TTC: Efficiency improvements instead of fare increases

[JDH]

Instead of insisting on raising fares to make up the difference in the operating budget, perhaps the TTC should implement efficiency measures to reduce operating expenses. Below are a number of efficiency measures with vary degrees of implementation costs:

1. Replace all incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs in a staged approach not as individual light bulbs fail.

2. Install ambient light sensors in stations to adjust lighting depending on sunshine, i.e. does Yorkdale subway station require all lighting on in the middle of a bright sunny day?

3. Install a motor efficiency controller on all TTC escalators. This does not change the speed of the escalator it simply reduce the energy consumption of the motor based on the load, i.e. number of people, on the escalator providing savings from 25%-40%.
http://www.powerefficiency.com/pdf/vt_brochure.pdf

Any other ideas out there to save the TTC money and save us money besides eliminating the collector booth attendant.

 

[unimaginative2]

Those are all great ideas, but they aren't likely to bring the kinds of savings in the short term that are required to make up the deficit. Over 80% of the TTC's operating costs are labour costs, so there are really only three ways to achieve significant results:

• Service cuts or elimination of recent Ridership Growth Strategy service improvements
• Productivity improvements (i.e. providing the same level of service with fewer workers)
• Reduction in worker compensation

The last option in particular would be very challenging as the contracts were only just negotiated.

 

[kEiThZ]

All that stuff increases capital costs. It won't save the TTC from a fare increase next year. Besides, lighting and escalator operation costs are not the most expensive budget items they have.

 

[kEiThZ]

I've always wondered about labour costs. Would they not be better off by creating a customer service rep position that they could pay a lot less than operators that they put in the booths? I'd like to see money saved, spent on more janitors.

 

[Second_in_pie]

These are interesting and I like the sound of all of them, but they don't really strike me as huge things to quickly improve efficiency and reduce deficit.

I was thinking doing things like buying articulated busses, which are a government-funded capital investment that can save huge on high-volume routes.

I still want to bring back the idea of trolley busses. As gas becomes more expensive, electricity will be a huge advantage. They're also easier to maintain in other aspects, and have operational benefits that are noticeable to riders, such as much better acceleration times, smoother and quieter ride, as well as no fumes, especially when accelerating (I hate those.)
Also, if you want to look at a purely psychological perspective, seeing trolley wires means someone's invested in it and that's where the busses run. No chance that you're on the wrong route, and you know that something's going to come soon because the infrastructure's there. You also subconsciously realize that because the government invested in those wires and new busses, there must be a good reason which is most probably high route volumes, meaning more busses and less of a wait. They also create a bit more of a guilt trip towards people not taking the bus, especially if they have a good route to take. They feel that the government's invested in them, and feel shame for not using it when they can.

Though all those things mentioned should be done. I wonder if the TTC could get the province to cover capital for getting new fluorescent bulbs? If the Liberals got in power last election, they could probably get the feds to pay for them!

 

[Whoaccio]

The inevitable fact of the TTC is that any cost restraint will need to imply some kind of reduction in labor costs. That's both good and bad. The good is that it implies it's actually fairly easy to cut costs if there is a will. Normally it's hard to make priorities as to what you should cut (wages, investment, maintenance, inputs, overhead costs...), but if 80% of your budget is labor the decision is mathematically predetermined. The simple fact is, nobody here could find any business in a roughly similar industry with 80% of their costs tied up in labor. Bus charters, airlines, railways, cab companies, parcel companies, trucking. Nothing. Given that we also pay what are by all standards cashiers six figure salaries, it's a safe bet that costs generally run in excess of private sector comparisons.

The bad is that these leaches are politically influential, and there is a whole class of Torontonians who somehow think that City services have an obligation to provide above median wages to overweight, old, white men in what is quite possibly the most bizarre concept of social justice. Because isn't that what social activists have argued for all of these years, transfer of income from low income minority groups to above average white men.

 

[nfitz]

I've always wondered about labour costs. Would they not be better off by creating a customer service rep position that they could pay a lot less than operators that they put in the booths?

