Carolynn Smith runs St. George station with a delicate, yet firm touch, like a velvet glove covering an iron fist.

Standing at the south end, she shepherds her flock in and out of the second busiest station in the TTC system.

“Please do not stop and block the doorway, move right inside the train,” she says in a soothing, robotic voice. “Please do not charge the doors.”

The flock follows, opening up to let passengers out, then seamlessly stepping into the train. She’ll do this all again in a minute.

Smith is part of a new team at St. George station that keeps traffic flowing. They work under Cameron Penman, who oversees the stations from Castle Frank to Spadina on the Bloor-Danforth line.

“The number one issue at St. George is the movement of people,” says Penman, who looks more like a Harry Rosen salesman in his fitted suit and TTC nametag.

“And it’s important to have the commission’s employees where the public can see them.”

Its all part of CEO Andy Byford’s vision for a friendlier, more efficient TTC, modeled after his time as a station manager in London’s Underground.

Penman is one of six group station managers, each assigned to one of six zones, who have been on the job since Sept. 1.

Each manager has authority to decide how to operate the stations within that zone — a system designed to embed accountability so rider issues are solved quickly, Byford says.

“Early indications, here, are that staff already feel more supported and able to do their jobs,” Byford said in an email, “while customers have appreciated the more visible management that we now have in place.”

At St. George, where the two major lines cross, a small group of employees who have had to take temporary leave from their regular jobs focus on the dynamics of the platforms, helping to move more than 250,000 passengers per day.

Known in the commission’s parlance as “transitional work personnel,” they’ve been together since late March.

Smith is on leave from operating trains because of an anxiety disorder, due to the stress of 14 years on the job.

“I guess I just like people,” Smith says, clad in her light blue uniform, burgundy TTC tie and bright orange construction vest.

Her colleague, Amanda Foster, cannot drive her Wheel-Trans bus because she’s had six brain surgeries in the past year and was in the ICU last week when the shunt in her brain became blocked.

“I love this gig,” Foster says. “It’s much better than being stuck in an office.”

Tristan Johnson is out of commission because he hurt his back.

“It happened from lifting all the money,” he says, laughing. “Seriously. I’m a fare collector and I hurt my back lifting a bunch of coins.”

Even with station duties, working for the TTC can be difficult, with scores of riders often upset at one thing or another — “Why does it say the train comes in 1 minute when it took 90 seconds?” and the like.

Most are nice, Smith says, like the woman named Diane who dropped off a card that morning.

“You make commuting on the TTC fun and restored my confidence in the TTC,” said the inscription; enclosed was a $10 Tim Hortons gift card.

But it’s not all Care Bears and rainbows.

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There are suicides, drunken riders and cardiac arrests, which prompt the workers to respond with immediate contact to the control centre.

And there are annoyances. The biggest problem at the station, according to Smith’s old boss, Brigid Strawbridge, is “phones at track level.

“People drop their cellphones onto the tracks all the time,” she says. “And they try to go down to get it. We have to stop them because the track is live — it’s really live and will kill you. But, you know, phones are so important, worth risking your life.”

So they tell the customer to come back after rush hour, when one of the workers can safely get onto the tracks.

Also: “Basketballs. Lots of basketballs,” Strawbridge says.

“It’s weird, but there is an usual amount of basketballs that end up on the tracks. And other stuff like backpacks.”

And there’s the inevitable question, asked at least 11 times over an hour Tuesday: What way is south?

Smith is a problem solver. If the platform crowd is nuts, she makes one call and an empty train arrives like an apparition from St. Clair West station. Pregnant woman without a seat? She gets on the train and tells someone to offer it up.

“I’m respectful,” she says winking, “but firm. Customers respect that.”

Then there are the chargers, people who bolt for the doors when the chimes ring.

Almost on cue, an old man in a beret runs with his walker toward the closing doors. Smith notices and jumps to block him, but she’s too late. The doors slam shut and the man’s walker rams the train.

“I’ll just get the next one,” the man in the beret says with a sheepish grin, the walker still rolling smoothly.

Smith smiles and laughs, turning to tell two Star reporters, “You almost had a real story there!”

She turns back, to make sure the flock is in place and following her orders.

They are.