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Gary Shortt, the TTC’s former head of plant maintenance, has become acting COO. John Chamberlain, the former head of Subway Transportation, will be his acting deputy.

“A recruitment process to fill these positions, permanently, will commence shortly,” wrote Mr. Ross.

Mr. Dixon had only been in the job for 19 months, and took over in a management shakeup caused by the 2012 firing of general manager Gary Webster, who was pushed out by Toronto city council for his denouncement of a subway plan championed by Mayor Rob Ford.

Prior to the shakeup, the COO position had been held by Mr. Byford himself, who moved from Australia to Toronto to take the job in 2011. The U.K.-born Mr. Byford previously ran operations for Rail Corporation in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.

As chief of the TTC’s Operations Group, Mr. Dixon oversaw one of the most visible branches of the transit authority, with responsibility for vehicle maintenance, rail infrastructure and fare collection.

The Operations Group “manages all aspects of ‘back of house’ activity including vehicle and infrastructure maintenance, transit control and management of the subway,” according to Mr. Byford’s Thursday memo.

Earning just under $265,000 per year in salary and taxable benefits, Mr. Dixon leaves a job where he commanded a small army of engineers, mechanics and labourers. It is not known what he will collect in severance, if at all.

Since his unexpected appointment to the TTC helm in 2012, Mr. Byford has led a concerted effort to, in his words, transform the “culture” at the TTC.

Among other facets of a 2012 reorganization, Mr. Byford pushed to equip TTC departments with stricter controls to measure “how well it is performing, but also where improvement is required.”

National Post

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