So what do you do with operators who can no longer operate then? Just pay them to sit at home on disability? That won't save money.

The bad is that these leaches are politically influential, and there is a whole class of Torontonians who somehow think that City services have an obligation to provide above median wages to overweight, old, white men in what is quite possibly the most bizarre concept of social justice. Because isn't that what social activists have argued for all of these years, transfer of income from low income minority groups to above average white men.

wow ... that's some odd thinking. Besides, these days, are white males even the majority of the operators?

 

[Darwinkgo]

You don't even have to roll back much of the ridership growth strategy, just evaluate the pieces for effectiveness and refocus it where needed.

A big part of the deficit is from service that does not even exist yet: Bus Transit City. If that plan is axed there is still going to be issues to be sure, but one that could be handled by a normal level fare increase.

An interesting thing about fares is Toronto creates a disincentive to buying a pass for workday only commuters. Other systems aim for efficiency by having every workday commuter buy a pass. This eliminates much of the work of collecting tokens, selling tokens, etc. If you move enough people to Metropasses, you can eliminate many positions. Add to that sell Metropasses in every convenience store so you don't need collectors to sell them at the start of every month creating pedestrian bottlenecks.

 

[Whoaccio]

wow ... that's some odd thinking. Besides, these days, are white males even the majority of the operators?

Yes, TTC employs disproportionately old white men. It then pays them arbitrarily high salaries, far above median levels in this city and far above typical rates of for unskilled labor. It's just one big wealth transfer scheme from those who have to use the TTC, by and large lower income residents from a visible minority group, to those who get inflated wages, who are by and large older, richer caucasian males.

 

[GraphicMatt]

How does a unionized, public organization like TTC go about addressing high labour costs anyway? I know it's easy to say "get tough with the union" but wouldn't lay-offs/restructuring lead to even higher costs in the short-term due to severance and possible job action?

 

[Northern Light]

On Labour Costs:

I really do favour a downward adjustment in collectors wages. I don't wish to be unkind to anyone, I'm all in favour of a fair, decent, well above average retail wage; but surely $17.00 an hour would be fair, as past senior operators, many collectors are at $27.00 per hour, before overtime. That really is a bit rich.

It has been noted that the overwhelming majority of collectors, are former operators who are arguably in that position due to being 'unable' to continue as drivers for some reason.

Further, that the alternative to letting them work as equally well paid collectors, is to have on disability indefinitely.

I'm not sure that I accept this, certainly the majority of collectors seem able-bodied, working legs, arms, hands, eyesight, etc. I'm not clear how much more taxing a driver's job would be. If they were removed from the road due to repeated accidents, or professional misconduct, then I think, with great sympathy, that would normally be grounds for dismissal, not a transfer.

If in fact they do have a physical impairment that prevents them from driving, but which does not prevent them from being a customer service rep. (collector) then, I have no problem with them transferring, but not at their previous wage rate. If you could no longer perform surgery, and the hospital transferred you to an administrative position, you would not expect to retain the same salary, such is life.

If a worker injured on the job, that is WCIB's responsibility to investigate and compensate appropriately. If they otherwise become 'disabled' then I'm all for either short-term disability (subject to verification) or they can apply for ODSP (Ontario Disability Support); but they can't keep an operator's salary forever, if they are unable to perform that job.

*******

I personally would like to see most the system inspectors removed. I get that 'route supervision' is supposed to be about managing for service gaps and overcrowding and bunching and so on.

But aside from the fact no one believes the TTC does a good job of this; I fail to understand why computers can't do it all.

With modern-day GIS and schedules, headways, route maps, short turn locations and traffic sensors all reporting real-time information to transit control, why can't a piece of software analyze the most efficient vehicle allocation, and just send the message to the driver on their dashboard?

$70,000 per year x dozens of supervisor/inspector jobs seems a cumbersome, outdated and expensive way to carry out this job.

