Commendations Corner - August-September 2016

Arrow Road: Daniel Annis, Adam Basilone, Christopher England, Christopher Conboy: “The driver was so nice. He stopped and informed me that this stop is only available during certain times, and made sure I knew for the next time. I really appreciate it when the weather today was so hot and I would have been stuck waiting.” … Giovanni Ferrari, Terrence Fillion-Robinet, Shawn Francis, Mykal Griffiths, Kevin Higgins, David Hoy, Peter Kalamaris, Muhammad Khan, Deborah Mason, Matthew McDonnell, Temesgen Ogbaslase, Frank Ragone, Wayne Stewart

Birchmount: Thomas Austen, Richard Barkey, Vandy Barnes, Everald Bennett, Tammy Bishop, Simone Carrington, Matthew Chipman, Patrick Choo: “I was in the bus going northbound when a young adult got in and he was crying. He told the driver that he forgot his bike on the bus ahead of our bus. I felt the driver dealt with him very nicely and comforted him that he will get his bike … I could see an expression of relief on the boy’s face.” … Neil Curtin, Maninder Dhaliwal, Roscoe Fleming, Scott Grant, June Greer, Devon Henry, Neil Hermes, Carlos Hope, Ryan Jairam, Ruth Johnson, Anthony Khan, Ari Kinnunen, Derek Landry, Chris Makris, Shoail Manjra, Ibrahim Mohamud, Thomas Negassa, Christos Nikoletopoulos, Nellon Pemberton, Peter Polikratis, Christopher Rhodes, David Salisbury, Ivan Salmon, Clinton Sheppard, Jason Todgham, Johanna Vasol, Ronald Weaver, Christopher Williams, Ricardo Williams, Lani Zarb

Community Relations: Denise Jayawardene

Customer Service Centre: Peter Abraham, Carol Barclay, T’Rone Buchanan, Scott Greenwood, Arlene Quarshie, Liberty Sparrow

Danforth: Hindi Marges

Eglinton: Donna Campbell, Ahsan Chowdhury, Jason Dove, Tanya Foderingham

Malvern: Paul Alexander, Melwyn Andrade, Baldwin Bonadie, Marc Boulianne, Stephen Bruyea, Leonard Elliott, Ian Fox, Charles Hadjor, Paul Hunte, Albert Isip: “Very cool. This bus driver was very alert as a flock of seagulls flew directly in front of the bus. He managed not to hit any and didn’t make the passengers go flying. Very cool.” … Hing Lee, Kosta Koukouves, Jake Ligsay, Laurence March, John McGreeghan, Ellington McLeggon, Michael Norman, Todd O’Neill, Trevor Orme, Angelo Piccone, Sardah Ramlogan, Danielle Ray, Gerald Southwell, Samson Surenthiran, Mark Urrea

Mount Dennis: Abdi Abdulahi, Abdul Alagha, Sybil Allen, Jacqueline Alleyne, Ross Bendle, Kevin Borges, Daniel Campos, Nadim Chowdhury, Terri Lea Craddock, Sharon Davidson, Jim De Vries, David Elrick, Angelo Flabiano, Amandeep Grover, Gino Ielo, Joseph Joseph, Errol Jones, James Lockhart, Mandeep Kang, Jasmine Kakuk, Meghann McDonough, Malcolm Meyers, Angelo Morreale: “A lovely ride into work this morning. The driver drove at a perfect rate of speed and greeted all passengers with a kind smile and a “good morning”. Upon exiting the bus, he thanked passengers for riding the TTC and wished everyone a nice day. Thank you driver for a good start to my hectic day!” … Jim Parashos, Tony Peart, Jorge Perez, Lonnie Prior, Peter Prashad, Jagdeo Ramoutar, Dennis Richardson, Nelson Rodriques, Cesar Ruano, Joravar Sandhar, Carlyle Santhiapillai, Denny Santos, Brian Sidsworth, Tom Skinner, Angelo Themelkos, Marcial Velasco, Garnette Williams, Keyshaw Williams, Stuart Yalowsky, Aleksandrs Zamurujevs

