CITY HALL
• City hasn’t tallied Occupy Toronto costs [The Sun]
• Occupy poll: thumbs up for Rob Ford [The Sun]
• Blair praises officers’ handling of Occupy protesters [The Sun]
• City ombudsman blasts children’s services [The Star]
• Second consultant suggests closing libraries [The Star]
• Toronto councillor wants to get cracking on allowing backyard hens [Globe & Mail]
TRANSIT & TRAFFIC
• TTC riders bring their beefs to the top [The Star]
• TTC slashes service on 62 routes [The Star]
• Longer waits, fewer seats as TTC announces reduced service [Globe & Mail]
• TTC service cuts will hit the busiest routes [National Post]
• TTC’s new crappier commute [NOW]
• TTC route changes ‘war’ on riders, group says [The Sun]
• Uxbridge drivers just go with the flow [The Star]
CYCLING
• Councillor wants to push feds for bike safety [The Sun]
• Bixi expanding service area by relocating stations [The Star]
• Bixi expands biking borders in Toronto [Globe & Mail]
• Where Bixi’s moving to [The Grid]
TORONTO ZOO
• Zoo elephants to be shipped to California by April 30 [Globe & Mail]
• Toronto zoo to send elephants to California reserve [National Post]
OTHER NEWS
• The evolving landscape of St. James park [Torontoist]
• Occupation ends with nether a bang nor a whimper [The Grid]
• Hundreds of Occupy protesters, union members march in Toronto [The Star]
• Mississauga radio station gets CRTC approval [National Post]
• Mississauga group renews fight against planned crematorium [National Post]
2 comments
I just discovered that the TTC is doing a form of “extra billing.” On the one hand it is planning to cut bus routes but on the other hand it is running a series of routes where they charge extra. This is wrong because it is taking drivers and buses off normal fare routes and using them to garner extra fares. I have no idea how many of these routes exist (I realize for years there was an extra fee when crossing out of Toronto but these don’t leave Toronto). The ones I found operate around Bay street and go to places all over Toronto: Beaches, etc. As I said this amounts to hurting regular service in order to provide premium service for those willing to pay more. While they travel in less crowded buses we are squeezed in like sardines on the normal routes often having to miss one or two vehicles because they are too full.
Anyone who has some familiarity with the internal workings of the TTC knows that the TTC is EXTREMELY top heavy and has become much more so under the current GM Webster. It is a FAR FAR cry from the lean operation run by former GM Dave Gunn in the 90s. I don’t like Ford. But it was Webster who chose to implement cuts that impacted on service rather than cut deeper into the ranks of supervisors and administrators and higher ups.