Statement from TTC CEO Rick Leary on safety incident at Kipling Station

Like all Torontonians, we at the TTC are shocked by today’s attack at Kipling Station.

Our thoughts are with the victim for a full recovery.

I have spoken to Chief Ramer and offered Toronto Police our full support as they investigate and work to bring the suspect to justice.

I know incidents like this are concerning for our customers – and I share that concern.

Safety is paramount to all we do and I am committed to ensuring the TTC remains as safe as possible.

We move hundreds of millions of customers every year without incident, but we cannot and do not take that for granted.

To that end, we are always looking at ways to improve safety for both customers and employees.

The TTC has numerous features and programs in place including:

• Transit Special Constables strategically patrolling the system to deter and respond to security incidents;

• Working with Toronto Police Service to increase their presence across the system;

• Cameras and emergency alarms in all stations and vehicles;

• Two-way communications systems on platforms in the Designated Waiting Areas;

• Uniformed staff throughout the system who can contact transit control directly to assist customers;

• The SafeTTC app to report suspicious incidents in real time;

• Our transit control centre has a direct line to 9-1-1 to respond to emergencies.

We are also actively recruiting new special constables as we expand the size of the unit and have a growing partnership with Streets to Homes that assists people in crisis.

We are also modernizing our stations to add more cameras and have more staff visible to deter criminal acts.