Emphatic that the TTC is “very safe” for riders and workers, Andy Byford still wants more special constables patrolling the transit system.

“I would always like to see more,” the Toronto Transit Commission’s CEO told the Star. “We will need to make the case to the TTC board and (city) council.”

Byford spoke to reporters Wednesday just hours after the early-morning robbery of a toll collector at Warden Station. The assailant was shot and killed in an altercation with police moments later, an incident now being investigated by the province’s Special Investigations Unit.

Citing the year-long total of 533 million TTC riders, Byford said the incidence of crime and violence on subways, streetcars and buses in the city is low, but that shouldn’t mean security is taken for granted.

“Incidents like this morning’s that happened at Warden don’t help people’s perceptions of crime and it’s an ongoing task to keep people safe and secure,” he said.

TTC workers have been robbed at gunpoint, stabbed and shot periodically over the years. In 1995, fare collector Dimitrija Trajeski, a 54-year-old father of two, was stabbed and killed while on the job at Victoria Park Station. Another worker, a bus driver, was shot in the face and blinded in 2005, and an employee working at the Dupont Station collector’s booth was shot in the neck during an attempted robbery in 2012.

Byford said Wednesday that any such incident is “an outrage” and that no worker should have to be fearful on the job.

To make the TTC safer — both in real terms and to afford a greater perception of security — alarm systems and more CCTV cameras have been installed at stations and fare kiosks. Collectors’ booths also have special reinforced glass to further protect employees.

Byford said the continued rollout of the Presto card payment system will help, too. As more stations install the systems, fewer people will pay in cash, decreasing any incentive for would-be robbers, Byford said.

Last summer’s decision to reinstate TTC special constables is also a step forward, according to Byford. By mid-2015, he expects 40 former fare-enforcement inspectors to be trained as special constables, meaning they’ll have more police-level training and expanded powers to make arrests. They’ll join the Toronto police Transit Patrol Unit that also oversees the TTC, he said.

Manny Sforza, executive vice-president of Toronto’s transit union, said he considers the TTC safe, and welcomes more police and special constables in the system.