By Suhail Barot
Earlier this week, after yet another fare hike, the TTC Board passed on a budget to City Council that still contains more than a $60 million deficit. Today,
When the November Service Changes were released, we saw that service was being slashed on 20 routes and immediately suspected that these were cuts. In the past month, the TTC has intentionally misled the public to believe that these changes were merely routine tweaks to match service to ridership. Through Ben Spurr, we now know that if the TTC was only making changes to match service to ridership, service would have been improved on 43 routes. Zero of the improvements were made.
Not everybody loves details, but some people do. Here, we are providing riders of the TTC with information about service cuts in 2016 and 2017. This information is necessary because:
1) John Tory is starving the TTC of funding while claiming that he supports transit, and
The TTC released its draft 2017 operating budget today and it's a mess. It shows very clearly that John Tory and City Council do not care about riders. We are in for a bad year if we don't stop these cuts.
Riders, we have a problem. We're about to get our 7th fare hike in 6 years. The TTC is cutting service on 15 routes this month, and there are more cuts to come.
Here are the routes that are getting cut:
A week after the positive announcement that Toronto would be getting almost $500 million in federal infrastructure funding, it’s time to assess what that means for the TTC’s capital and operating costs.
Ridership is stagnating. Fare hikes are coming. Service could be cut.
The TTC is facing the worst budget crisis it's seen in decades. Our transit system needs $184 million just to maintain current service levels for next year, and City Hall is forcing the TTC to but their budget by another 2.6%.
Transit advocates are asking Toronto to follow the lead of Niagara Region and Alberta's largest cities by introducing a low-income transit pass for the TTC. Yesterday, Niagara Regional Council approved a $110 reduction in the cost of their transit system's monthly pass for eligible applicants, from $160 to $50. Local politicians initially proposed a more modest price decrease but advocates pressed hard for more robust help for the neediest transit riders. Andy Petrowski, the St. Catharines city councillor who spearheaded the move, said that the reduced cost will particularly assist job seekers: “This gives people who are looking for work or moving to work, traditionally in lower-paying positions, an opportunity to use (regional transit) for the first time.” Niagara is also hoping to boost ridership on their regional transit system through this targeted fare reduction.
I bet you hate that frustrated, stressed feeling that bubbles up inside when you’ve been waiting for your bus for 15 minutes and you realize you’re now late for work.
We’ve got some bad news. As you have probably heard, you could be paying even more for this all-too-common experience in 2017.
The Toronto Star published this op ed of ours last Sunday July 17.
Does this issue concern you?
- Become a TTCriders member
- Join us at our next campaigns meeting on Thursday July 21, 6pm - 8pm, 720 Bathurst St. Contact [email protected].