TTC vs. Friday the 13th: How Not to Handle Your Crisis

As Jerrold reported this morning, the TTC shut down the eastern reaches of the subway line this morning in the aftermath of a murder aboard one of their trains late last night. Here's how the rush hour commuters spent their morning:

The TTC closed Victoria Park Station and Kennedy Station, but left Warden Station (which falls between the two closed stations) open. Riders who needed to catch a bus from Vic Park were advised to leave the train at Main Street; riders who needed to get to Kennedy station to either use buses or the Scarborough Rapid Transit were told to shuttle from Warden to Kennedy.

Shuttle buses operating out of Warden station were unmarked. The direct result of this was that they were also usually uncrowded, because the majority of passengers waiting for a shuttle to Kennedy were unwilling to board an unmarked bus that might or might not be going where they were going. With limited TTC support staff on hand and with shuttle buses operating out of random bus bays, information about where to go and how to get there was scarce on the ground.

Upon arriving at Kennedy station, riders found that the station itself was also locked down, and that the RT was not operating out of Kennedy at all, but rather that a second shuttle bus to Lawrence West Station would be required. This shuttle was marked, but the shuttles back to Warden Station were not. Again, shuttles were uncrowded due largely to passenger confusion. TTC support staff was limited at Kennedy Station as well.

After shuttling to Lawrence West Station, the RT could be accessed northbound and business continued as usual, except for the lingering question about this strange, "leapfrog" approach to transit.

It's been a while since I've been in high school, but isn't the shortest distance between 2 points still a straight line? Wouldn't a shuttle service bypassing the entirety of the problem area have been somewhat more effective than shuttling confused riders to closed stations?

Kennedy Station is open again, and in an unprecedented display of communicative spirit, there is actually more information about Victoria Park Station's status on the TTC web site than there was at Vic Park itself this morning. Hopefully the ride home will be a lot smoother.