TTC’s plan highlights safety, customer service

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) made public its inaugural Corporate Plan, which will guide the transit system through the next five years as it transforms and modernizes to become a transit system that makes Toronto proud.

The plan features seven strategic objectives:

• Safety - managing risks, protecting customers, contractors and employees, and minimizing impact on the environment.

• Customers –valuing customers and providing services that meet or exceed customer expectations.

• People – An empowered, customer-focused workforce that values teamwork and pride in a job well done, and an organization that actively develops its employees.

• Assets – Effective, efficient asset management that delivers reliable services in a state of good repair.

• Growth – An affordable expansion program that matches capacity to demand.

• Financial Sustainability – A well run, transparent business that delivers value for money in a financially viable way.

• Reputation – transparency and accountability, well regarded by stakeholders and peers, and in which employees are proud to play a part.

Last year, the TTC underwent a re-organization, distinguishing separate back- and front-of-house activities to ensure a primary focus on the customer. As well, the TTC established, and began publishing, key performance indicators to measure how well it is performing, but also where improvement is required. The TTC also laid out vision and mission statements, something the organization lacked.

“We have embarked on a five-year journey to completely modernize the TTC and thereby transform our reputation,” said TTC CEO Andy Byford. “We have already reorganized to put the customer at the center of everything we do and to make our company more transparent and accountable.”

This week, the TTC executive introduced the Corporate Plan to the company’s supervisors and managers. Over the next several weeks, Byford and his team will meet with TTC employees in every work location, ensuring all 12,500 staff are familiar with the plan, but also understand and buy in to the change required to modernize the TTC.

“We now need to transform our culture, renew our equipment and update our processes,” Byford added. “This plan represents a sea change in the way the TTC is managed and the way it interacts with employees, customers and stakeholders alike. I am confident that with this plan and all of our efforts we will transform the TTC and deliver on our vision of a transit system that makes Toronto proud.”