The westbound College streetcar slides to a stop at Elizabeth St., letting on and off about half a dozen passengers. “May I have a transfer, please?” asks a chipper young rider. The light turns green. The blonde driver stares straight ahead through dark-rimmed glasses, the corners of her mouth turned down, as she mindlessly shoves a piece of paper into the woman’s hand. The streetcar starts to roll forward, just as a car that had been waiting to turn left makes its move. The driver punches the horn in a long, high burst. She shakes her head and mutters under her breath. Is this the Blonde Dragon?

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“Somebody asked me about that this morning, actually,” said the woman, who didn’t give her name. “But I don’t think it’s me because I never said that.” On Monday, the TTC released 312 rider complaint letters to the Star. One described an experience involving a blonde driver with glasses on the College route. “On several occasions I have had the misfortune of boarding (the streetcar) only to realize that the driver for the first leg of my journey to work is this miserable woman,” the writer states. One morning, the writer became the “target of her vileness” after trying to exit through the front, rather than push to the back during rush hour.

“She yelled at the top of her lungs four times . . . ‘EXIT AT THE REAR DOOOOORS!!!’ . . . I turned around and calmly asked her, ‘Why are you such a bitch to the passengers?’ Her loud reply: BECAUSE I ENJOY IT!!!” So, was this individual — the only blonde operator working the College line early Tuesday afternoon — the Blonde Dragon? Dragon or not, the driver has a rebuttal for many of the complaints raised against the TTC. Frontline workers are constantly dealing with problems from the public, she said. “We tell people to move back. We have these automated buttons to tell people to move back. We have signs everywhere. But they won’t move back. What are we gonna do?” she said. “And people get on and they want a free ride, wha-wha-wha-wha,” she said, imitating a passenger trying to get around paying.

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“And people are getting on with their coffee mug in their hand, their cellphone on their ear, and they haven’t got their passes and money in their hand. And they’re digging it out. Like, if you can have your coffee mug ready, you can have your fare ready,” said the 15-year veteran. “All these little things will slow it down.” Does this make her sound rude? She doesn’t think so. If drivers aren’t on the ball at every stop, further down the line, passengers will complain about delays. But still people contact customer service and file complaints. In a news release Tuesday, union local president Bob Kinnear said the TTC’s ratio of complaints to riders “compares very favourably with other large urban transit systems in North America and, in fact, with other public services generally.” The worst complaints, noted the College driver, “come from the third parties. And meanwhile they have no idea what’s going on.”