John Tory doesn't want Rob Ford's advice on the TTC

Mayor John Tory won't be grabbing a broom to clean house at the TTC, despite calls from his predecessor to do so.

A day after Coun. Rob Ford talked to reporters about a need for change at the top levels of the TTC after cost overruns on a subway extension project, Tory wasn't impressed by his analysis.

"I'm not even sure whether I find it laughable or I just find it fascinating that, you know, Mr. Ford would suggest we should start at the top and was on radio last night saying [TTC CEO Andy] Byford should go," Tory said Wednesday, when asked about Ford's unsolicited calls to make changes at the transit organization.

"He appointed [Byford] two years ago and I never heard a peep of this until now, all of a sudden when he's, you know, sitting in this sort of splendid position of not having to be accountable for anything he says, so it seems, and I just, I have confidence in Mr. Byford," the mayor added.

'A bit of a poisoned chalice'

Tory said the TTC's chief executive officer had a difficult job ahead on him when he came on board several years ago.

"I think Andy Byford inherited a bit of a poisoned chalice when it came to a TTC that wasn't really focused on customer service, that had these pre-existing problems with most of their projects getting completely out of control," Tory said.

"And I think he's trying to come to grips with each of those challenges on the customer-service side and making the trains run on time as it were, and on the construction side."

Ford has been critical of Tory since he took on the job as mayor following the fall election.

The two have ended up on council together, as a result of Ford's decision to drop from the mayor's race in the wake of a cancer diagnosis last year.

Ford was elected as a councillor in Ward 2 last October, while Tory was elected mayor.