TTC boss Andy Byford frequently walks by the wall at transit headquarters that bears the photos of his predecessors. Below the pictures of Michael Warren, Alf Savage, Al Leach, David Gunn, Rick Ducharme and Gary Webster the caption shows the years of service at the country’s largest transit system. Six years is about the extent of the average bosses’ shelf life.

“It’s uncanny how many of them last about five years,” says Byford. “If you are worried about your job, you are approaching the danger zone at the five year mark.”

Byford, the Brit who arrived after stints with the London Underground, British Rail and the Sydney transit in Australia, became the TTC’s top dog in March 2012. And as he hears the clock ticking he’s using it as a catalyst to improve a system that was, in many respects, in decline from years of under-funding and neglect.

In a job that requires a public face, Byford’s is as public as it gets.

When the trains don’t run, he’s seen among the throngs explaining why they have to be bundled onto buses. If the 60-year-old subway signals fail, he’s huddled with journalists giving updates. If Bombardier screws up the streetcar order, it is Byford who must embody the frustration. And when the Spadina subway extension falls behind schedule and over budget, he falls on the sword.

Toronto’s had public transit defenders, hands-on nuts-and-bolts leaders like Gunn and quiet and steely firebrands like Ducharme who was not afraid to stare down their political masters. The last boss, Webster, got fired for telling Rob Ford that it didn’t make sense to put a subway in every transit route. But none of them have embraced the job in such a public, utterly enthusiastic and totally all-consuming fashion.

So, when homeowners in Leslieville discover that an independent contractor has put a lien on their properties because of a dispute over a TTC project, Byford is drawn into a dispute that is not even of the TTC’s making.

And he loves it all.

Byford says there are job opportunities across the globe but there is none better than the one he has – on par with positions in London, Hong Kong and New York.

The job’s great; the challenges greater.

The Spadina Subway extension to Vaughan is behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget. So Byford put his neck on the line by personally guaranteeing his political masters that he will fix the problems and the subway will open in 2017.

When it opens it will be so “fabulous,” with “spectacular subway stations” that commuters will quickly forget about the delayed opening, he promises.

TTC users are witnessing the rollout of the new Presto cards, heralding the end of tokens. A new signaling system, automatic train control (ATC), is inching towards startup on the the new Spadina extension. In a recent visit with the manufacturers in Rochester, New York, Byford said he told them that there can be no hit-and-miss with ATC. It must be delivered “on time and it must work, out of the box.”

Meanwhile, the slow, contentious roll-out of the new streetcars continues to test his patience with Bombardier. Only 17 new streetcars have been delivered when 70 of the 204 ordered should have been here. “I hope they build planes better than they do streetcars,” he says.

While he gets kudos for being a stand-up guy in the face of transit troubles or snafus, some wonder if Byford is tough enough to counter the politics around transit.

“I make it my business to have good relations with the city and with the politicians (and Metrolinx, the province’s transit agency that is building, for example, the Crosstown LRT); but I don’t concede much.” He acknowledges that critics think the TTC is not as resolute in challenging the transit dogma of politicians and the city’s planning department. By allowing city planning to take over transit planning, he’s given up on a vital area of TTC pride over the years.

Byford says he hears the criticism. Some of his own staff – the veterans of another time – feel he is “giving away the family jewels.” But the TTC needs laser focus on operations and delivering an experience that commuters trust and respect and is reliable. Besides, the TTC is at every important table where transit decisions are made – just not arrogantly leading it like they did in the old days.

With so much at stake – a massive amount of transit spending and several transit megaprojects underway – this is the golden age of transit in Toronto and he’s giddy with excitement that he’s at the front of the line.

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“By the end of 2017 it will come together. It’ll still be a struggle but it will be far better. We would have gone from being at the back of the class to cutting edge by the end of 2017,” Byford says of the changes in culture, technology, and transit systems.

A clear indication his job matters to the vast majority of residents is this: everyone thinks he or she is a transit expert and knows how he should do is job. “Sometimes I feel like the general manager of the Leafs – everyone thinks he could do a better job than you.”