WATCH ABOVE: Bus drivers that sit on standby are getting paid full-time hours and are sometimes sent home after spending 5 hours on the job. Mark McAllister reports.
TORONTO- More than six weeks after TTC fares went up, the transit agency’s finances are back in the headlines.
The TTC has dished out $1 million dollars so far this year, for drivers who didn’t get behind the wheel.
An average of 80 drivers are sent home every week, after spending 5 hours on standby. The drivers go home, with eight hours of pay even if they do nothing and it’s costing the TTC 95,000 a week.
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TTC CEO Andy Byford said it’s normal for transit agencies to have spare staff on standby, ready to go if they’re needed and said the transit agency has increased recruitment ahead of the PanAm Games.
“The last thing that I want to be doing is cancelling service because of no operators available, so I’d rather to tough questions today about having a temporary surplus than be castigated for not having enough operators,” Byford told Global News.
TTC spokesperson Brad Ross confirmed that 250 drivers sit on what’s called the spareboard. He says there are many reasons for the surplus; not as many drivers as expected have retired, others are returning from sick leave. He says it takes six to nine months to get drivers behind the wheel, and that it will pay off when things pick up in the summer.
Byford added that by the end of the year the costs spent so far will be covered as less overtime is paid out.
“The amount we’ve accrued to date will easily be covered by the end of the year because we will spend less on overtime because we have more people available but also because we think we can now bring in the additional services we promised,” he said.
*With files from Mark McAllister
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