>
$178 million more government funding than it has this year
just to maintain current service. But instead of
increasing support, John Tory and the City Executive just voted to have the
TTC cut its budget even more,
by
2.6%.
City Hall will vote on the budget for 2017 on Tuesday, July 11. This is
the first step in the long budget setting process so expect to hear about
this again.
This cut is super bad for riders because it will kick start a race to the
bottom. When you cut service, ridership drops, and then fare revenue drops,
and then service is cut. It's a vicious spiral.
What's scary also is the TTC just announced that ridership is dropping,
reversing years of record ridership growth. When you make the TTC
uncomfortable, unreliable, and unaffordable riders are going to leave. There
are, in fact, many things that affect ridership, including employment levels,
but relentless fare hikes and unreliable service quality have a huge impact
and they are factors the TTC and our elected officials can control.
What we are calling for is a race to the top, to an affordable world class
public transit system. To get there we need fair government funding from City
Hall and the Provincial Government so we can increase service, introduce two
hour fare transfers and provide lower fares for all, especially for those in
need.
We are calling for about $2.60 in government funding per ride, which is in
line with the North American average. Right now, the TTC gets the least amount of government funding per ride of all major
transit systems in North America, getting just 89 cents a ride, almost all
of which comes from the city. The TTC received about 93 cents a ride in 2010.
What are we going to do about it?
We're deputing at City Hall on Monday July 11 to criticize the TTC's planned
cut to service improvements in response to dropping ridership. Email
[email protected] to depute.
We're going to the Commitment to Community's press conference on Monday July
11 at 11.00am at City Hall 100 Queen Street West. Join us.
We've set up a budget committee that's got a great plan to make this a huge
issue. Want to join us? Contact [email protected] or come to our next meeting
on July 21, Thursday, 6pm - 8pm, 720 Bathurst.
Check out this neat infographic from our friends at Social Planning Toronto
and C2C.
Stay tuned for more updates.
