A Good Day on the TTC
I had to travel downtown last evening for a meeting in the Queen/Broadview area and took transit as I usually do for this sort of thing. While I cannot claim that it was a good day for all operation on the TTC yesterday, I experienced a couple of incidents that made for a more pleasant trip than usual that are worth mentioning. I have already filed a complement for these with the TTC, and I strongly recommend others file complements when warranted.
I was a little pleased when I did not have to wait more than a couple of minutes for an eastbound Queen car at Yonge along with a huge crowd that was growing by the minute, but this was not the reason for the complement. The operator of ALRV 4234 at about 6:45 pm was unusually helpful by supplementing some of the automated stop announcements with information on connecting routes where they existed. What really stood out was the announcement she made when we were approaching Parliament. In addition to the information on the Parliament bus, she made an apology for the wait for her car. She explained that the car ahead of hers had mechanical problems at Humber and needed to be taken out of service, causing a gap. She ended the message with a comment to the effect of, “hopefully, we will be getting new streetcars soon.”
The pleasant sounding message, combined with the humour, made for a nice atmosphere on board. I would be willing to bet that most everyone on board left that streetcar with a positive memory of the trip. This is a good thing that should be encouraged.
Though not as notable, but still a positive memory incident, the later trip back west was on a King car, CLRV 4071 at about 9:20 pm, that had its automated stop announcement system declare that the car was going out of service at Church and would be turning. This was not the case and the operator quickly got on the PA and announced that “the lady does not know what she is speaking of” and that the streetcar would be continuing straight and in service.
Two separate laughter-inspiring incidents in one day. I call that a good day on the TTC.