Commendations Corner July-August 2017

Arrow Road: Jay Anderson, Adam Basilone, Guillermo Campos, Philip Carreiro, Roberto D’Amata, Dionne Daniels, Vince D’Arpino, John Davis, Arja Donaldson, Brian Dunham, Sandeep Gehlot, Christian Gendron, Donna Harding, Keith Herdsman, Ardrian Iancu, Peter Kalamaris, Syed Kirmani, Robert Klikorka, Marcello Macri, Robert McBurney, Jorge Mendes, Rahima Morgan, Paul Olejarz, Philip Padula, Ray Pennant: “Somebody veered into our lane and Ray swerved the bus and brought it to a stop. He had been doing the speed limit so it was a really fast swerve. A bit scary actually. But he stayed calm, asked that we were all okay and then continued on after taking a few seconds to let the moment pass.” … Hemant Prasad, Frank Ragone, Nicole Restituyo, Dharminder Sandhu, Preet Sharma, Sambor Sobiepanek, Mary Touma, Giancarlo Trimmeliti, Rajkumar Vamadevan

Birchmount: Vikas Arora, Dave Ballantyne: “I started to cross and got half way in front of the bus and he laid on his horn. I stopped dead in my tracks and thank God I did because the car that was coming up beside the bus had no intention of stopping for the red light. The driver’s quick thinking saved my life.” … Abinash Basra, Nicole Bojovich, Mark Brumble, Joseph Buiza, Damien Charles, Vitali Chatalov, Raul Chimbo, Jason Curnew, Correen Dillane, James Davis, Jessie Fox, Robert Goldman, Samet Gulec, Dale Hawtin, Neil Hermes, Tom Humpreys, David Jardine, Marvin Johnson, Eudine Latchman, Thomas Leithwood, Sean McLean, Nichole McLeish, Stasia Osbourne, Eva Potiriadis, Milad Pourkarim, Ivan Salomon, Naresh Sivadasan, Edward Smith, Andre Steer, Ripu Thakur, Chandice Williams

Community Relations: David Naglar

Customer Service Centre: Nanica Peters, Puja Rai, Ronald Sly, Jeffrey Wen

Danforth: David Anthony, Daniel Bodden, Curtis Boyle, Kimani Degale, Mike Deslandes, Susie Fukumoto, Jack Gajic, Nathaniel Guilaume, Aatesh Gupta, Patrice Martin, Michael McDonald, Gerry Morin, Mohammad Shawish, William Soltesz

Eglinton: Glenroy Als, Christina Atkinson, Chris Barlow, Andri Bilaniuk, Corrado Borgia, Chris Bradshaw, Mohammed Brown, Tristan Chalmers, Angshu Choudhury, Perci Christopoulos, Panagiotis Christou: “This particular bus driver is very pleasant, polite, courteous, safe, humorous and friendly. We really enjoy having him as our driver. Thank you to him! Drive our route any time!!!!” … Paolo Cichella, Liann Craig, Tim Cullen, Gillian Davidson, Gregory Dell Agnese, Kathy Devos, Sofia Dundas, Mohamed Elkareem, Sheldon Elliston, Casey Farhall, Egbert Felix, Theresa Festo, Rosario Figliano, Denis Filatov, Vladimir Funtikov, Tanya Gardiner, Luigi Gabriele, Andy Ghansam, Clairmonte Henery, Justin Irving, Imraan Khan, Joel Knight, Sylvie LaRouche, Oliver Lawrence, Chingkong Lee, Matthew Lewis, Saverio Lumia, Raj Maharaj, Colin Mair, Christopher Mancini, Jordi McLaughlin, Sean McKnight, Adebayo Olaniyan, Kent Pelletier, Prince Peprah, Roydel Porter, Colin Pinder, Debra Raymond, Pasquale Rizzo, Angshuman Roy, Chris Ruck, Salvatore Scattarelli, Julie Schram, Kevin Shepherd, Sutharsan Sivagnanasegaram, Brian Sproule, Brian Stanworth, Mark Stoeckle, Steven Stronge, Bhiswa Sukhu, Athar Syed, Jim Themelis, David Tso, Lawrence Wein, Norman Wilson, Tyrone Yorke

