Trans Operation. We will be using the bequest to purchase a Wheel-Trans vehicle in the individual’s name. The TTC appreciates this generous bequest and we do not take lightly the impact our services have in people’s lives.

Wheel-Trans is responsible for door-to-door accessible transit service for people with physical functional mobility limitations who have the most difficulty using accessible-conventional transit services. The TTC has a 10-Year Wheel-Trans Strategy to help support the community by providing barrier-free, accessible service that is efficient, reliable and available. More information on the 10-Year Wheel-Trans Strategy can be found at https://www.ttc.ca/wheel-trans/wheel-trans-10-year-strategy.

Engineering, Construction and Expansion Group

TTC and partners unveil Sherlock Holmes Walk mural
​In early December, the TTC and its partners unveiled the Sherlock Holmes Walk mural on the east side of the Toronto Reference Library (TPL). The mural, themed It’s a Mood, depicts the life, writing, and characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and was developed in partnership with the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto (StART) program, the TPL and the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection.

The mural was installed on construction hoarding at 830 Church St., beside the Toronto Reference Library, that was recently put up as part of the TTC’s Bloor-Yonge Capacity Improvements project. The site will be home to a future fan building to enhance air circulation at the newly renovated station.

The Bloor-Yonge project will expand and rehabilitate the existing subway station to improve efficiency and capacity and reduce crowding during rush hours. More information can be found at www.ttc.ca/blooryonge.

Safety and Environment Group

Winter readiness at the TTC
​The TTC is committed to providing a safe and reliable service this winter. However, operations can be impacted by road conditions and severe weather conditions.

To assist customers this winter, the TTC has installed new winter weather information signs at select stops along routes where heavy snow and freezing rain are known to impact bus service. We have identified 56 bus stops where conditions during storms of five centimetres or more of snow, or five millimetres or more of freezing rainfall, make it hazardous for buses to operate safely, and may be cancelled due to slippery conditions.

Riders at these stops can scan a QR code on the new signs to check if their bus stop is in service. They can also check the status of these stops on ttc.ca prior to heading out on their journey. The signs also show the location of the nearest in service bus stop. This new system is among a comprehensive program of measures by the TTC to ensure uninterrupted service this winter, and to keep customers safe and warm on their journeys.

Customers are advised to follow @TTCNotices on X (formerly Twitter) or check ttc.ca for updates, and to allow extra travel time in the event of bad weather.

The next meeting of the TTC Board is scheduled for Thursday, January 25 and will be live-streamed on the official TTC YouTube Channel.

Subsequent meetings will take place on the following dates approved by the Board at last November’s meeting: Thursday, February 22, Thursday, April 11, Thursday, May 16, Wednesday, June 19, Wednesday, July 17, Tuesday, September 24, Tuesday, October 29 and Tuesday, December 3.

Stay safe and remember that the TTC is a safe option for getting around during the winter months.

Richard J. Leary
​Chief Executive Officer
​January 2024

This commentary is published in the CEO’s Report, which can be found on the TTC Intranet and ttc.ca.