TTC head Andy Byford says he is “not happy” after learning fare-paying riders were taken off two buses so they could be dispatched to pick up high school football players coached by Mayor Rob Ford.

In an email to transit commissioners Saturday, the CEO said he planned to follow up with Toronto police and the mayor’s office about the incident.

“For the record: I had no idea that two buses were used nor that customers were inconvenienced,” Byford wrote.

The email was a response to one from Maria Augimeri, councillor for Ward 9 York Centre, who said she plans to put forward a motion at the next transit commission meeting to “strengthen and clarify” the TTC’s existing policy on how they respond to police and fire requests for shelter buses.

“I think that the chief executive office of the TTC and the chief’s office of police services should be involved somehow,” said Augimeri. “This will protect both politicians and staff who may not understand what the policy is.”

Last Thursday, regular TTC passengers on the Finch West 36 and Martin Grove 46 were dropped off mid-route, so that the two TTC buses could be used to pick up the mayor’s high school football team from a game. The TTC said they dispatched the buses after receiving a call from the Toronto police, as per their protocol.

Normally the TTC, which receives on average two emergency requests a week, tries to use shelter buses from terminal stations so it doesn’t have to interrupt riders’ journeys. But there were no buses available at that time, and so the two buses were rerouted.

In an email to commissioners Friday, Augimeri said it was “deplorable that riders on one of the busiest bus routes in Toronto (36 Finch) were stranded in order to serve the needs of a football team to which the Mayor is connected.”

On Saturday, the councillor, who last year posted a YouTube video showing the busy conditions on the route, said she was furious.

“Here are people who take the Finch bus under extremely trying circumstances,” she said. “And here comes someone willy nilly and says ‘take another bus off the route.’ We can’t stand for this kind of thing,” she said.

She said she had never heard of buses being interrupted mid-route to be sent to an emergency.

Byford’s response to commissioners Saturday said he would “dig out the policy and if you would like, make a proposal to strengthen it.”

He said because requests come in at all times of day, operational staff are the best placed to handle them. However, Byford agreed that “more senior TTC staff oversight/approval may be needed.”

On Thursday, when the first of the buses was delayed because the driver couldn’t find the playing field where the Don Bosco Eagles were waiting, Ford called Byford’s cellphone. Byford, who was unaware of the original request, called the transit control centre to inquire and was told the buses would arrive soon.

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“The most unfortunate thing about this episode is the damage done to our reputation after more than a year of careful, painstaking steps to improve it,” he added in the email. “I am not happy about that and I am certainly not happy that fare paying customers were inconvenienced under these circumstances.”

It’s still unclear why the police had requested TTC buses to pick up the students after the game. One police spokesman suggested it was because of the cold and wet weather conditions, while another said it was due to safety concerns after an altercation took place between the referee and coach from Father Henry Carr.