We now have ward-by-ward maps so you know exactly how the service cuts are affecting your neighbourhood. Thank you Taylor Blake for your hard work making these awesome maps.
The TTC is being forced to cut service and break overcrowding standards because all levels of government are failing to invest in transit.
Thank you so much for coming to our transit summit. It is so important that we get to know each other and make friends, improve our organizing skills, and assess and improve our goals and plans to win real change for transit riders.
Thanks to Mayor Tory’s 2.6% budget cut and chronic under funding of the TTC, there is a $2.5 billion shortfall in the 2017 – 2026 TTC capital budget. New buses, wheel trans buses and bus stop improvements for accessibility are not funded in this year’s budget. Neither are two hour transfers.
For the past two weeks, STA has been canvassing in communities near Lawrence East and Ellesmere stations, two stations which will effectively shut down under Council’s current plan for a one-stop Scarborough subway extension (SSE), but would have remained with a 7-stop LRT. (For those who are not aware: There are three stations between Kennedy and STC on the RT line, and all three – Lawrence East, Ellesmere, and Midland – will be eliminated under the plan for the SSE.) We have been informing residents of Council’s plan, and were surprised to discover something:
John Tory's transit budgets are methodically and systematically destroying the TTC through less frequent, slower and overcrowded service.
For the 2017 budget, John Tory is now talking about a minor increase in funding to avoid service reductions. The reality is that service already has been reduced due to TTC budget shortfalls. In addition to this, today's service does not even meet the TTC's own standards, due to overcrowded routes.
The 2017 TTC Preliminary Budget was presented for the first time at City Hall today and it has given us new insight into what's in store for riders in 2o17.
The take home message is transit riders will be paying more for worse service in 2017.
The cost for riding the TTC goes up January 1st. "But riders, when you pay more you get more, right?"
Nope.
One week later, on January 8th, the TTC is adjusting its schedules with reduced service in the morning rush hour on 12 bus routes.
We had a campaign victory last night. City Council responded to our campaign and approved a discount pass for low income riders.
Thank you to all of you that worked so hard for this important step forward, including all members of the Fair Fare Coalition, the Toronto Chinese Seniors Association, CARP-TO, the Bob Rumball Centre, TDIN, Commitment 2 Community, Toronto Workers Airport Council, Access Alliance and many many more. Thank you also to the staff at the City of Toronto who worked on the report, including Ricardo Tranjan and Denise Andrea Campbell, and councillors Joe Mihevc and Pam McConnell for championing fair equity at City Council. It wouldn’t have happened without all of our hard work.
TTCriders has joined the world of Instagram, where we're sharing behind the scenes photos, grumpy rider selfies, #SoEfficientItHurts videos, transit shots in Toronto, cartoons and lots more! Find us on Instagram here.
We'd like to thank all of you for joining us at our end of year party on Friday, December 2nd.
Jagmeet Singh, Deputy Leader of the Ontario NDP, was our great keynote speaker. He spoke about the real need to bridge false divides, such as the divide between the suburbs and downtowners, to build a liveable city.