On Monday, TTCriders wrote a follow-up a letter to Metrolinx responding to their shortlist of revenue tools to fund transit expansion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

In our letter, we identified that corporate and high-income tax revenue, while absent from Metrolinx’s shortlist, are critical sources for funding transit expansion and operations. Corporate and high-income taxes are progressive, equitable and historically important tools which should be included in the mix of revenue tools.

We also identified concerns with Metrolinx including fare increases as a funding option on their shortlist. TTC users currently pay 70% of transit operations through their fares – which is the highest percentage of any urban transit system in North America. Raising fares to pay for transit expansion is inequitable and places too high of a burden on transit users.

As Metrolinx prepares its final recommendation report on revenue tools, TTCriders is calling on the Province to not only invest in transit expansion, but also to sufficiently fund transit operations in order to improve current service and reduce fares.

Read our letter here.

We encourage all TTC riders to write to their local MPP and recommend corporate and high-income revenue taxes as part of the funding strategy for transit expansion and operations.

Join us at the Scarborough Civic Centre on May 15th to share your thoughts and opinion about public transit in Toronto with the TTC’s Chief Executive Officer, Andy Byford and the TTC’s Chief Customer Officer, Chris Upfold.

TTCriders will be holding talks in each corner of the city with a focus on service issues — now it’s Scarborough‘s turn to be heard – just another way TTCriders is giving Toronto’s public transit riders a voice.

Each event will include a short presentation by TTCriders followed by an open mic question and answer period. Andy Byford and Chris Upfold will be responding directly to your feedback and comments.

When: May 15, 2013. Between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Where: Scarborough Civic Centre, 150 Borough Drive, in the main auditorium.

RSVP: Registration is required and can be done for free at Transit Talk

The event is accessible and everyone is welcome to attend!

Presented by TTCriders, the TTC & Respect Scarborough

Can’t Make It?

Send TTCriders your questions in advance to Info@ttcriders.ca, subject line: “TransitTalk”

Participate online on twitter at #TransitTalk

The sessions include Mathew Bertin of Metrolinx to talk about how Metrolinx is approaching the important tasks of funding and building transit in the Toronto Area. There will also likely be elected officials at most sessions.

The upcoming sessions are:
Danforth/Coxwell Library, 1675 Danforth Ave – Tuesday, April 16, 6:00-8:00pm
Richview Library, 1806 Islington Ave – Friday, April 19, 6:00-8:00pm
York Woods Library, 1785 Finch Ave W – Wednesday, May 1, 6:00-8:00pm
Malvern Library, 30 Sewells Rd – Sunday, May 5, 2:30-4:30pm

All residents are welcome.

On Tuesday March 26^th the Toronto Councillor for Ward 33, Shelley Carroll, hosted a public meeting to discuss public transit in the ward and in the city. Being a resident of Ward 33 (I live just south of Fairview Mall) I eagerly rode the #10 Van Horne to Pleasant View Community Centre to discuss plans to improve transit in our neighbourhood to increase our connectivity in the city and region. Surprising to me, the open dialogue portion of the meeting devolved into a repeat of the highly damaging “subway vs. light rail transit (LRT)” debate that unnecessarily delayed badly needed improvements to Toronto’s transit infrastructure.

To her credit, Councillor Carroll affirmed her support of Toronto’s planned LRT projects and justified the decision: a consideration of the city outside of our ward (particularly north-east Scarborough), the capacity to expand our network significantly through LRT construction, and the numerous aspects of the LRT lines’ design to keep private automobile traffic flowing.

TTCriders supports the building of modern, fast transit into all corners of the city as fast as possible

Toronto’s planned LRT projects are a step closer in that direction. Propositions to extend the city’s subway lines by a few stations here and there do not achieve that goal. For this reason, TTCriders supports the planned LRT lines.

In the face of these positive moves, it is apparent that there remains a significant and vocal number of Torontonians who see surface transit as a barrier to mobility instead of the tool of mobility that it is for the more than 1 million of us who ride a bus or streetcar each weekday. Relating this to the recent Ward 33 meeting, an out-of-town observer to that event would get the impression that a reliable and frequent transit line carrying thousands of riders would be a catastrophic detriment to the city because it limits a handful of left turns for automobiles.

I was pleased to connect with the meeting participants at Pleasantview Community Centre and shared how the planned Sheppard East LRT will improve my ability to travel east of Don Mills Station. My comments, along with those of two other participants, provided a mild disruption to the cacophony of speakers claiming the LRT projects were conspiracies that would recreate the supposed “disasters” of other recent transit infrastructure improvements that gave citizen mobility an equal consideration to automobile dominance.

Unfortunately, few of my neighbours from the Parkway Forest community were present to lend their voices to my account. Despite being located far from downtown, ours is a neighbourhood where rates of automobile ownership are low and most activities are completed on foot or on the TTC. Had the participation at the meeting more closely reflected the demographics of Ward 33 it would have been difficult for participants to insist that the ideal form of public transit is one that is “Out of the way of my car.”

