Mar. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Pardon its French, but the TTC is finally getting the spelling correct on its bilingual emergency escape window.

The embarrassing typo � a misspelling of the French word for “handle” � was brought to TTC chairman Howard Moscoe’s attention by his 13-year-old granddaughter, who’d learned about it from her French teacher.

Rebecca Moscoe DiFelice emailed the TTC to complain in November.

“On the buses (the new ones too) on the what to do in an emergency' signs at the bottom of the windows, in step 1, the wordhandle’ is spelled poingn�e' when it SHOULD be spelledpoign�e.’ `Poingn�e’ isn’t even a word,” she said in her email.

Commissioners ordered staff to investigate.

“It just amazes me that nobody has up till this point in time complained to the commission about it,” said Moscoe.

He acknowledged the problem existed for “years.”

The TTC found 773 buses had the wrong message. The manufacturer, Orion, has agreed to replace the stamped metal signs that are bolted onto windows with correct versions at no cost to the TTC.

“By federal law it has to be accurate. It has to be changed, and it ought to be,” said Moscoe.

“It’s enormously expensive,” he acknowledged.

“But it’s not a TTC cost � the responsibility rests with Orion.”