‘I’m begging you to make it stop’: TTC has known about blaring bus horn problem for more than a year, documents show

A Toronto resident captured video of TTC buses blaring their horns outside his apartment, near Kipling Station for several minutes.

Residents of a west-end condo building besieged by noise from blaring TTC bus horns say the city’s transit agency has known about the problem, in detail, for more than a year, despite the fact that it continues to be an issue.

One resident of the building, located across the street from Kipling Station, told CP24.com last week that the bus horns sometimes blare for minutes at a time without interruption, at all hours of the day.

The TTC said the problem occurs when somebody requests a ride while the driver is out of their seat, triggering an alarm that causes the bus horn to blare until shut off. The agency said it would issue a reminder to drivers to deactivate the feature when they leave their buses.

However documents obtained through a freedom of information request (FOI) by one of the residents at the building and shared with CP24.com show that the TTC investigated the issue in detail last year and has previously issued such reminders.

Bus honking worst at 2 stations

In fact, the TTC received 85 customer service complaints related to the driver’s distress alarm/honking TTC vehicles system-wide between June 2023 and January 2024, mainly from residents living near subway stations, the documents show.

In that period, there were 76 complaints – 10.8 per month – about honking buses, according to an investigation, titled “Driver’s Distress Alarms: Investigation into why complaints are increasing.”

Of those complaints, 19 of them related to Kipling Station, while 17 related to Runnymede Station. Other stations where there were multiple complaints about honking included Eglinton West (3), Keele (2) and Ossington (2).

According to the document, the honking time ranged from as little as 30 seconds to as much as 10 minutes, with an average duration of two to three minutes.

Staff culture cited as an issue

Breaking down the problem, TTC staff identified the root cause as operators forgetting or neglecting to disarm the alarm before leaving the bus with customers on board. Staff wrote that many of the newly hired operators are still learning on the job and that could be a contributing factor.

However TTC staff also cited a secondary root cause around staff culture.

“Operators are hesitant to respond to the activation of a distress alarm on another bus, for fear of reprisal from Management, causing a potential conflict with a fellow operator, and exposing themselves to an uncomfortable or unsafe situation – lacking a sense of ‘I am my brother’s/sister’s keeper,’” staff wrote in the investigation.

Other contributing factors cited in the report included training gaps, difficulty identifying drivers who forget to deactivate the alarm, an insufficient supervisory presence at stations where there is a frequent problem, and two newer bus models which may have louder-than-average horns.

The report also found that some operators may be ignorant or indifferent about the impact to nearby residents.

“Operators do not know, appreciate, or care about the impact to residents,” staff wrote, noting an attitude that “If it’s not my bus, it’s not my problem.”

Video submitted to the TTC by residents showed staff passing by buses with blaring horns without investigating.

In a statement to CP24.com, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said there was “no data to support this observation,” referring to the investigation’s finding that staff avoided turning off alarms for fear of confrontation with colleagues.

He also dismissed the investigation’s finding that operators were ignorant or indifferent to the noise as an “anecdotal observation” and said there was nothing to suggest it is a widespread problem.

“This behaviour would be addressed in real time,” Green said.

‘I honestly wish I was exaggerating’

The TTC investigation also included examples of past complaints from customers about the issue, many of them pleading with the agency to do something about the constant noise.

“I’m not sure what causes the buses (sic) horns to go off so regularly but I’m begging you to do something to make it stop,” wrote one person who said their mental health had been affected.

“I live across from Ossington subway station’s bus terminal and every day a bus’s horn sounds for around 1 minute, sometimes longer. This occurs sometimes 5-10 times a day. I honestly wish I was exaggerating. It is VERY loud and wakes up my child from sleep almost every time which makes it very stressful for me.”

Other customers said they understood the horn was a security feature, but said the noise was nonetheless constantly disruptive and that another solution should be found if drivers cannot be relied upon to deactivate the alarms.

“The horn is piercing. It just pierces through the windows and just through all the other noise that’s around the station,” Peter Mahase told CP24.com.

Mahase, who moved to the area with his wife several years ago after living in other buildings downtown, filed the FOI after the situation dragged on despite complaints.

