It’s a Monday evening and I’m rushing home from class. It’s been one of the coldest weekends so far and a good 25 minute wait at the bus stop to get to the subway has been a ‘Frozen’ experience, and frankly we don’t want to get into details here. Simply because we don’t use expletives in this column. But long story short, the TTC driver made a ‘short’ break for a coffee, and to add to the commuters woes stopped for a good 5 minutes to welcome his Oriental girlfriend on the bus. On the train there’s an announcement from a gruff voice that we are not going to be moving forward and that we need to make alternate plans. Before we can get off our seats and rush to the door, the train jolts forward, and ignores the messenger before reaching the final terminal it was meant to go to in the first place. Note that there are no more voice-overs in between to even suggest the change of plans. That’s the TTC for you. No wonder nobody ever takes it seriously.

Sending dubious, confusing messages to its commuters, consumers, and clients for the most part is our most common grouse. And if you go by the logic, it’s because of us that they are actually in business. We are actually paying every employee that runs the TTC their salary. So are they grateful? Hell, absolutely not. Add to that the absolutely horrendous delays. I’m sure that there are employees out there whose horrible bosses think that they are “Crying Wolf!” The “I’m late for work because of the TTC” has become as bad a joke as “Sorry I was held up in a traffic jam because of an accident.” At least as a driver with your own vehicle you get to choose your own road. Eventually getting to your destination via in-roads. Unfortunately with the TTC, there’s no other choice. Then, there are some drivers who can spot you from their windows running for the bus (when you take a transfer to change your route). However, they simply choose to start the bus and run away from you. I have given them benefit of doubt: yes, it is a long drive and they need to use the washroom, and that constant guzzling of coffee does induce an overactive bladder.

Coming to the customer service. There are two extremes, two sides of the coin. Some of the drivers are so polite and cordial that they drive you silly—I sometimes wonder whether I am on the correct vehicle. They wish you, want to make small talk, and are generally humorous and their own rough-edged way. To be extremely fair and non-judgmental I don’t expect them to talk literature or the movies with me. It’s a bus or a train that they drive and have ridiculous hours—for them the witching hour and graveyard shifts is a normal day. It’s the ones who treat the rest of us like zombies are the ones I am concerned about. And trust me I’ve tried being nice to them, hoping to see the change, but to no avail. A “Good Morning! Or Good Day!” is answered in a pig-tone grunt. A “Have a good one!” gets you an indistinguishable snort. And a “Hi, how are you?” one of the scariest looks that says “Can’t you see I’m having a f*#@-all day!”

I’ve asked my favorite driver Ron, who has been working for the TTC for the past ten years and for the most part, does the midnight shift whether they have classes for them in Customer Service. And he has clearly said “No!” I think that they should initiate that module into their training. There should also be sessions in how to deal with a situation with a customer who is arrogant, did not pay his/her fare, and maybe carrying a weapon. What would also help could be training them in self defense. Who knows what some of them go through in routes that are dangerous, and unpredictable? Unionized or not, even if they continue making their huge hiccups in mismanagement, continue the regular hiking of fares, and issuing press releases that read like lawyers text books and continue to take us all for a jolly good ride. We the people that ride ‘The rocket’ (that is their tag line, but you are free to laugh out loud, we all know that it sounds ridiculous. It may have been a great baseline for the bullet train in Japan but certainly not for this disgraceful entourage) at least are more likely to trust the ones who steer the vehicles. Have a fantastic weekend! More so if you are taking the TTC—you poor thing, you need all the encouragement you can possibly get!

Jude Paul Fernandes is the author of ‘Frost Bites’ which is available at the Toronto Public Library and the upcoming ‘Lonely in Mumbai’