Malvern: Mike Arrigo, Tanya Bartley Koosha, Randy Blake, Janice Camack, Eric Cook, Joseph Donnelly, Jayemark Elliston, Merrel Emmanuel, Vincenzo Galluzzo, Robert Greenhalgh, Charles Hadjor, Duynhan Hoang, Andreas Ioannou, James Johnston, Christopher Jones, Mohan Judgey, Krikor Kahwajian, Jason Leblond, Joseph Lockrey, John McGreeghan, Ellington McLeggon, Chris Morton, Mouneir Mourad, Claire Paskar, Donald Proulx, Danielle Ray, Nicolas Renda, Andrew Samuel, Peter Stanislaus, Anthony Stewart, Ken Thomas, Tan Tran, Stephen Walker, Sukhwinder Virk, Cammy Yu

Mount Dennis: Robert Anderson, Vineet Arora, Oscar Arriaza, Steve Baker, Milan Baric, Kannav Bedi, Ches Bilka, Keshia Blagrove, Craig Brown, Ron Buis, Josesilva Carvalheiro, Daniel Chojnacki, Nadim Chowdhury, Peter Cole: “Kudos to the bus driver who stopped to make sure a lady was okay after a car that jumped the light almost hit her.” … Andrew Darby, Balbir Dhillon, Roger Dow, Onyelome Eboh, Allan Ford, Rajveer Garcha, Christopher Garrido, Kevin Gracey, Rocco Grieco, Anthony Gullo, Thomas Hendry, Antonio Ionadi, Lisa Ivens, Jeenhyuk Jang, Wholde Johnson, Amardeep Lalli, Samuel Logan, Edwin Martin, Tyler Mather, Meghann McDonough, Malcolm Meyer, Baric Milan, Guglielmo Morra, Lebert Morrison, Marcel Noble, Franco Pitruzzella, Lonnie Prior, Ryan Rajmoolie, Jagdeo Ramoutar, Nadia Roubos, George Raptopoulos, Giuseppe Rizza, Pardeep Sachdeva, Joravar Sandhar, Joanne Simpson, Denroy Stewart, Hanefia Tanim, Gus Thomas, Monica Vargas, Everett Warner, Eldon Wickham

Plant Maintenance: Samarie Amoh, Beatriz Bedoya Ortega, Peggy Brenya, Dorothy Coombs, Preston Ho Sue, Nickesha Luke, Tina Marvin, Tyler Pettigrew, Tomislav Saric, Azeb Tewolde

Queensway: Vida Baksa, Leon Bennett, Edward Cavaco, Pria-Marie Cotterell, Bruno Degutis, Malkit Deol, Anthony D’Souza, Patricia Gale, Akshay Gauba, Trevor Kamerman, Steven Lachappelle, Karen Marriott, Trevor Mundle, Carlo Naccarato, Terry Napier, Cristian Pineda, Mohammad Rana: “As not to embarrass the rider, the bus driver waited until the person exited the bus to open all the windows and doors, and remained stopped shortly to air out the bus. After checking the bus he gave us a choice of staying on or waiting for the next bus. He was extremely polite and professional throughout the whole experience.” … Robert Skrypka, Jay Thornberry

Roncesvalles: Bruno Canino, Kevin Davis, Leonardo Debenedictis: “The gentleman was one of the most pleasant and polite TTC employees I have happened upon. And on a day when the subway was shut down, it was a great reaction to a difficult situation.” … Luis Dos Santos, Roman Dzerowicz, Owen Johns, Benjamin Pacheco, Virgil Rita, Mario Sandoval, Gregory Shean, Mitchell Soares, Jennine Sudeyko, Luciano Tomei, Onur Ulutas, Moses Wajcenberg, Shenell Whyte

