Track Star

Mandeep Lali became CEO of the TTC without setting foot in Toronto. Hope, growing pains and gridlock with the city's new transit overlord

- BY ANTHONY MILTON

You moved to Toronto without ever having visited to run the biggest and busiest transit network in Canada. How go the early days? I officially started in June, and I'm enjoying it! I had read about Canadians being welcoming, and it's proved correct.

Where are you living? And how's the commute? I'm right downtown, close to subway and streetcar stations. The commute to my office at Yonge and Davisville is only about 25 minutes when taking the TTC.

Not to nitpick, but we call those streetcar stops. When you started, you pledged not to use a car. Have you caved? No, and it's working fine. It's been fun to just jump on the bus and find out how long it's going to take me to get someplace.

Well, there's the elephant in the room. Torontonians are frequently outraged with the TTC, and when things go wrong, it's you they'll blame. Did you know what you were getting into? I chose to live near a subway station so I could meet our customers and travel with them. Already, I've seen the passion our riders have for good transit. There's been a lot of work done with respect to improving the TTC's safety and reliability by adding special constables and customer service agents. But there's more to be done.