TTC guard fired after doors open on moving subway train over Bloor Viaduct

A Toronto Transit Commission guard has been fired after a scary incident caught on video showing a subway train running with one of its doors wide open Friday night.

The video was taken around 6:30 p.m. as the subway car was travelling eastbound on the Bloor-Danforth line as it headed over the Bloor Viaduct.

“What we do know is that it was not a mechanical error, it was a human error,” TTC CEO Andy Byford said at a board meeting Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve checked all the T1 trains — the trains run on Line 2 — and we found that the doors are working perfectly fine.”

The unnamed guard, who TTC union head Bob Kinnear said had around 10 years of experience on the job, was confirmed fired without pay Tuesday.

Byford said the TTC determined that the train operator was not at fault but the guard, who is positioned on the last car of the train, was responsible for the incident.

The door had a mechanical issue at Castle Frank station initially, which is when officials managed to get the door closed before it left the platform, but Byford said proper procedures were not followed to ensure the door remained closed.

TTC Chief Operating Officer Gary Shortt said the door rollers on the tread on them that was damaged. He added that “proper procedures” would have included putting up barriers or removing customers from the train.

“What will happen is the door will then drop a bit because of damage to the tread and it jams,” he said, adding that more findings on the matter will be released at the end of the week.

“We know the door was fine in the morning. Sometime during the day the damage occurred.”

Kinnear said the union would contest the termination of the guard if the TTC declined to release tapes showing exactly what occurred on the train.

“If the TTC is reluctant to provide us with that information, obviously we would have to defend that individual,” he said.

“More likely than not there was likely pressure from transit control to get that train moving. And sometimes when you’re under pressure and communication is going back, there is a breakdown in communication. We need to get to the bottom of that.”

With files from Peter Kim and Will Campbell