Brad Ross, the “trusted voice of the TTC” for the past 10 years, is leaving the transit agency.In a message sent to employees Wednesday morning, Ross said he has taken a job as the city’s new chief communications officer.“As a teenager growing up in Scarborough, my friends and I took the TTC everywhere. It was our connection to the city. Not in a million years would I have dreamed of being the TTC’s executive director of corporate and customer communications,” he said in the message.“I don’t have to tell anyone here that the TTC is in the news every day. We’re Toronto’s fishbowl. Yes, there were stories we’d have preferred didn’t materialize, but that’s not unique to us ... I am proud of the TTC and will look back fondly at my time here. It’s a special place filled with good people.”Read more:What is Seth Rogen doing with Brad Ross of the TTC? Ross was hired as the TTC’s director of communications in 2008.In his time as the transit agency’s chief spokesperson, he became known for his near daily media appearances and his frank approach to discussing the many challenges of operating the transit service. He often avoided corporate communications language and spoke in plain terms the transit-riding public could relate to. He attempted to lift the stigma around discussing subway suicides by eschewing official terms such as “injury at track level” and by bluntly informing riders if someone had tried to take their life on the system.He told the Star in 2016 that he didn’t want suicides to be considered merely another statistic. “It is somebody’s son or daughter, or mother or father, or brother or sister, or friend or lover or spouse who has tragically chosen to end their life, and I think that perspective is important for all of us to understand,” he said.Ross was active on social media, often sparring with critics he thought were un ...
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