TORONTO, Ont. – The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has approved a plan to employ one-person crews on Line 4 of its subway, a route that runs through five stops along Sheppard Avenue East from Yonge Street to Don Mills Road. At a board meeting on March 26, TTC management proposed a move to One Person Train Operation (OPTO) for the line by the end of 2016. “Technology has developed so that one crew member can safely drive the train and operate door controls,” TTC chief executive officer Andy Byford noted in a Staff Action Report on March 26. “No subway has reverted back to two-person operation on the grounds of safety,” he added, citing Montreal, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin and several other cities where OPTO is standard procedure. The document also stated that there was no evidence worldwide that OPTO increased safety risks. Nonetheless, some are skeptical, including Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear and transit advocate Steve Munro. Kinnear told Centennial College newspaper The Toronto Observer on March 30 that the union did not consider OPTO a safe practice.