The transit Fair Fare Pass has arrived! After years of organizing by the Fair Fare Coalition, last week the City of Toronto officially launched transit discounts for people on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program. Single fares will cost $2 and monthly passes will cost $115.50 for people who qualify.
The Fair Fare Pass has arrived!
The Fair Fare Pass has arrived!
How does it work?
If you are on OW and ODSP and you receive less than $100 in transportation supports, you can sign up for a transit discount called the Fair Pass program. The Fair Pass will be programmed onto a PRESTO card, and you will be able to load the card with $2 single fares or $115.50 monthly passes.Sign up at any OW or ODSP office. A list of offices can be viewed here.
More details are available on the City's website. You can also call 416-338-8888, your caseworker, or visit any Ontario Works office to find out more.
Join our fight for lower fares
Read about how we got here and join us! Send an email to [email protected] to get involved or sign up here to receive updates.The next stages of the transit Fair Pass will extend the discount to low income people, but these stages are not yet funded. Transit riders who earn the Low-Income Measure plus 15% (approximately $23,000 for a single person) will receive the discount in stages in 2019 and 2020.
The Fair Pass is a huge step forward, but the Fair Fare Coalition wants deeper discounts rolled out faster. The Fair Fare Coalition is calling for free TTC for people on social assistance, and $50 passes and $1 fares for low income people.
Fair Pass in the news
Read what Fair Fare Coalition members have to say about the pass in the Toronto Star and on CBC News.Excerpt of the Toronto Star's Fair Pass story:
The Fair Pass program “will probably let me buy healthier food, it will let my (ODSP) cheque go a little longer. It might help me get out one or two extra days a month,” said [TTCriders and Fair Fare Coalition member Adam] Cohoon.Except of CBC News's Fair Pass story:Yvette Roberts, who works with the advocacy group Fair Fare Coalition, calls the program is a big step forward. She said lower fares will provide relief for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, who are “trying to survive on mediocre welfare rates that haven’t changed much in a few decades.”
TTC fares have increased by about 33 per cent since 2009, and according to the city after paying rent low-income families can spend as much as one-third of the leftover income on public transit.
But Roberts argued the discounts under the program should be deeper. At $115.50, the discounted monthly pass is “still unreachable for so many people on social assistance” she said.
"I think it's a start," said Adam Cohoon who will be applying for the discount this week. [...]Cohoon, who uses a wheelchair, says the OW, ODSP discount doesn't go far enough, suggesting eligible residents living with disabilities should instead ride for free.
"Everyone with low income is counting every dollar," he said.