This time, it’s personal.

Oh, gee, hang on, wait a second, sorry, holy cow, what am I thinking; it’s always personal.

Rob Ford has just slapped me silly.

The fact that it is a long slow slap, and that I knew it was coming, and that he started swinging back in the days when he and Karen Stintz were pals, does not mean it stings any less.

Let me explain.

I choose to live where I do because I am connected to the rest of the city by a proper grid of transit.

I have, within walking distance of my front door, access to the Queen streetcar, the King streetcar, the College and Dundas cars, and the Lansdowne bus.

Yes, I know; I hate the Lansdowne bus at rush hour; however, the rest of the time it serves me well enough, and gets me to the Bloor subway; sometimes I use it to go further north to St. Clair for my prosciutto and amaretti; sometimes, it is my link to the 512 streetcar.

I use one or all of these routes — streetcar, subway and bus — daily, for different reasons, depending on where I want to go.

For me, the furthest ends of the city — and I do mean the furthest — are usually only 90 minutes away.

But as of this week, service on all my routes has shrunk, thanks to Rob Ford’s ignorance of my needs, and his ignorance of the needs of all the rest of us who use public transit.

Call this the death of a thousand cuts.

47 Lansdowne bus: during midday, the buses running south of St. Clair no longer appear every 7.5 minutes; they now run every 10 minutes; north of St. Clair, they run every 20 minutes, instead of the usual 15.

Thanks, Rob.

501 Queen streetcar: delays, by a full minute, for the midday cars running east of the Humber Loop, and delays of two minutes for the cars running west.

It’s worse on weekends and holidays.

Thanks, Rob.

504 King car: these cars now run a minute and 20 seconds slower in the morning on Saturday; almost a minute later in the evenings.

Thanks, Rob.

505 Dundas: the midday cars are held back a minute during the week, and almost a minute on the weekends.

Thanks, Rob.

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506 Carlton car: these are delayed 20 seconds during the week, and almost a minute on weekends.

Thanks, Rob.

Finally, the 512 St. Clair streetcar is now held back a minute or so in the afternoons, and on weekends.

Yes, there are some rush hour improvements on some routes in the city. I am supposed to be grateful?

Rob Ford, a man who cannot tell a streetcar from light rail, has just punished those of us who use transit, instead of encouraging others to join us.

How dumb is that?

There is one more insult.

This one is symbolic. I use tokens. I am, at heart, a small-town boy. There was nothing like a transit token where I grew up. The proud images on the mighty little medallion remind me that I’ve hit the big time.

Recently, if I were running short of fares, I could slip a double-sawbuck into one of those red machines and get eight tokens; the transaction, neat and clean.

Now, when I slip in my twenty — the queen’s face up, and to the rear — seven tokens come a-clinking plus, one dollar, three quarters and a nickel.

It is a reminder, every single time, that Rob does not know the first thing about — I hate to use the term — customer service.

This “customer” is fed up.

Joe Fiorito appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: jfiorito@thestar.ca

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