Driven to dissatisfaction

Drivers slamming on the brakes, injuring passengers. A rider with a toddler falling and breaking her nose, after the driver refuses to kneel the bus. A passenger leaving a bus in tears after being berated by a driver.

- EMILY FAGAN, NATHAN PILLA

Those are just some of the thousands of complaints riders filed with the TTC last year, according to records obtained by the Star through a freedom of information request.

We dug into the thousands of comments, complaints and suggestions sent into the transit agency last year to determine what the most common gripes of streetcar and bus riders were — as those riders have more direct contact with drivers and surface routes can be delayed, rerouted or miss stops more easily than subway lines.

Though ridership has continued to languish below pre-pandemic levels, the number of complaints has surged. Ridership last year was still only 77 per cent of what it was in 2019, while complaints were at 83 per cent of their 2019 level.

On average, the transit agency received more than 130 complaints a day last year. That’s more than five every hour — the most since 2020, when the number of complaints plummeted by 40 per cent due to the drop in riders caused by the pandemic.

As you might expect, more complaints were filed during the rush hour periods when ridership is at its peak: about one out of every four were filed between 4 and 7 p.m.

The complaints range from the mundane, about graffiti, fare evasion, dirty stations and vehicles not showing up on schedule, to the extreme: passengers who say drivers closed their limbs in the doors or faced other transit-related injuries, people who describe drivers with road rage, and riders who say they faced racism or rude comments from drivers that made them cry.

With so many similar gripes appearing so often, it’s no wonder riders question whether anyone even listens to their complaints.