TORONTO, Ont. – The TTC unveiled its first-ever customer charter on Thursday — a so-called rider’s bill of rights — that outlined the commission’s dedication to five key areas, including cleanliness and better information.
The commission said it would also focus on improved responsiveness, being more accessible and modern and the renewal of vehicles in 2013.
“Fundamental change is required in the way we interact with customers, including the consistency and quality of our service,” TTC CEO Andy Byford said Thursday.
“As an organization, the TTC must change the processes and underlying culture that will get us to where we need to be. A Customer Charter binds us to a culture of improvement. I look forward to hearing from our customers on this document.”
Click here to read the charter.
Byford is also promising an “all-out assault” to ensure subway stations are spotless by the second quarter of this year.
Customer charters are common at transit organizations around the world and have been discussed in Toronto since at least 2010, when then-TTC chair Adam Giambrone pushed for a customers’ “bill of rights.”
The TTC said they are cleaning the washrooms more often, and by the end of the fourth quarter, each station in the system will have been targeted with a maintenance “blitz.”
The TTC has already rolled out several technological initiatives over the past few years to give better information to riders. They include the online and mobile Trip Planner, next vehicle reminder screens in subway stations and text messaging at bus and streetcar stops for next vehicle times.
When it comes to responsiveness, the charter will guarantee that when customers contact the commission with a compliment or complaint, the TTC will answer their phones in less than 90 seconds and get back to more than 95 per cent of riders within five days or less.
The commission also will post the performance of streetcar and bus routes on its website. It will improve communication with customers when delays occur and increase staff to aide in crowd control when service is halted.
Two new elevators and an accessible fare gate were added at St. Andrew’s station last year and changes are coming to make Lawrence West station more accessible, the TTC said.
The TTC said they are already retiring old subway cars and replacing them with new Bombardier trains and five new Toronto Rocket trains are expected to arrive in each quarter of 2013.
The TTC is also experimenting with low-floor streetcars and articulated buses, which will renew the aging fleet.
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Hope there are provisions regarding shelter buses. Whatever the reason (Ford thinking his team not waiting for scheduled transportation was more important than any other consideration — like caregivers being on time for the safety of children, etc., or police wanting to spare him the embarrassment of a potential altercation involving the players he claimed to be able to control, whatever really led to Ford’s personal call or calls), it was appalling people were kicked off a bus when there was no fire or actual emergency. Strict rules need to be in place re: shelter bus requests, with clear consequences for anyone calling for one in absence of a real emergency. Guarantee it in a customer charter.
I agree with Willie, having been to Hong Kong & Thailand I know how efficient, informative and user friendly public transit systems can be.
It is a joke that in order to buy a monthly pass by Visa I have to travel well out of my way as only certain stations offer Visa payment services. Under their “Modern” scope, how about adding that every single subway station can accept payment by any method customers care to use.
And you have to wait until the beginning of the month to buy a Metro pass? Really? About time TTC updated transit vehicles and subways as they do in most other major cities by having scanners installed to read cards for validity, then it wouldn’t matter when you bought it. You could then have monthly or weekly passes or load up a card with $ for single trip fares – TTC wouldn’t need to print new cards every month, passengers would just buy their individual card and pay for a replacement card if they lose it.
And what about allowing return trips on your $3 fare within a certain time? I have to spend $6 if I need to do a chore and return the same route, even if I’m only gone 30 minutes – ridiculous!
The TTC is busy releasing a Charter of Rights and new maps for its stops. How about machines that enable you to purchase tokens with bank or credit cards?
With new technolgies, TTC can install text on every stop (bus, streetcar) indicating when the next
vehicle will arrive or if there is any delays. Another improvement is that every subway should stop
exactly on the same spot and marked. Also, where it is marked, the markings will have one lane for
exit and one lane for entrance(working very effectively in Asia). Another thing, on the subways door
above, have leds to light up where the next stop will be and direction it is going. And to cover the costs for all these? Install large video monitors across the platforms and have companies pay for advertising which generate revenue.
TTC has been worse than usual recently. I bet that everyone who takes it regularly has a horror story about being trapped at a bus stop or station for unknown reasons and unexpected short turns are common place. I welcome improvements, but I am not alone in thinking that (especially recently) the system looks pretty bad.