Which candidates have promised to reverse TTC service cuts?
The 2023 Toronto City Budget passed by former Mayor Tory cut transit service by 9% compared to pre-pandemic levels. Cutting service hurts shift workers, women, and low-income and racialized people the most. Cuts can also lead to a “death spiral” where riders stop taking transit leading to more cuts.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you vote to reverse TTC service cuts and increase service beyond pre-pandemic levels?
Everyone deserves to feel safe on the TTC. TTCriders is calling for proactive, effective, care-based solutions to transit safety and for the next Mayor of Toronto to invest in:
- Non-police responses to crisis and violence. The TTC needs a plan to tackle mental health crises with staff who are peer-led or peer-involved, trained in de-escalation, rather than relying on an enforcement approach that puts people experiencing mental health crises and Black, Indigenous, and unhoused people at risk of being harmed.
- Housing supports so people do not need to take shelter on the TTC. This includes keeping shelter hotels open, expanding non-congregate shelter spaces, a moratorium on encampment evictions, and collaborating with all levels of government to increase funding for affordable and safe Rent-Geared-to-Income housing.
- A resourced TTC with reliable service and supportive staff. Attracting transit users back to the system by reversing service cuts and expanding supportive staff roles are critical elements of a safer TTC.
Systems and governments outside of the TTC are failing to take care of people. The TTC will be safer when Toronto is safer.
Being homeless or dealing with mental health challenges is not a crime. Unhoused people experience more violence than the general population, yet have been unfairly scapegoated for perpetrating violence on public transit. Expanding supportive staff on the TTC is a positive approach, but outreach workers on the TTC focused on connecting with unhoused people will have little effect if there are no safe, indoor alternatives to offer them.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you vote to fund a long-term transit safety strategy that includes keeping shelter hotels open, expanding non-congregate shelter spaces, a moratorium on encampment evictions, and collaborating with all levels of government to increase funding for affordable and safe Rent-Geared-to-Income housing?
Transit users have identified that they would feel safer with supportive staff in stations who can help with access needs and giving directions. Yet the TTC is increasing automation, including one-person train operation on Line 1, and phasing out positions like booth collectors. The TTC has also contracted out some public-facing staff positions to temp agencies; these workers do not have basic protections like paid sick days.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you allocate funding to create supportive, welcoming TTC staff roles that are unionized?
The people most affected by violence should shape the TTC’s safety strategy. To create lasting change, a safety plan needs these perspectives and people at the table: Transit users, transit workers, people with disabilities, unhoused people, youth, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour, women, trans, and non-binary people, LGBTTQ2S+ people, drug users, and harm reduction, trauma-informed, and place-making approaches.
We asked Mayoral candidates: As Mayor, will you establish a roundtable on transit safety that prioritizes these community voices and experts?
Fines for not paying TTC fares can be as high as $425, but in contrast, parking tickets can be as low as $30 and speeding tickets as low as $40.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you vote to end the TTC’s harmful and ineffective fare enforcement program on the TTC?
How will mayoral candidates invest in the TTC?
In 2023 the TTC faced a $366 million budget shortfall. Without funding from the Federal and Provincial governments former Mayor Tory cut 30+ routes across the city. In 2024 the TTC faces an operating budget shortfall of up to $600 million which could lead to further cuts. A commercial parking levy on big malls and commercial landlords could raise between $191-575 million per year.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you vote to implement an effective, equitable commercial parking levy as a dedicated new funding source for TTC operations?
Which candidates have promised to protect Wheel-Trans service?
To cut costs, the TTC is restricting thousands of disabled people and seniors who rely on Wheel-Trans from receiving full "door-to-door" service, and forcing them onto conventional TTC streetcars, subways, and buses for parts of their trips. The TTC has an internal target to restrict 50% of current users from full "door-to-door" service.* Trips on the conventional TTC have already gotten more crowded and less safe because Toronto's last mayor cut transit service and people who are not able to use the conventional system will lose independence and become more isolated. Wheel-Trans users need choice, just like people who voluntarily use the TTC! TTCriders is calling on the provincial government to expand funding to Wheel-Trans.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you vote to keep full door-to-door Wheel-Trans access for those who need it?
