!@#$ the TTC

The Toronto Transit Commission...supposedly the pride of North American transit 10 years ago. Many major American cities, including the likes of New York City & Chicago, looked up to it as a role model. Now it has been surpassed in both efficiency and quality by a whole slew of other transit systems. It sole mandate seems to be to further frustrate and annoy its users year after year. Sometimes it's not just the TTC but even the people who use it.

So you might be wondering why I chose to rant and bitch about it now. Well, while I was waiting for the bus today, this fat, obese woman asks me and this other chick at the bus stop if we had extra tickets. We both said no. Then when we get on the bus, she asks the driver whether he can drop her off a block down the road without a fare. He refuses. Then she's like does anyone in the bus have an extra ticket? Ofcourse no one came forward. After holding up the bus for like a good 5 minutes, she gives everyone this really dirty look and stomps away. Like seriously, why the fuck should we waste our $2.50 on you? And you have the nerve to give us dity looks? Like go get a job and earn your tickets bitch. Or ask someone you know for one, don't ask strangers at the bus stop. Cause you ain't getting nothin from us.

My major pet peeves with the TTC:

1. Threatening to strike at the end of every contract.
Seriously, how much do you want to get paid to drive a fucking bus up and down a street? There are engineers, scientists and nurses who get paid less then your sorry asses. Cost of living has increased u say? Sadly for the rest of us, we can't strike and bring the city to the standstill to increase our wages. Which brings us to the next point.

2. Fare increases
Yeah, keep whining about how ridership numbers are declining, keep wasting money on marketing slogans like "ride the rocket". How the fuck is increasing fares going to increase ridership? Paying more for better service is one thing, but paying more for service that keeps plunging further down the crap hole is a different story. And extend the student discount to ALL students, including college/university students. Giving discounts to just little school kids who only use the bus to go and come to school is pointless. Your not encouraging people to give up their cars when its cheaper to fill your car gas tank twice a month than it is to buy a metropass.

3. Whack bus and train scheduling
"Ride the rocket." Ride the rocket my ass. The best schedule that the brilliant minds at the TTC could come up with is sending 6 buses/trains in one direction and only one in other. This pretty much ensures you ain't getting anywhere soon (unless u happen to be going in the direction of the 6 buses). And why do u post time schedules when they aren't followed? Save the time, effort and money spent on making them and save them for your next contract instead of hijacking more public tax money.

Annoying passengers:

1. People bringing in bicycles, large bags and other obstructions during rush hours.
2. Talking/yelling across the bus. If you wanna talk to your friends, walk up to them. Hollering at them from the back when they're at the front can get pretty annoying, especially early in the morning or late in the day.
3. Cutting lines and then acting like you don't understand what your doing. I'm sure you know what your doing, don't assume that I'll just brush it off as cultural ignorance. There are some things that are universal, and queueing up is one of them.

Some funny/quirky experiences on the TTC:

1. Everything was all nice and quiet on the Bloor platforms early in the morning when out of the blue this woman starts dancing and singing soca tunes. Hilarious!
2. It's rush hour and this woman enters with a small bird cage. She engages in a conversation about the bird with a fellow passenger. She then opens up the cage and pulls the bird out so that the other passenger can have a closer look at it. The bird takes off and flies around the compartment for a while, terrifying the old ladies and cracking up the younger generation.
3. A topless guy, wearing a Santa Claus hat in the middle of July. He kept flexing and making wierd grunting sounds the whole ride lol.
4. A vagrant stops me in a subway station and then proceeds to tell me that Jesus loves me.