TTC says Kipling bus service not overcrowded despite man in wheelchair left to wait

The Toronto Transit Commission says the 45 Kipling bus route is not overcrowded even though a man in a wheelchair felt compelled to park in front of a bus Monday after six buses on that route were too full to let him board.

• What compelled a Syrian refugee in a wheelchair to block a TTC bus?

TTC spokesman Brad Ross defended the service on Tuesday, saying the incident on Kipling Avenue would be reviewed and it appears that protocol was not followed.

But he said the route has enough buses.

"At that time of the day, the buses are going to be busy," he said. "Sometimes buses are full. We don't run empty buses. But we are looking at this particular situation."

Ross said he apologizes for what happened and he is sorry that the man, Mohamad Alhaj Abdullah, a Syrian refugee, had to wait in the heat.

"We are taking it seriously," Ross said.

Abdullah waited for 90 minutes at Kipling Avenue and Redcliff Boulevard in Etobicoke,with his 10-year-old son starting at 3 p.m. Six buses came by, all indicating they were full, he said.

He said he got fed up and blocked a bus to send the TTC a message. Another man tweeted out a photo, before passengers convinced him to move out of the way and he finally took an accessiblecab home.

Abdullah has used a wheelchair since his spine was injured in a bomb blast in Damascus two years ago, he said.

Ross said TTC protocol requires a bus driver to call transit control centre to see if the next bus can accommodate whoever in a wheelchair is waiting. If the next bus is also full, then that driver would then be required to call Wheel-Trans to have a ride arranged.

"If buses are full, we can't ask people to get off. We don't do that. But we are reviewing the matter and will determine if protocols were followed."

The TTC reviews all routes every six weeks to determine if changes need to be made, Ross said.