Russell: Sarfraz Ahmed, Ellery Alexander, Manuel Alexandre, Matthew Beach, Christine Bulmer, Yin-Leung Chan, Andrew Costa, Duane DaCamara, Derek Green, Thedore Grozdanis, John Habermell, Shawn Kelly, Thomas King, Keifu Lam, Jonathan Lewis, Terry Mannella, Linda Naval, Zheng Pan, Skylar Prendergast, Curt Richards, Anderson Seebaran, Ronald Shakespeare, Trisha Strachan: “I commend her for her actions and keeping her head in a difficult situation (a cyclist was doored by a truck). I hope she is around if anything ever happens to me. Well done!” … Bac Vong, Lascelles Williamson, Yonatan Yemane

Stations: Soobir Ablack, Philip Foubister, Floyd Girdharry, Mengesha Hailemichael, Dan Harvey, Suleman Hassam, Jegasothy Jayaraj, Steven Jennens, Sean McCabe, Lubna Nazneen, Rick Pauze, Michelle Roberts MacDonald, Michael Sanderson, Wendy Tilley Pospischil, Greg Wright

Training/Development: Colin Breto, David Cooper, Bruce Cuthill, Grace D’Ambrosi, Jeannie Maillet, Josie Panetta, Neil Preece, Chris Sanderson, Twain Sparks

Wheel-Trans: Gil Allan Dicion, Tom Alle, Jim Bachoumis, Melissa Brown, Sandra Cassells, Diane Crnojevic, Rashid Dhoore, Alison Duncan, Dave Ennis, Philip Fermo, Steven Gwin, Trevor Haripersaud, Chris Heidinger, Jayanthan Gnanarajah, Danny Jeffries, Jill Jobity, Wayne Jones, Jennifer Karlein, Muhammad Khan, Peter Kirow, Andrew Kizik, Alina Lakovnik, John Lombardi, Jason Langley, Chris Latour, Jerry MacNeil, Siddeek Mahmood, Cindy McDonald, Omar McFarlane, Karim Mohamed, Kasi Morgan, Diane Muccilli, Emmanuel Otoo, Michael Parris, Boris Petrusiw, Brett Prosper, Nicholas Purdy, Charles Robinson, Joan Shakulli, Jerry Silveira, Jason Tomchuk, Ramona Totoraitis, Lynn Whitmore

Wilson-Bus: Shaun Allan, Mark Beltrano, Maria Christakos, Silvio Iaboni, Jedrzej Kaca, Kevin Lam, Colin Lotfi: “Ah, here’s a gem of a gentleman. Colin was so attentive to the motion needs of the elderly getting on, seating themselves and getting off, as well as young parents struggling with strollers and toddlers. Wonderful to see courtesy in action.” … Ernest Mirabelli, Shabniz Mitha, Jose Silva, Farhad Tafazzoli, Dwayne Wallace

Wilson-Subway: Jeff Andreoff, Fernando Bagnasco, Matthew McNamee, Rino Rigione, Louis Stavrakos

Miracle on the 86

I was on the 86D with my sister sitting at the front of the bus going towards Lawrence as we live around there. It was a cloudy day and it had been raining on and off. The bus came towards Brimley Road while we were on Eglinton Avenue. The light was green, which the bus driver (Eglinton Operator Andy Ghansam) had the right of way, but what he did was just amazing.

Two cars ran the stop light, having the bus driver ease the bus about three feet from colliding with them. The bus was half way full having many passengers wonder what just happened, with those of us in the front realizing the quick thinking of the bus driver saved us from an accident.

When exiting the bus, many passengers including my sister and I thanked him. I asked him “Were you scared?” He replied, “I was, but I have good training behind me.”

I am very thankful for the training the TTC provides its workers, especially this driver as it could have been much worse.

Leann C.
Scarborough

Letter

Dear Coupler,

While sitting and having lunch at a local establishment, a patron noticed my colleagues and I were TTC employees and started questioning us on the long delays in the subway last week. We of course apologized for the delay and reminded the customer that we are working hard every day to improve. A couple of students who were also in the establishment overheard our conversation and as they were leaving, left us with a drawing (see below).

It was really nice of them to take the time to do that ... I’m sticking it on my filing cabinet!

Dwayne Geddes
Manager, Bus Transportation