*****

While we're at it, how about a simple anti-bunching measure on big streetcar routes, the occasional passing track. Pick 3 areas per direction, where there is little or no parking right now, outlaw parking, build a passing track.

West to East on Queen, as an example, in front of CAMH, Ossington to Shaw, then Bay to Yonge, then near Jonathan Ashbridge Park just west of Coxwell. Again, the software managing the route could tell if 2 streetcars were within 200M of each other, it orders the one in front to stop on the mainline track as soon as it crosses the switch, the one behind goes in front and evens out passenger load and headway.

The above is obviously not a current year savings, but I think makes longer term sense.

*******

On station cleaning, at platform level, I still like my idea of a Station Wash Work Car. A car with all the power washing equipment on it, big scrubbers like in a carwash for the trackside walls, and away they go.

Much cheaper than dozens of staff to do the same thing.

While I'm at it, why couldn't this be done with painting platform-level station ceilings? They still hand paint them! Why not a work car with on big power roller, extendable to fit the exact ceiling area, attached to a giant paint tank, and do the whole station in one night.

*****

There, that's my list.

 

[Whoaccio]

How does a unionized, public organization like TTC go about addressing high labour costs anyway? I know it's easy to say "get tough with the union" but wouldn't lay-offs/restructuring lead to even higher costs in the short-term due to severance and possible job action?

You do what Air Canada and CN Rail did.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Yes, TTC employs disproportionately old white men. It then pays them arbitrarily high salaries, far above median levels in this city and far above typical rates of for unskilled labor. It's just one big wealth transfer scheme from those who have to use the TTC, by and large lower income residents from a visible minority group, to those who get inflated wages, who are by and large older, richer caucasian males.

But those new, minority drivers *will* end up retiring as wealthier, older minority drivers. Just like they always have. My dad's cohort of drivers hired in the early 1970s - the boomer bulge of hiring that you still see reflected in many other industries - included a lot of first-wave Jamaican, Italian, Portuguese (remember, early 1970s Toronto looked at swarthy Mediterranean types as *barely* white), and Argentinian/Latin American immigrants who retired with as much, if not more, money than my dad did (which is not as much as you think it is). So it's not a *white* thing, as to be honest, the TTC was a pioneer in hiring non-WASPS during that era, especially in comparison to the Police or Fire Departments at the time. And if these guys built good lives for themselves, so what? Why blame them, honestly, unless it's a combination of resentment and envy that's driving your indignation. A lot of these guys had few options when they came to this country, and for most without a trade it was jobs like the TTC and the city and other public sector jobs that gave them a leg up in that society where they were still called spic or wop to their face. The system that's in place is the one that's in place, you don't like it, vote for politicians that will change it. I'm not saying it's perfect either, but there you have it. And to be honest, I wouldn't blame a driver that you complain to about it if he told you to stick it in your ear.

And you want shady wealth-transfer schemes? Try universities. Don't get me started on *that*.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

You do what Air Canada and CN Rail did.

Last time I checked, both are still unionized.

 

[Whoaccio]

^
Call it indignation, I don't care. You're the one defending a system that sees the poorest of the poor pay with their time, money and taxes to bankroll people earning incomes many times median levels with no skills whatsoever based on no other reason than they were there first. It's nativist schlock and if you had any sense of social justice it would be obvious that hiring one 40 year old "swarthy white" at $30/hour to count change when you could just as easily hire two employees for $15/hour to count change is better for society. Maybe the TTC was at the forefront of hiring non-WASPS in the 1970s, but that was 30 years ago. It's not their job to provide jobs for life to unskilled "swarthy whites."

Last time I checked, both are still unionized.

So? They managed to control their labor costs and improve productivity. CN Rail went from being a union run basket case in the '80s to one of North America's most efficient rail companies. Air Canada, despite problems, is stil better off than it was in the '80s. You don't have to call in the Pinkertons to get some control over labor costs. No one here wants TTC workers eating dog food. It's almost a truism though that if 80% of you're expenses automatically go up by 3% a year, without any improvement at all, you are being run by that one expense.