
Dear Mayor John Tory, City Councillors, and TTC Board members,
The TTC’s 5-Year Fare Policy is an historic opportunity to win back transit riders and contribute to Toronto’s swift economic recovery. World-class cities around the world are lowering fares to attract former riders and make public transit more accessible to the essential workers who have been relying on it over the past 2 years.
The Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild recommends that as pandemic income supports for essential workers are phased out, the City of Toronto “continue to consider needs of essential workers in recovery” (TORR Recommendation #25). Yet Toronto’s plan to lower fares for working poor residents, which was approved by City Council in 2016, is not fully funded.
Riders overwhelmingly identified affordability, frequent and reliable service, and accessibility as key priorities, based on TTCriders’ consultations with more than 650 transit riders including 300 focus group conversations. Riders also support the principle that fare discounts should not come at the expense of service or other riders, but instead be subsidized by governments.
The TTC is facing budget shortfalls in 2022 and years to come due to lower ridership and its funding reliance on the fare box. Ongoing provincial and federal operating is urgently needed, as well as investment and bold policies from the City of Toronto.
After the economic recession in the early 1990s, TTC ridership took years to recover. We urge you to implement the following fare policies to rebuild a thriving public transit system and transform the status quo that has harmed racialized, low income, and disabled residents:
1. Lower fares for working poor residents by fully funding the Fair Pass program
The Fair Pass, a program of discounted single fares ($2.10) and monthly passes ($123.25), was approved by City Council in 2016. The final phase of the program is meant to extend discounts to low-wage and precarious workers (earning the Low Income Measure plus 15%), but is not funded in the 2022 budget. Low income people have continued to rely on transit the most during the pandemic: Fair Pass ridership has remained at 65% of pre-pandemic levels, while general population ridership is 35%. This program should be subsidized by the City of Toronto, not paid for by fare increases on other riders or cuts to other budget items.
2. Expand fare-free transit to social assistance recipients and high school students
Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program recipients live on fixed incomes that fall below the poverty line. Participants in TTCriders consultations who receive social assistance reported they have to choose between food and transit. Toronto’s Fair Pass is more expensive than regular monthly passes in most Canadian cities.
Making transit free for youth will create transit riders for life, increase educational opportunities, and decrease stigmatization of youth on transit. During TTCriders consultations, racialized youth shared stories of being policed and challenged about their age despite qualifying for the under-12 age discount. High school teachers reported that students stopped attending French Immersion and Gifted programs when TDSB cut its budget for TTC tickets in 2019. Kingston, Ontario’s program of free transit for high school students up to age 21 has increased high school student ridership from 28,000 to close to 600,000.
3. Integrate fares fairly and reject fare increases for faster modes and longer distances
Affordable and seamless travel across the GTHA is an important goal. Integration of fares must not come at the expense of equity and existing fare benefits like the 2-hour fare window and paying a single fare to travel on the TTC within Toronto. The TTC must ensure that no one pays more to ride the subway or travel longer distances within Toronto as this would negatively impact residents who have long commutes to work or who live in suburban areas.
The TTC should create a free two-hour transfer window between TTC and GTA municipalities and free transfers between GO, UPX, and TTC. These fare integration measures will require provincial or federal transit operating subsidies to ensure that other riders do not pay more or lose service. Riders also suggested that fare integration include PRESTO compatibility with Bike Share Toronto bicycles, to easily transition from the TTC to cycling.
4. Introduce fare capping
Daily, weekly, and monthly fare capping will make transit more affordable. Currently, lower income residents end up paying more for transit than wealthier residents because they cannot afford the up-front cost of a monthly pass. Fare capping should be available for all concession fares (low-income, senior, student). Fare capping should be paired with reducing the "break-even" fare cap point for monthly passes; currently, youth and seniors must tap 57 times and adults must tap 49 times before paying the full price of a monthly pass.
Graphic by Rodney Chan.
5. Expand the 2-hour fare window
Transit users who rely on buses report that the existing 2-hour fare window is not long enough, especially in Scarborough. The TTC allows free transfers within two hours of the first tap using a PRESTO card or ticket. For suburban riders who rely on multiple bus routes for a single trip that may be delayed and overcrowded, the 2-hour free transfer has not helped riders to chain together multiple trips.
6. Fix outstanding PRESTO inequities
The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has expressed concerns that “the use of the PRESTO electronic fare payment system may present barriers to accessing Toronto’s public transit for some Human Rights Code-protected groups.”
PRESTO availability must be expanded beyond Shoppers Drug Mart and subway stations to include convenience stores and other accessible locations. People who live in suburban areas without access to online banking are especially disadvantaged by PRESTO.
