Many of Toronto’s frontline transit workers are on the verge of a major job shift, now that a push to modernize the TTC is finally taking hold.

A plan to begin testing single-operator subway trains next year marks the beginning of the end of the guard position. That’s the second operator, the one who pokes his or her head out to ensure that no one has been caught in a door before the subway moves on.

Eliminating that job, which pays about $31 an hour, will be closely followed by a new role for subway collectors as the TTC begins a full-scale launch of the automated Presto fare card system. The collector position will be “re-engineered” into more mobile, direct customer-assistance roles, said TTC CEO Andy Byford.

That kind of transition has already been achieved in large international systems such as London’s. Labour unions typically balk as technology eliminates traditional roles.

But there won’t be any layoffs on the TTC, Byford promised. Staff will be absorbed into other roles, and efficiencies will be achieved through attrition. All safety procedures and protocols will be developed in consultation with the union.

“We’re not looking to have people lose their jobs, but jobs will change,” he stressed.

Byford, who worked on the London Underground, plans to replace the subway guards with cameras on the platforms and monitors in the train cabs.

“I’m very used to operating (on the Tube), a much busier railway than the TTC,” he said. “Their one-person operation has been in place for decades. It’s a safe method of operation. It makes use of technology. It is something that we should move towards, once it’s proven that we can do so safely.”

Getting the on-board equipment and operating procedures correct, including emergency and evacuation protocols, is critical to making single-driver trains safe.

But “we wouldn’t need to reinvent the wheel here,” Byford said. “There are perfectly workable, demonstrably safe operating procedures that are used in modern metros all over the world.”

TTC workers’ union president Bob Kinnear said he’s against the single-driver trains because it’s better to have more eyes on the system. Cameras are a good tool for dissecting an incident after it occurs, he said.

“But there’s no better deterrent than having people there,” he said, citing last Friday’s shooting at Queen station.

Kinnear also said he has difficulty imagining a single operator evacuating a train at track level. Evacuations are rare, but they do happen. One occurred near Kipling Station on Wednesday.

“We’d be completely naïve if we thought the system would be running the same way as today in 20 years,” he said. “We’re going to have to adapt to some technological changes, but we’ll always be cautious about the safety of our members and the public.”

When the Yonge subway was built in the 1950s, bus drivers feared they would lose their jobs because the subway would carry 10 times as many riders as a bus. In the end, it helped expand Toronto’s transit system, Kinnear said.

The TTC has allotted $51 million to equip the trains with the needed equipment. The single-driver trains will be tested first on the Sheppard line, before moving to the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

The Scarborough RT has always run with a single operator. On the subway, however, one of the TTC’s 612 operators drives the train, with a counterpart acting as guard. The two switch roles at terminus stations. It’s a timesaver because the driver doesn’t have to walk down to the other end of the train, but it’s not done in most places.

The TTC has no intention of moving to driverless trains, like Vancouver’s SkyTrain and similar systems in many parts of Europe and Asia, even though the introduction of new signaling technology makes that potentially viable. Nor does it intend to de-staff stations, Byford said.

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“It’s only right that we should look to be efficient. I am overtly putting more staff onto the front line and less people into behind-the-scenes offices,” he said.

Byford said efficiencies will give the TTC credibility when it goes to governments looking for funds.

“To do nothing, to think that we’re immune to change, is not an option.”