BUT SERIOUSLY: Lots of checks. How about some balances?

Memo to TTC bigwigs:

You don't need to enlist a blue-ribbon panel of industry experts to figure out what riders are grumbling about these days.

It's hardly a secret. It's the same irritating stuff that riders have had to put up with for years.

All you need to know about what's ailing the TTC is on every regular user's daily checklist:

Severe overcrowding on subway platforms at rush hour gives you the creeps?

Check.

Severe overcrowding in TTC vehicles at rush hour makes you feel very uneasy in this era of pandemic alerts?

Check.

Impossible to understand any of the messages on the speaker system in the subway stations about delays on the line?

Check.

When you ask one of the subway operators what the delay is all about or how long it might last, they don't seem to know?

Check.

Or care?

Check.

The "up" escalator at your subway stop never seems to be working?

Check.

Subway cars are littered with fast-food wrappers every night?

Check.

Your streetcar always seems to be late when you're in a hurry?

Check.

Your streetcar always seems to be late when you're not in a hurry?

Check.

Every time you're on an unfamiliar route, the only buses that come by say short turn on them? And of course, the short turn is way before you have to get off?

Check.

When you ask drivers of the short turn buses when the regular turn buses might show up, they don't seem to know?

Check.

Or care?

Check.

While you're cooling your heels waiting for the bus on a holiday weekend you'd swear the last one that came by was when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup?

Check.

And you don't mean the 1967 Leafs, you mean the 1942 Leafs?

Check.

Seeing a turnstile operator on YouTube dozing off is not what's making you antsy - it's wondering how many in management are snoozing on the job? Blue-ribbon panel, shmue-ribbon panel, how about an independent auditor to take a look at the whole operation?

Check.

And what better place to start, than tracking what's happened to the recent influx of cash from the disturbing fare hike, seeing as how things seem to have deteriorated further since it took effect.

Check. And mate.