and over here in the real world...

[Wikigrl]

Toronto Bus drivers who cause accidents are immediately suspended and investigated...and reprimanded as appropriate. (It won't let me post links Mike!)

In the year since I have been home:
- a bus driver was texting while driving - immediate suspension
- a bus driver was in the bus yard waiting for his bus and was using his cell phone - immedicate suspension - which even I found unfair because as it turns out he was using his cell phone to call his supervisor to tell him that his bus was late arriving from the garage and his route would be behind schedule - union up in arms (rightfully so) and he was reinstated (but you can bet that no other bus driver will ever use their personal cell to make any calls in a bus yard again)
- a pedestrian was caught and dragged by a streecar (and died) - police determined it was the pedestrian's fault - driver not held accountable, therefore not reprimanded
- a major collision at a bus depot between two buses - still under investigation
- this most recent incident - driver crashes into a crane, causes injuries and a death, immediately investigated - no drug test - however, upon a search, marijuana was found to be in his possession - immediate termination - no questions asked - no union uproar - no passing go - no collecting $200. I don't even know if the polcie have laid charges yet - but apparently the driver did not seem intoxicated at the scene.


In contrast - Bermuda - where if you're part of the union, short of murdering the union boss, it seems you can keep your job forever...

[Captain Canuck]

Ya there have been some issues with the TTC of late(or better since it's creation lol  ) but bear in mind the amount of employees the TTC has and the amount of people they have to service.  Yet as much as people complain, they are reliable and more importantly held accountable for their actions.  No wild cat strikes cuz someone didn't want to take a mandatory drug test here.

Toronto - metro population (what TTC services): 4,753,120

Bermuda - population (what PTB services): 67,837

There were atleast a half dozen times i was standing on the side of the road in Bermuda waiting for the bus.  I would see about three of them coming into town and  i was waiting for the first one out.  After an hour and a half i knew they wouldn't be coming.  i would later find out they decided to hold a union meeting(which would for some reason require EVERY single employee to attend) and the way they let the public know was to announce it on the radio or on ZBM, at that time or once the night before(and this didn't include the times they decide to "down tools" for some infraction they didn't like).  So for those of us who didn't tune into those two mediums you were left stranded. 

If that type of foolishness happened here? *shudder* let's just say if they had the audacity to allow it to happen once, after the dust settled they'd know that it would never happen again.

CC