Transit
It is no secret what respect I have for the TTC – the Toronto Transit Commission. As blogged earlier, the TTC just keeps providing reason after reason for one to admire how persistent, illogical and cruel human obstinacy can really be.
In these tough economic times, the last thing one should have to worry about is getting to work – never mind not having any. Yet, the TTC honchos think the only way they continue their work is by passing the fare buck.
It’s swift, merciless, and packs pure brute force. You gotta respect that.
Much is being made of the cold weather “alerts”, as they’re called here. These remind me of those almost-Orwellian efficiency ‘campaigns’ at government departments when suddenly saving a bunch of paper-clips becomes top priority just because a ‘green week’ is being celebrated — when it really should be standard practice.
But if braving Canadian winters (as blogged earlier) in a previous suburban neighbourhood seemed a little getting used to
The operators are downright rude, the collectors outright insulting, the communication overtly condescending, the unions with absolute impunity, the bigwigs holding politicians and judges in their back pocket, and the behaviour plain and simple: We don’t need you, you need us for protection. Period. So move along.
In the Greater Toronto Area – or the GTA as it is called – the suburban city-town of Mississauga, where I lived right after I landed in Canada, is a sprawling sister-neighbourhood of Toronto which strives hard to deserve the respect of being called a city. Or does it?
Sigh. May be I’m getting too old for public transit, eh? Or may be it is indeed a little complicated?
I just wanted to know an easy way to get on a Mississauga bus and connect to a GO train.
UPDATE 2:
It’s official now. The new TTC subway extension has been given a go-ahead. As expected, high-brow car-driving suburbanites are already calling it a “huge expenditure” – as if everything else the government spends on is not a huge expense. Read my related “green transport joke” rant here.