“We understood there would be some noise around TTC stations, but it really became a problem when we had our baby, and that’s when I really ramped up my complaints to the TTC and reached out to the city councillor, and my next step was to reach out to media. I’m glad one of my neighbours did,” Mahase said.

Usefulness of the feature not clear

In his work as a safety manager for federal government workplaces, Mahase said, safety features are constantly being evaluated for effectiveness. That experience, he said, made him wonder whether the out-of-seat alarms are actually effective safety features, or just a noise nuisance.

“I really wanted to understand, what is this actually doing? If it’s an alarm for the drivers, it is really not summoning anybody to the bus,” Mahase said.

Bus operators have an alarm they can activate with the push of a button near the driver’s seat. But there is also a driver’s distress alarm that can be activated by using the ride-request string or button from anywhere on the vehicle if the driver is out of their seat, according to the TTC. The feature is designed to allow drivers to sound an alarm from anywhere on the bus if necessary.

Drivers are supposed to disable the feature when they leave a bus idling with customers on-board, but frequently forget.

According to the TTC, the feature is meant primarily for operator safety and has been effective in the field in the past.

Several solutions already in progress

In its investigation in 2024, TTC staff said the preferred suite of solutions would involve continuing to remind operators to disarm the alarm if they are leaving the bus with customers onboard, but adding “face-to-face supervisor to operator engagement and education of the procedure and expectations.” The report also recommended follow-up with operators identified in complaints, adding more supervision at high-incident stations, and improving training.

Green said all of those proposed solutions from the 2024 investigation have already been implemented.

“We acknowledge and apologize to our impacted neighbours for this inconvenience,” Green said. “There is a lot of work being done behind the scenes to address this…everything from operational reminders in the division to mechanical solutions.”

He said the TTC is also looking into workarounds based on the specific model of bus that has been identified as having a problem more frequently.

Information about the problem ‘siloed’

Mahase said the other reason he filed the FOI was to see how his complaints were being handled.

Months after he obtained the documents through the FOI, Mahase said, the honking was still an issue. So he contacted customer service again. When he cited the findings of the investigation, customer service asked in December if he could share the TTC’s own report with them.

“It is ludicrous,” Mahase said. “It doesn’t make it any better, but I see how it does happen where departments within an organization are siloed and information doesn’t really get where it should.”

The TTC confirmed that its customer service department received the documents from Mahase in December.

Mahase said he did notice that after he shared the staff investigation with customer service, there was a noticeable decrease in the number of daily incidents. Still, it continues to be a problem.

Lucas Laporta, another resident who lives in the same building, previously told CP24 that he’s documented at least 67 occurrences since November 2023.

Separate documents included in the FOI Mahase filed show driver training has been updated to include a reminder about deactivating the alarm when operators leave the bus and the TTC has said it is reminding current operators about the issue. However Mahase said it feels like the TTC is blaming the bus drivers for a bad system that nobody seems to be taking ownership of.

“I asked the TTC, like, what other measures can you implement that takes the driver out of the equation, even to do a safety assessment to see if it (the driver distress alarm) is even effective and needed? So they said it was built in with the buses. That’s as far as really I got.”

‘More than a nuisance’

Speaking with CP24.com, Coun. Stephen Holyday said he’s familiar with noise complaints as a city councillor, but the noise from the bus horns is more than background sound.

“It’s a busy, busy transit hub. There is a rail corridor and so on, but, but this is next level,” Holyday said. “You know, a blaring horn for several minutes is beyond what the background (noise) is, for sure.”

Holyday does not represent the ward that includes Kipling Station, but he does frequently use the station as a councillor for a nearby ward.

“Somebody is accountable to the public on this, and whether that is the operators or the management, I’m not sure, but somebody is, and I think that they should be resolving this as quickly as possible. This is more than nuisance. This is a health impact for people.”

He added the problem seems like a “very technical issue” that the TTC could resolve through better procedures.

TTC Chair Jamal Myers’ office said he was not available for an interview as he is out of town. Coun. Amber Morley represents the area, but her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mahase said he’s concerned that with an emphasis around developing transit-oriented communities in the GTA, that quality of life around transit stations is not being considered or taken seriously as those communities are built.

“They’re not looking at it from a safety perspective. In what they sent me, they’re looking at it from a customer complaint perspective, which is kind of disappointing.”