This post will be updated as new information becomes available.
On Wednesday, city staff released an update on its transit expansion plans
This post will be updated as new information becomes available.
On Wednesday, city staff released an update on its transit expansion plans
While we are supportive of the plan to expand public transit in Toronto, this latest report has us worried about the city's transit priorities.
Please read Brenda Thompson's take on how this latest transit report doesn't help Scarborough priority neighbourhoods.
By approving this report, the Executive Committee said yes to spending millions on new transit projects. However, just four months earlier, City Council voted to cut the TTC's budget by 2.6%. This decision forced the TTC to absorb all inflationary increases and mandated service improvements, such as service on the Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension.
The TTC is now in a funding crisis. Service cuts on up to 20 routes will begin later this month, and more are coming. While planning for future transit is very important, we cannot forget about today's riders.
The report only recommends moving forward and directing city funding to the Eglinton West LRT and Smart Track. It does not direct any funding to the much-needed Eglinton East LRT or the Relief Line, even though both of these projects were approved in the July Transit Network report. Could this be a broken promise to the transit riders of Mid-Scarborough, Scarborough Village, East Scarborough and the students at UTSC? Did our 100-year wait for the Relief Line just get longer?
City staff and Mayor John Tory have said these projects have not been dropped. But transit riders have every reason to be concerned. We've had decades of wonderful ideas being presented, which then fall by the wayside because they are not funded.
When you fund it, we know you're behind it.
TTCriders is supportive of electrifying GO and increasing transit on GO lines.
But we are not surprised that Smart Track cannot be funded by Tax Increment Financing - a property tax leveraged on development in the area around each station - alone. Though was no mention of this at Wednesday's Executive Committee meeting, we are very opposed to selling off vital public assets (like Toronto Hydro) to pay for Smart Track.
If we are all going to pay for it, we should all be able to afford to ride it. This premise is why we are very concerned about the report’s failure to clarify if Mayor Tory will keep his promise to run trains every five minutes and price Smart Track at TTC fares.
Mayor Tory's promise matters. The city and the University of Toronto conducted a transportation study that showed in 2031, Smart Track would attract upwards of 300,000 daily riders, if trains ran every 5 minutes, and was priced at TTC fares. Ridership would plummet to about 37,000 if service ran every 15 minutes, and was priced at GO fares. This year, the TTC's 144 Downtown/Don Valley Express bus alone carried about 36,000 riders a day. $8 billion is a lot of money to throw at the same number of riders that board the Don Valley Express bus.
The report proposes downloading all operating and maintenance costs of the Finch West, Sheppard East and Eglinton Crosstown LRTs from the provincial government to the city. What a blow. It has long been assumed the provincial government would pick up the tab for operating these lines. They should be recommitting to match the city’s contribution to the TTC as they used to do, not running further away from their responsibility to fund transit operations. And what does that mean for the future of these routes, given that City Council refuses to fairly fund current transit operations?
We are calling on levels of government to provide public transit to all corners of the city, including investing in the Relief Line and the LRT network.
Contact your Councillor. Call 311 or use the table below.
Contact your Member of Provincial Parliment (MPP). Find your MPP here.
Mayor | John | Tory | [email protected] | 416-397-2489 |
Councillor | Vincent | Crisanti | [email protected] | 416-392-0205 |
Councillor | Michael | Ford | [email protected] | 416-397-9255 |
Councillor | Stephen | Holyday | [email protected] | 416-392-4002 |
Councillor | John | Campbell | [email protected] | 416-392-1369 |
Councillor | Justin | Di Ciano | [email protected] | 416-392-4040 |
Councillor | Mark | Grimes | [email protected] | 416-397-9273 |
Councillor | Giorgio | Mammoliti | [email protected] | 416-395-6401 |
Councillor | Anthony | Perruzza | [email protected] | 416-338-5335 |
Councillor | Maria | Augimeri | [email protected] | 416-392-4021 |
Councillor | James | Pasternak | [email protected] | 416-392-1371 |
Councillor | Frances | Nunziata | [email protected] | 416-392-4091 |
Councillor | Frank | Di Giorgio | [email protected] | 416-392-4066 |
Councillor | Sarah | Doucette | [email protected] | 416-392-4072 |
Councillor | Gord | Perks | [email protected] | 416-392-7919 |
Councillor | Josh | Colle | [email protected] | 416-392-4027 |
Councillor | Christin | Carmichael Greb | [email protected] | 416-392-4090 |
Councillor | Cesar | Palacio | [email protected] | 416-392-7011 |
Councillor | Ana | Bailão | [email protected] | 416-392-7012 |
Councillor | Mike | Layton | [email protected] | 416-392-4009 |
Councillor | Joe | Cressy | [email protected] | 416-392-4044 |
Councillor | Joe | Mihevc | [email protected] | 416-392-0208 |
Councillor | Josh | Matlow | [email protected] | 416-392-7906 |
Councillor | John | Filion | [email protected] | 416-392-0210 |
Councillor | David | Shiner | [email protected] | 416-395-6413 |
Councillor | Jaye | Robinson | [email protected] | 416-395-6408 |
Councillor | Jon | Burnside | [email protected] | 416-392-0215 |
Councillor | Kristyn | Wong-Tam | [email protected] | 416-392-7903 |
Councillor | Pam | McConnell | [email protected] | 416-392-7916 |
Councillor | Mary | Fragedakis | [email protected] | 416-392-4032 |
Councillor | Paula | Fletcher | [email protected] | 416-392-4060 |
Councillor | Janet | Davis | [email protected] | 416-392-4035 |
Councillor | Mary-Margaret | McMahon | [email protected] | 416-392-1376 |
Councillor | Shelley | Carroll | [email protected] | 416-392-4038 |
Councillor | Denzil | Minnan-Wong | [email protected] | 416-397-9256 |
Councillor | Michelle | Holland | [email protected] | 416-392-0213 |
Councillor | Gary | Crawford | [email protected] | 416-392-4052 |
Councillor | Michael | Thompson | [email protected] | 416-397-9274 |
Councillor | Glenn | De Baeremaeker | [email protected] | 416-392-0204 |
Councillor | Jim | Karygiannis | [email protected] | 416-392-1374 |
Councillor | Norman | Kelly | [email protected] | 416-392-4047 |
Councillor | Chin | Lee | [email protected] | 416-392-1375 |
Councillor | Vacant | Vacant | [email protected] | 416-392-4076 |
Councillor | Paul | Ainslie | [email protected] | 416-392-4008 |
Councillor | Ron | Moeser | [email protected] | 416-392-1373 |
February 7, 2025 (Toronto, ON) – TTCriders, a membership-based transit advocacy group, released the following statement in response to Premier Ford’s promise that the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will open in 2025.
(Toronto, ON) – Transit advocacy organization TTCriders will hold a rally on February 19, 2025 to call for answers about the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT projects and ask all provincial parties to commit to solutions for more reliable transit.
Toronto’s transit and public spaces are torn. When City Hall can’t mend the fabric, tactical urbanists step up and stitch it back together