Which candidates have promised a solution for Scarborough transit riders when Line 3 closes in the fall?
When the Scarborough RT closes in Fall 2023, 70 replacement shuttle buses per hour will run to replace the RT service for at least 7 years until the Scarborough Subway Extension is built. Originally shuttle buses would operate in traffic on Kennedy, Ellesmere and Midland. After TTCriders spoke up, we won red bus-only lanes on the street!
Buses on the street will still be 10 minutes slower each way than repurposing the RT track into a dedicated busway.
We asked Mayoral candidates: If the province does not fund the construction of the Scarborough RT busway, as Mayor will you fund its construction?
Mass public transit is the best way to solve gridlock. Transit improvements don’t need to cost billions of dollars and take decades to build. Toronto’s King Street transit priority corridor increased all-day weekday ridership by 17% and bus lanes on Eglinton East, Kingston, and Morningside increased the reliability of buses by 12%.
In 2020 Toronto City Council approved a plan ‘RapidTO’ to implement 20 transit priority corridors by 2030, but the bus lane planned for Jane Street in Fall 2021 has not yet been installed. Toronto’s climate plan recommends converting one lane of traffic to exclusive bus lanes on all major streets to achieve climate goals.
We asked Mayoral Candidates: Will you move quickly to implement a minimum of 10 bus and streetcar priority corridors, per the RapidTO plan, during your term as mayor?
TransformTO, Toronto’s climate plan, has a goal of free transit by 2040. In 2016, Toronto City Council approved the Fair Pass program, a discount of $2.10 single fares and $123.25 passes for Toronto residents receiving OW, ODSP, a Child Care Fee Subsidy, those living in Rent-Geared to Income housing. The final phase of the discount, for residents earning the Low-Income Measure + 15% (approximately $29,000 for a single adult), has not yet been fully funded.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you work towards TransformTO’s goal of free transit, by allocating funding for the Fair Pass in your term as Mayor and expanding free transit to people who receive social assistance, high school students, and on extreme weather alert days?
Toronto is planning a 27-stop transit line in Scarborough that will connect Kennedy Station, UofT Scarborough, Malvern and Sheppard/McCowan. City Council has allocated $1.2 billion to the Eglinton East LRT, but the project still requires provincial and federal funding.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you champion the expansion of Scarborough’s rapid transit network, including the Eglinton East LRT from Kennedy Station to Malvern, connecting to Sheppard East and McCowan?
The provincial government and Metrolinx took over several key rapid transit projects in June 2019 under Bill 107. The Eglinton East and Waterfront LRT projects remain City of Toronto projects that will require City Council’s support to become a reality.
We asked Mayoral candidates: Will you vote to allocate funding to the Waterfront LRT and its westward expansion into South Etobicoke?
Contracting out public services often leads to higher costs and worse quality of service. A public inquiry into the Ottawa LRT after two derailments found that the line was rushed into service due to financial pressures. Some of the same companies who maintain the Ottawa LRT have a 30-year maintenance contract for the Crosstown LRT in Toronto, which is a public-private partnership. Private garbage collection contracts cost Toronto more money than public collection contracts by 2021 and private garbage collection services recycled less.
In 2020, the provincial government asked the TTC to determine "the feasibility of implementing microtransit options" in order to receive emergency pandemic transit operating funding. In 2018, City Council voted to support keeping ownership of the TTC in the City of Toronto's hands after the provincial government announced a plan to “upload” the TTC subway.
We asked Mayoral candidates: If proposals are introduced to sell off or privatize elements of the TTC, will you vote to keep transit public?
During the 2023 City Budget process, Councillors asked TTC staff if a list of proposed service cuts would be available before the final budget vote. Staff said a list would be available, but information was never published. Yet documents obtained by TTCriders through a Freedom of Information request show that draft lists were available before the vote on February 15, 2023. In January 2023, TTC staff proposed changes to their service standards without debate, to plan for standing room only during off-peak periods. Transit users expect more transparency, including better reporting about TTC service quality and on-time performance.