Dear TTC Board Members,
TTCriders is a membership-based organization of transit users. As you deliberate about the 2024 TTC Operating Budget, we are writing to ask for clarification about service levels and to encourage you to reverse a change to the TTC’s Service Standards made in the 2023 TTC Operating Budget that affects accessibility and service frequency.
1. “Standing room only” standard squeezes out Wheel-Trans users: Resume official TTC Service Standards
The 2023 TTC Operating Budget made a significant policy change to TTC Service Standards without any reporting from staff or public debate about the impacts of this change. TTCriders wrote to the Board in 2023 with concerns that planning for “standing room only” (applied as an average and calculated based on the busiest hour of the service period) will most impact women, shift workers, and disabled transit riders, who ride the TTC during off-peak hours.
Vehicle type
|
TTC’s Official Off-Peak Service Standard
|
Off-Peak Service Standard Implemented in the 2023 TTC Operating Budget
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TTC’s Official Peak Service Standard
|
Bus
|
35 people
|
45 people
|
50 people
|
Streetcar
|
70 people
|
90 people
|
130 people
|
Train
|
500-540 people
|
600-650 people
|
1000-1100 people
|
Images of TTC off-peak bus crowding standard adapted from 2018 Briefing Note on Overcrowding.
The 2024 TTC Operating Budget continues to plan service to an average “standing room only” standard in off-peak periods. This will negatively impact Wheel-Trans users who have been designated as “Conditional” users and are being asked to take conventional TTC during off-peak hours under the “Family of Services” program.* The TTC Board will make a decision in 2024 about whether to make the Family of Services program mandatory, but 9,000 users have already been reclassified and 37% of active users are “Conditional” users, some of whom are currently being scheduled to use the conventional TTC during off-peak periods.
Reducing off-peak service means less frequent and more crowded buses outside rush hour, when many transit users travel with strollers and groceries and need more space. Cuts to off-peak service affect shift workers, women, and low-income and racialized riders the most, who travel more outside of rush hour.
2. Will riders see more frequent buses? Or will extra service hours be spent in traffic?
TTCriders applauds the Commission for continuing to increase service levels, but the 2024 Operating Budget document is not clear on whether and to what extent service will become more frequent. Table 12 (page 27) allocates an increase in the base budget as “TTC Service Restoration to 97% to address Traffic Congestion.” If vehicles are in service longer because of traffic congestion, then an increase in service hours may not result in more frequent service. We also encourage you to continue bringing back full subway and streetcar service.
TTC SERVICE
|
Mode
|
Current service as percentage of pre-pandemic levels
|
Spring 2024 service levels (proposed)
|
Fall 2024 service levels (proposed)
|
% change
|
Streetcar
|
84%
|
84%
|
86%
|
+2%
|
Bus
|
98%
|
99%
|
100%
|
+2%
|
Rapid Transit (including subways)
|
82%
|
83%
|
83%
|
+1%
|
Overall TTC Service
|
95%
|
96%
|
97%
|
+2%
|
3. Prioritize the Scarborough busway and other unfunded capital and State of Good Repair needs
Construction to build a temporary replacement busway in the Scarborough RT corridor was scheduled for November 2023, but the TTC’s capital budget lists the Scarborough busway as an unfunded Capital Need. When the busway gets constructed, riders will save 10 minutes in each direction, or 20 minutes per day; this means that every month that construction is delayed, each rider spends an extra 6.5 hours on the bus. The Scarborough subway extension will not open until 2030 at the very earliest, and riders in Scarborough need an interim replacement option.
The derailment of the Scarborough RT is a stark reminder of the importance of preventative maintenance and we urge you to seek clarity on the safety and reliability impacts of unfunded capital works and State of Good Repair as you deliberate on the budget.
4. Every dollar of New Deal funding should be spent on service and supportive staff
The “New Deal” funding from the province of Ontario “is conditional on the city establishing a new Transit Rider Safety Commitment that includes the increased presence of police or safety officers on and near transit, the continued expansion of transit rider cellular and data service across the TTC network, and enhanced emergency reporting options and response timelines for riders.”
TTCriders believes that every dollar of provincial transit funding should be used for transit service and that the TTC should take a care-based approach by hiring supportive frontline staff, rather than police, to create a welcoming TTC for all.
Sincerely,
TTCriders
*Two conditions assigned to “Conditional” Wheel-Trans users that relate to Off-Peak Service Standards:
- Rush Hour AM: The TTC has decided that this Wheel-Trans user is able to take the TTC during off-peak hours. If the trip is during the AM rush hour, they may need Wheel-Trans for that trip.
-
Rush Hour PM: The TTC has decided that this Wheel-Trans user is able to take the TTC during off-peak hours. If the trip is during the PM rush hour, they may need Wheel-Trans for that trip.