Did your Councillor stand up for transit riders?

Last Thursday our City Council voted on this year’s budget, including how much funding to give to the TTC. Two motions were moved by Mike Layton to dedicate new funding to the TTC: 1) raise property taxes to cancel fare increase 2)

study the introduction of a dedicated vehicle registration fee to fund better TTC. Despite our strong calls to support increased funding to the TTC, the majority of Councillors and Mayor Tory failed to stand up for transit riders. Take a look at the screenshots below to see how your Councillor voted:

This year's budget process was short due to the municipal election, but we still had a strong presence at City Hall and in the media. On January 10th we welcomed the TTC Board with a giant card and a rally for better service and lower fares.

Throughout the budget process we spoke up for transit riders across the city. Over twenty members made deputations to the TTC Board and the Budget Committee calling for more funding for the TTC and a full roll-out of the low income transit Fair Pass.

We also distributed over 5,000 flyers to transit riders across the city & hosted several phone banks to encourage everyday transit riders to take action. We even made a big phone booth and brought it to transit stops to make it easy and fun! Check out this CTV clip of our recent action.

All of these collective actions added up because the Mayor and some Executive Committee members felt enough pressure to try to undermine our demand for more funding by calling it propaganda.

That the #TTC is the least-subsidized major system in North America is not "propaganda." It's a fact. TTC CEO said it himself at January's budget meeting. @CodeRedTO's recent report confirms. And riders feel the squeeze of overcrowding & rising fares. https://t.co/13IHvl9C56 pic.twitter.com/oJYzoO8KQa
— TTCriders (@ttcriders) March 7, 2019

Thank you to all of the volunteers and members who spoke up for better transit and encouraged others to do the same during this budget process!

What's the outcome of the final budget?

Fare increases of $5.70 for student and senior monthly passes, $4.90 for regular monthly passes, and $3.90 for Fair Pass users.
Delaying the low income Fair Pass discount ($2 fares & $115.50 pass). The 2019 budget includes the transit discount for people receiving childcare supports, but not housing supports.
No significant improvements to service in 2019.
$24 million in "unknown funding cuts" the TTC still needs to find.
Annualization of services introduced in 2018, including two-hour transfers, additional service to tackle the worst overcrowding across the city and new/enhanced express bus routes.

The new fare and pass prices will go into effect on April 1, 2019:

Fare Type	PRESTO/Bulk Single Fare	Monthly Pass
Regular	10 cents	$4.90
Senior / Student	10 cents	$5.70
Fair Pass Discount Program	5 cents	$3.90

What's next?

Our fight for affordable world-class transit continues. The 2019-2022 provincial budget is coming out soon, our campaign to stop the province from stealing our subway is running full steam ahead, and some key votes about the King Street Pilot and the Eglinton East LRT are just around the corner. Get involved:

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