(Toronto, ON) – Neighbourhoods with a higher proportion of racialized and low-income residents will be most impacted by planned restrictions to door-to-door Wheel-Trans service, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information request by transit advocacy group TTCriders. The group held a press conference at Toronto City Hall on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, in advance of a TTC Board meeting.
Three Toronto neighbourhoods (Malvern, Lawrence Heights, and Rexdale) represent 12.4 percent of all “Family of Services” trips, despite making up only 3.9 percent of the population. TTCriders analyzed nearly 3 years worth of Wheel-Trans users’ trips using the “Family of Services” (FOS) service delivery model, which are offered to users who have been screened out of “Unconditional” door-to-door Wheel-Trans eligibility. Instead of being offered door-to-door Wheel-Trans trips, “Conditional” users are offered trips that involve taking conventional buses, streetcars or subways for all or part of their trips. The service model has been rolled out in York Region and Durham Region.
"The Family of Services model creates further barriers for passengers with disabilities, which is in direct contravention of the Accessibility for Ontarians Disability Act (AODA)," said Gabriel Reznick, staff lawyer at ARCH Disability Law Centre. "The AODA is meant to guarantee equal access to transportation for all Ontarians."
The data also raises questions about the ridership and budget figures the TTC has used to justify the new service delivery model. TTCriders received postal code data from the TTC for 19,746 Wheel-Trans “Family of Services” trips that were scheduled between December 2021 to August 2024. The TTC's 5-Year Accessibility Plan reports a significantly higher estimated “Family of Services” ridership, because it conflates voluntary use of the TTC’s conventional system with scheduled Wheel-Trans trips that require riders to use the conventional TTC as part of their Wheel-Trans trip.
“Wheel-Trans users need choice and safety or we will lose our independence,” said Wheel-Trans user and TTCriders Board member Israt Ahmed. “We are asking the TTC Board and City Council to commit to protecting door-to-door Wheel-Trans service, instead of forcing some people with disabilities and seniors to use the conventional TTC. The provincial government should be investing in expanding accessible transit services so it can meet its AODA commitments across Ontario. We are furious that voluntary use of the TTC is being used to justify the plan to restrict people from booking door-to-door Wheel-Trans trips.”
“If the TTC were fully accessible today, more people with disabilities would choose to use it,” said Councillor Josh Matlow. “As the TTC continues to work towards an accessible transit system, we must protect Wheel-Trans services for those who require it. I have questions about the figures being used to justify this program.”
“As someone dealing with quadriplegia, I cannot use the regular TTC independently. But the TTC told me I do not qualify for door-to-door service on Wheel-Trans,” said Wheel-Trans user Jane Field. “I have been traumatized in the past from being trapped in an elevator at Union Station for several hours in my wheelchair, and from having my front wheel caught between the subway I was exiting and the platform. I won my appeal to the TTC to keep my access to door-to-door service but it cost me time, money, and lost sleep.”
Link to TTCriders report on “Family of Services” trips: https://www.ttcriders.ca/wtdata
Link to TTC 5-Year Accessibility Plan: https://cdn.ttc.ca/-/media/Project/TTC/DevProto/Documents/Home/Public-Meetings/Board/2024/December-3/4_2024_2028_TTC_5_Year_Accessibility_Plan_and_WT_Transformation_Program_Update.pdf
|
Year |
“Family of Services” trips booked via Wheel-Trans Source: Internal data obtained via Freedom of Information request |
Estimated use of conventional TTC by Wheel-Trans users Source: TTC 5-Year Accessibility Plan report |
|
2022 |
5,438 trips |
607,895 trips |
|
2023 |
8,261 trips |
902,931 trips |
Background on the Family of Services:
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Wheel-Trans users are being re-registered and assigned into one of three categories: unconditional, temporary, or conditional access. Wheel-Trans users who signed up after 2017 have already been placed into one of the three categories:
Temporary eligibility: riders will have access to Wheel-Trans for a limited amount of time.
Conditional eligibility: If their "conditions" are not present and the program becomes mandatory, riders will be forced to complete some or all of their trips on conventional TTC subways, streetcars, and buses (known as a “Family of Services” trip). When "conditions" are present, riders will be eligible to receive a “door-to-door” Wheel-Trans trip (list of conditions below).
Unconditional eligibility: riders will continue to have access to “door-to-door” trips.
- The TTC’s Wheel-Trans 10-Year Strategy set an arbitrary “diversion target” to shift 50% of Wheel-Trans trips from full door-to-door service by 2025.
- A 2017 Project Charter document obtained by TTCriders through a Freedom of Information request identifies a “risk” that Wheel-Trans users will be reluctant to book Family of Services trips, which will “[impede] achievement of target,” and proposes to “make it mandatory for conditional customers to schedule FOS trips whenever possible.”
- The TTC’s 2024-2028 5-Year Accessibility Plan notes that “FOS travel will remain voluntary at this time. […] It has yet to be determined if mandatory FOS travel for conditional customers, when none of their conditions are present, will be implemented.”
- 57 of 70 (81%) of the TTC’s subway stations will be accessible by the 2025 AODA deadline.
Images above are from a Wheel-Trans users' trip offering from TTC on Wheel-Trans and the "Family of Services," respectively.
