Use this template letter to send a message from your organization to the Mayor and TTC Chair about protecting Wheel-Trans Service.
Send to: TTC Chair Jamaal Myers ([email protected]), Mayor Olivia Chow ([email protected]), and your own local Councillor (find their email here).
Please CC: [email protected].
Email subject: Invest in protecting Wheel-Trans service
Dear TTC Chair Jamaal Myers, Mayor Olivia Chow, and [local Councillor if applicable to your organization],
I am writing on behalf of [ORGANIZATION NAME] to express our grave concern about the TTC’s “Family of Services” (FOS) model, and encourage you to invest in protecting door-to-door Wheel-Trans access.
Wheel-Trans users need choice and safety. The spirit of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act is to expand access, not restrict it. Yet the TTC plans to screen out 50% of current Wheel-Trans users from door-to-door service, what they have termed a “diversion target.”
The estimated cost of maintaining door-to-door service for all Wheel-Trans users in 2025 is $5.3 million. We urge you to fully fund the cost of maintaining this critical service, and to vote against making the “Family of Services” mandatory. Using the conventional TTC must be a choice for people with disabilities.
Forcing seniors and people with disabilities to use the conventional TTC to cut costs would be a shameful policy choice that will result in the following impacts:
Wheel-Trans users do not support this policy. Public consultations held in April 2024 found that:
The TTC is not fully accessible and will not be up to AODA standards by 2025. This is another obvious reason why the “Family of Services” model should not be implemented and or made mandatory for riders who are classified as receiving “conditional” Wheel-Trans eligibility.
Many “Conditional” Wheel-Trans users who would lose door-to-door service if Family of Services becomes mandatory have the condition that they are eligible for Wheel-Trans door-to-door trips only in the peak periods. But every hour on the TTC is rush hour, because the 2023 TTC Operating Budget changed the crowding standard from the TTC’s official Service Standards. Service in the off-peak is currently planned for "standing room only,” and people who use wheelchairs have reported that conventional buses are sometimes too crowded to get on.
Financial and other barriers prevent Wheel-Trans users from appealing their “Conditional” status: Gathering supporting documentation for the appeal requires booking appointments with specialists, paying for a doctor's note, and paying for attendant support.
We urge you to fully fund the cost of maintaining this critical service, and to vote against making the “Family of Services” mandatory.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME / ORGANIZATION NAME]
P.S. To read more, this 2022 article by The Local provides important context and Wheel-Trans user voices: https://thelocal.to/wheel-trans-accessibility-cuts-ttc/
Malvern, Lawrence Heights, and Rexdale would 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 organization TTCriders.
(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.
(Toronto, ON) – Transit advocacy organization TTCriders is celebrating today’s announcement that the federal government has approved the TTC’s request for federal funding for new subway trains on Line 2 Bloor-Danforth.