Plant Maintenance: Gino Magliocchetti

Queensway: Janice Bushay, Matthew Chau, Michael Fotiou, Patricia Gale, Gurmeet Grewal, Drew Hannigan, Gianluca Iacobellis, Steven Lachapelle, Clayton Maidment, Steven Majocha, Roberto Mancini, Carlo Naccarato: “He’s funny, kind, nice and an example of the finest humanity. Give him a raise. I would say gie him a promotion, but then he would no longer be a driver and I would miss him because he’s usually one of the highlights of my day. What a great, great guy.” … Zoran Ovuka, Isidoro Pizzo, Randy Ramsukh, Jermaine Scott, Michelle Spiteri

Roncesvalles: Mark Bingham, Roman Dzerowicz, Frederick Fosu, Perry Howell: “The driver of streetcar 4212 is hilarious telling us about the detour … He stopped and helped everyone. I kinda want to date him.” … Glen Kielty, Milton Netto, Anson Pan, Barbara Ramsay, Mitchell Soares

Russell: Mohammed Bakharia, Dominic Bogacki: “Within less than an hour I had my phone back! If it wasn’t for him I would have been phoneless. I even tried to give him reward money, but he wouldn’t take it. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for Mr. 4219.” … Charles Bunbury, Joseph Harris, Kenneth Ilechukwu, Ryan Leeson, David Miller, John Nikas, Zainub Patel, Yonathan Yemane

Stations: Brandy McKinnon, Joe Zammit

Wheel-Trans: Iftikhar Ahmad, Rod Cook, Omar Gardner, Eric Gottlieb, Steven Gwin: “I was so impressed with the Operator’s patience and knowledge of the vehicle. The bus quit not far from their home. The Operator tried a number of things and with his perseverance and experience, he got it going again and they made it home.” … Marcia Kerr, Nick Marolias, Christina Martinez, Bill MacKinnon, Tyrone Pedro, Jose Sousa

Wilson-Bus: Leon Gusvaris, Shawn Broderick, Neil Cooper

Wilson-Subway: Jeff Andreoff, Greg Northcott

Letter: TTC people wranglers

Dear Mr. Byford,

Several years ago I lived in the east end of Toronto and worked at the corner of College and Spadina. I took the subway from Main Street to Spadina and switched to the streetcar to go south on Spadina.

The trip was fine except for the transfer from the subway to the streetcar. Each morning there would be an amorphous mob of passengers pushing and shoving and generally being rude and aggressive as possible to get on the streetcar. It was horrible. It was a real relief to me when I changed jobs and no longer had to travel to College and Spadina.

I moved out of Toronto to Montreal for a few years before moving back again. Last December, I moved back to the east end and back to working at College and Spadina again. On my first morning back, I was dreading the return to the Spadina streetcar station. Imagine my joy when I came up the escalator and saw an orderly line defined by ropes to organize the crowd. It was wonderful!

But the lynchpin to the success of this wonderful new system is what I call the “people wranglers.” These pleasant and helpful people enforce the lineup, prevent people from butting in and advise passengers whether the next streetcar coming is a short or long one, which is essential to the success of the system, and they are the reason the system works, and works very well.

The people wranglers are unsung heroes, but I don’t think that is right. I think it is incumbent on the TTC to provide positive feedback to the wranglers to let them know that they are appreciated for the fine and important work that they do.

As a long-term loyal TTC passenger, I am asking you, Mr. Byford, to make my comments known to this group. Please ensure the word is passed down in the appropriate manner to let the wranglers know that their work, their good humour and their endless patience and courtesy are noted and appreciated.

P.S. If anyone tries to tell you how wonderful the Montreal Metro is and how much better it is that the one in Toronto, you can silence them with seven words: The Montreal Metro is not air conditioned.

Mary Louise L.
Toronto