Transit News

The TTC’s aging vehicles and infrastructure — the subway’s “slow zones” being one obvious symptom — hamper its reliability, increase disruptions and add to its escalating repair backlog, according to the agency’s budget report

The TTC plans to spend $11.2 billion on state-of-good-repair work over the next decade, with $10.6 billion of that coming from the city. The transit agency expects to slice its repair backlog by almost half — to a projected $4.34 billion.

The money will be allocated to replace, maintain or upgrade major components on buses, streetcars and subways so they run properly. But the budget also includes plans for new trains on Line 2 (with funding help from the province and Ottawa), more electric buses, and fixing subway signals, the TTC’s communications systems, escalators, elevators and more.

TTC delays and closures are expected to get worse — and longer — this year before overall service gets better, according to the transit agency. 

The TTC published its annual report Monday outlining which closures and diversions will be needed carry out “necessary” repair work to upgrade or maintain its aging infrastructure and expansion projects. The agency has pegged its need for state-of-good-repair work at $11.2 billion over the next decade.

The report shows that subway and streetcar delays that frustrate commuters trying to navigate the city — amidst world-famous congestion on the streets — will continue. It’s a necessary part of the city’s transit growing pains, TTC staff say, with new subway lines and cars on the horizon.

Taking public transit should not be a gamble: it should be a given that your bus or streetcar will show up when you expect it to. 

But the TTC’s current “On-Time Performance” metrics hide more than they reveal about the state of service and reliability that transit riders experience. 

This report uses TTC on-time performance statistics obtained via Freedom of Information request as well as bunching calculations gathered by TransSee from TTC real-time vehicle location data to demonstrate the actual condition of TTC reliability and how the TTC could report on service in more accurate and transparent ways. 

TTC’s paratransit service’s reassessment of its riders’ disabilities has some fearing they will face restrictions on their use of door-to-door service. Mahdis Habibinia and Abby O’Brien of the Toronto Star speak with TTC rider Jane Field.

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