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.
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How much longer will we put up with this type of service? Tell Council to Build the LRT now ![/caption]
It looks like our friends at City Council are at it again. Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Jim Karygiannis are looking to re-introduce their motion EX.4.14 to cancel the Finch LRT and build the Scarborough Subway instead of a fully provincially-funded LRT. Next Wednesday March 25th, it will be introduced at Executive Committee.
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Jane-Finch residents have a lot to say about the transit needs in their communities[/caption]
Last month TTCriders, the United Way Jane-Finch Action for Neighbourhood Change committee and the Toronto Environmental Alliance met at the North York Civic Centre to discuss how residents of Jane and Finch and surrounding neighbourhoods feel about public transit. We decided that the best way to engage Jane and Finch residents was to host an information session to explain a little bit about the history around public transit in Toronto and how it relates to present and future transit service. Our goal was to use this information session as a starting point to have a dialogue with the community about what we as citizens can do to shape the future of public transit in Toronto.
TTCriders will be hosting an information session next Friday March 14th from 10:00am-noon at Brookview Middleschool 4505 Jane St. north of Jane and Finch.
There will be a presentation and discussion period followed by more fun activities. You guessed it: bring your whole family as there will be colouring books for the kids!
As a way of wishing you a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2014, the TTC
Commission (and City Council, by default) is increasing the cost of TTC fares –
yet again! On January 1, 2014, transit riders on the TTC can expect to pay $5
Today, TTCriders released its first ever report card evaluating the TTC’s performance from the perspective of TTC users.
The report card rates the TTC on how well it has done in achieving five goals important to TTC users which are key parts of TTCriders' Vision: creating fair and affordable fares; building modern, fast transit to all corners of the city as fast as possible; making public transit fully accessible transit; providing frequent service that connects all of Toronto; and environmental sustainability.
With the best of intentions, Premier Dalton McGuinty created Metrolinx as the provincial agency charged with developing a regional transit network for the Greater Toronto Area, building on the existing GO Transit commuter system.
Let’s do the positive news first. The TTC Commission approved a motion to request the City allocate an additional $2.1 million to the TTC’s operating budget to expand public transit service in Toronto. With a record number of more than 512 million rides expected to be taken on the TTC in 2012, we’re pleased the TTC Commission approved the motion to direct most of the projected increase in revenue from rider fares back into the TTC.
At this Wednesday's TTC Commission meeting there is a motion to ask City Council for additional funds needed to improve transit service on several overcrowded routes. The TTC has finally recognized they need to operate more service to meet the needs of the incredibly increasing number of riders.