The TTC and City of Toronto must make the application process for the Fair Pass as accessible as possible by continuing to offer the option of mailing pre-programmed PRESTO cards to Fair Pass applicants and by not requiring pre-purchase of PRESTO cards, online access, minimum balance loading, or immigration status to apply.
The transition to PRESTO will create challenges for organizations that provide transit fares, including schools and social service agencies, because PRESTO tickets expire and will be purchased in expensive bulk quantities of 400. Any new fare card system must address these barriers.
7. End fare policing
Resources should be spent on making transit affordable for all, instead of punitive measures. Thirty percent of TTCriders focus groups shared experiences with fare policing, especially youth, post-secondary students, and racialized people. Riders also shared experiences being challenged based on the sound and light emitted when tapping their Fair Pass PRESTO cards (the unique sound and light has now been eliminated in the latest Fall 2021 PRESTO upgrade).
The TTC has reported that Black people are “2.2 times more likely to appear in TTC enforcement data than their representation in the general population would predict,” while “Indigenous people are 3.7 times more likely to appear in TTC enforcement incidents than their presence in the general population would predict.”
8. Expand post-secondary student discounts to part-time and certificate students and introduce post-secondary single fare discounts
Expanding the post-secondary student discounts to part-time students and certificate students in college would address fare policy principles adopted by the TTC, including equity and affordability. Part-time students are ineligible for a post-secondary student monthly pass discount, yet part-time students reported that they are often working full or part-time, earning low incomes, and skip classes and extracurricular activities because of cost barriers and commute times. Post-secondary students are not eligible for single fare discounts, despite a 2019 City Council motion directing the TTC to explore the option. Aligning fares across YRT and TTC should include post-secondary students and single fares.
9. Free transit during extreme weather alert days
No human life should be endangered by an inability to pay a transit fare. Some drop-ins have TTC tokens or tickets available on extreme weather alert days, but these are of little use to individuals who are trying to make their way to a shelter or a warming or cooling centre. Homeless people’s access to transit in suburban neighbourhoods was highlighted in the Grant Faulkner inquest, which recommended that the TTC and Metrolinx “consult with members of the Scarborough community… to ensure that the transition to Presto technology does not create barriers.”
Signed,
42 Voices
Anglican Diocese of Toronto (Poverty Reduction Sub-committee)
Association of Committed and Engaged Youth (ACEY)
Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students of the University of Toronto (APUS)
Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Centre for Connected Communities
Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic
Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change
Continuing Education Students' Association of X University (CESAX)
CodeRedTO
Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA)
CP Planning
CUPE Ontario
FoodShare Toronto
Fontbonne Ministries
Houselink and Mainstay Community Housing
Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC)
Jane Finch Action Against Poverty
Mabelle Arts
Midwives Collective of Toronto
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change
No One Is Illegal Toronto
Oakwood Vaughan Neighbourhood Action Partnership
Ontario Chinese Seniors Association (OCSA)
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)
OSSTF Toronto Teachers
Progress Toronto
Ralph Thornton Centre
Resilience 2:1
Scarborough Campus Students' Union
Scarborough Civic Action Network
Scarborough Transit Action
SEIU Local 2
Shelter and Housing Justice Network
Social Planning Toronto
South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario
South Asian Women's Rights Organization
The City Institute at York University (CITY)
The Neighbourhood Group
Toronto ACORN
Toronto Community for Better Child Care
Toronto Drop-In Network
Toronto Environmental Alliance
Toronto Seniors' Forum
Toronto & York Region Labour Council
UNITE HERE Local 75
University of Toronto Mississauga Students' Union (UTMSU)
Voices of Scarborough
Warden Woods Community Centre
Workers' Action Centre
Yonge Street Mission
York Federation of Students
York University Graduate Students' Association (YUGSA)
YWCA Toronto
Individual signers:
Jill Andrew, MPP Toronto-St.Paul's
Lucy Drumonde
Alisha Alam
Trudy-ann Powell
Syed Mahaboob
Ketheesakumaran Navaratnam
Musa Idris
John Plumadore
Gillian Graham
Anjum Sultana
Bee Lee Soh
Heather O'Neil
A.J. Withers
Phyllis Brown
Barbara Geiger
Jennifer Robinson
Jaskaran Gill
Naomi Fisher
Jennifer Coggon
Laura Harper
Gitanjali Lena
Joanna Mendez
Justus Zela
Ali Gholami
Yasir Hameed
Margaret Nelson
Dhouha Triki
Nafisa Rahman
Stephanie Smith
Sharon Anderson
Robert Williams