Ward-level meetings of this nature are an opportunity for Torontonians who rely on public transit for more than their commute downtown, or the occasional trip to the theatre or hockey game, to remind our neighbours that it is anything but “common sense” to maintain the current dominance of automobiles to the detriment of other forms of transportation. A recent review of the websites of Toronto City Councillors shows that Janet Davis, Mike Del Grande, Giorgio Mammoliti, Mary-Margaret McMahon, and Joe Mihevc have all held transit-focused meetings in the first months of 2013. Since not all councillors have websites, there were undoubtedly more meetings than those that I could find. Although I did not see any notices of upcoming meetings, recent history suggests that they are on the horizon.

At TTCriders, we strive to support Torontonians who want to move discussions on transit away from limited or unrealistic plans that cater to voters who equate a trip out of the house with a trip to the driveway. We instead propose discussions about how resources can be mobilized fairly and used effectively to markedly increase the number of Torontonians who can access the network for their multiple travel needs. To achieve this goal we will be on the lookout for community meetings on transit to allow you to make your voice heard. We also want to hear from you.

Please send us a message through our website if you know of an upcoming meeting or would like support by way of strategies to speak out more effectively in the community. Better yet, join TTCriders so that we can strengthen our collective voice on these important issues.

It was a packed house with over 60 spirited transit users who voiced concerns ranging from system accessibility to the elimination of tokens once the Presto Card is implemented. Suggestions included designing stations to reflect nearby attractions (similar to what was done at Museum) and eliminating some of the streetcar stops that are very close together to make the lines run more efficiently. Questions were taken from the audience as well as via twitter (#TransitTalk) and email (info@ttcriders.ca).

This was the first of TTCriders’ four part “Transit Talk” Town Hall series focused on how to improve TTC service in downtown Toronto. Three additional events are planned for Scarborough, Etobicoke-York and North York, which will maintain the theme of “local” transit issues tailored for the specific area. TTC’s Andy Byford and Chris Upfold will also be attending these events – stay tuned for details!

Several media were in attendance at Wednesday night’s event – you can check out some of the coverage here:

http://www.cp24.com/news/ttc-brass-answer-questions-at-town-hall-event-1.1203193
http://torontoist.com/2013/03/ttc-bosses-face-their-public/
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ttc-riders-ask-questions-about-scheduling-cleanliness-1.1204786
http://www.citynews.ca/2013/03/20/riders-sound-off-at-ttc-town-hall-meeting/

Since the start of 2013, Metrolinx and the City of Toronto have been seeking public input into how they can raise sufficient revenue to pay for new transit construction in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Metrolinx currently has $34 billion worth of unfunded transit projects which it aims to build over the next 25 years. These new lines, which include Light Rail Rapid Transit, Bus Rapid Transit, Subways and Electrified Commuter Rail, will contribute to solving Toronto’s congestion, commuting time, and transit access crises. TTCriders commends both the Province and City for finally engaging in a serious discussion about funding transit expansion. We also recommend that this conversation be expanded to include funding options for transit operations,  as transit riders already pay more than their fair share.

TTCriders believes that transit users should have a say throughout the process. Decisions passed by Metrolinx and the City of Toronto with respect to transit financing will have a profound impact on people who rely on public transit as their primary mode of transportation.

Please read our letters to Metrolinx and the City of Toronto below, which outline principles that TTCriders believes should inform all government action with regards to building, maintaining and operating public transit.

Letter to Metrolinx

Letter to the City of Toronto

About the External Affairs Committee

As the ‘voice’ for TTCriders, the External Affairs Committee is responsible for establishing and executing campaigns, providing educational resources, participating in the public discussion on transit, and building partnerships with other stakeholders.

Meetings usually take place downtown on Monday evenings.  Members are expected to commit to a minimum 3-month term. All members of our External Affairs Committee must be current dues-paying members of TTCriders.

How to Apply

Please fill out the application form below and email it to info@ttcriders.ca (In the subject line of your email, please specify that you are applying to sit on the External Affairs Committee.)

Applications are rolling.

Application to apply to sit on the TTCriders External Affairs Committee.

Thank you for your interest!

Community groups, from Scarborough to Weston, are launching a campaign to make sure that all groups of people living near LRTs receive the greatest possible benefit from transit investment.  Their goal is to get Metrolinx, the public agency responsible for building LRT in Toronto, to agree to a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

• The construction of the new LRT transit network will create hundreds of employment opportunities. CBA’s help ensure that all groups of people get a fair share of those jobs.
• A CBA will provide jobs for people living in communities along LRT routes including jobs for youth, women, recent arrivals, aboriginal peoples as well as foreign trained professionals.
• The CBA campaign is proposing that existing programs and agencies be used to recruit and prepare applicants for the jobs created by the CBA. The Carpenters Union and the Central Ontario Building Trades Council, for example, have established programs to prepare youth, from “under-resourced” communities, for apprenticeships. The City of Toronto’s Employment and Social Services Division identifies applicants for the union’s programs.

Of course not all, or maybe not even most, jobs can go to new entrants to the workforce. But with careful planning, coordination and cooperation among governments, industry and community, it is possible to make sure that the public tax dollars spent on infrastructural projects are spread more evenly – to benefit communities.

For more information about CBAs, please visit www.communitybenefits.ca