When Gary Webster was celebrating the announcement of his appointment to the TTC’s top job in June 2007, customer service was an issue high on his agenda.

“We’re moving into an era of expansion and modernization. Our customers have high expectations. You want the bus or the streetcar to be a choice for them. That hasn’t been our focus,” he told the Star then.

Webster has been embarrassed and frustrated by the headlines thudding on his doorstep since November, he said in an interview this week. Mostly focused on how the TTC treats its riders, the news has all been bad: fare hikes; token hoarding; ticket lines; and most infamously, sleeping, surly staff.

“You wind the clock back and you say: ‘Did we know we had issues?’ Yes, we did,” he said Thursday in his corner office above the Davisville subway station.

But crisis?

“I’ve never felt it was a crisis,” he said. “I’ve always had a problem with the way it’s been typified in the paper.”

He admits, however, that he may have underestimated the dissatisfaction of a sleeping giant that began to roar as lineups at collector booths lengthened during the Christmas shopping season.

“If you don’t have these problems, you’re not going to be on the front page of the newspaper. We did acknowledge that. We didn’t argue,” he said.

A 35-year TTC employee, Webster believed the system was already tackling its customer service problems, in part through its internal Work Safe, Home Safe campaign, which has reduced injury and illness rates among the system’s 12,500 employees.

Dress code and courtesy were discussed with employees as one means of reducing the risk of assault frontline transit workers face.

“If I’m an operator and I’ve got my shirt and tie on and I present myself in the professional way, and I welcome the customer in an appropriate way — we think that goes a long way to developing a relationship of respect between the two and reduces the likelihood of a conflict,” said Webster.

He admits the rate of assault on TTC drivers remains stubbornly high. But if expectations of dress and courtesy were discussed in the past, they haven’t always been enforced. And that is changing.

Fifty TTC supervisors are already being re-deployed from control rooms to the city streets, both to support staff and, where appropriate, correct them. But Webster admits it’s still a daunting task, with about 160 supervisors to oversee about 3,000 drivers during a typical weekday rush.

And next time there’s a subway shutdown, collectors will be coming out of their booths. With the help of new signage and announcements, they will be redirecting passengers and, if they won’t be able to get where they’re going, stop them before they drop a token in the box.

That kind of service was expected of them before, too, but it may not have been communicated and supported properly, says Webster.

In the next few months, every collector will receive training on how to act in such situations, and new signs will be placed to help redirect riders.

For his own part, Webster has been busy talking to transit officials in Philadephia and Montreal about how they have met similar challenges.

Meantime, he’s still offering up some good news about the TTC to anyone who will listen, although he recognizes there’s not much appetite for it:

• Ridership is at a record high. Early results show even January’s fare increase didn’t bring the numbers down as expected.

• There’s never been more service on the street. The bus fleet, at least, is mostly new, and new subway cars will be coming later this year.

• For the first time in a decade, the TTC is preparing to break ground on a subway extension. The SRT is also being renovated and three new LRT lines are on the way.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

• The system is increasingly accessible. More than 90 per cent of buses are fully accessible and 75 per cent of all riders board at accessible stations or vehicles.

Is the customer always right on the TTC?

“No,” says Webster. “But here’s the thing: You don’t start with the customer being wrong. You don’t dismiss them out of hand.”