City
TTC Wants to Hike Fares by 15 cents
Word just broke that the TTC has voted to increase fares by 15 cents for ticket/token purchases. Monthly passes are also looking at a hefty $11 price hike. Provided that city council votes to accept the fare hike (which they likely will, given their current financial woes), the new fares will go into effect on November 4th.
To avoid service cuts, or closing down entire lines like they were mulling over with Sheppard, the board has decided a fare hike is the way to go. TTC General Manager Gary Webster, denounced the idea of service cuts in the staff report released today, saying, "The message really is from the public, 'Preserve my service is my first priority. Don't cut my service. If you have to do anything I guess you can raise my fares if you have to, but really the first choice is raise my taxes and my fares, then cut my service.'"
Judging by the results of a survey conducted by our friends over at Torontoist, Mr. Webster is mostly correct in his assertion. I only say 'mostly' though, because Torontoist's results say over 70% of surveyed readers would be willing to pay at least an additional 10 cents per ride to see a better TTC.
This proposal doesn't promise a better TTC, it promises the same TTC without any service cuts. Granted, I'd be personally willing to pay more to avoid seeing service cuts across the board, but not everyone is going to agree with this.
In the revised fare structure, adult single ride cash tickets/tokens will remain at $2.75, with ticket/token fares jumping from $2.10 to $2.25. The Metropass will see about a whopping $11.25 raise to $111, and a weekly pass will jump from $30 to $32.25. Increases are relative across the board for students, seniors, and children, as well. A full listing of the revised fares is available at the bottom of the budget crisis report, produced by today's board meeting.
How much is too much? The TTC has consistently hiked fares over the past several years and their ridership has continued to increase, so either we've all got no other option, or they're still well within bounds of acceptable pricing.
Photo by blogTO Flickr pooler boukesalverda
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Is it New York? No...and it will never be. The fact is that we are still a young city with insufficient density for subways. The LRTs are a good step forward but this will still be a system where buses will have to do a large portion of the work.
We could build subways that lined the underground but it would costs $6.00 a trip.
CUT THE FUCKING SHEPPARD LINE.
(Note to transit investors: I heard an ugly rumour that someone has already succeeded in producing a forged batch of the new TTC tokens. Depressing if true.)
Frankly the cash/token fare increase don't bother me much. The real shame is that the metropass is almost never worth the bother even for heavy users and commuters--especially if there's a holiday or you have an upcoming vacation.
Funny thing is now the dollar's strong, the TTC looks like it has really high per ride fares. A few years ago, it appear to be a bargain. Compare it to other Canadian transit systems it's not out of the norm.
Cash fares are staying the same. The 15 cent increase is for tickets/tokens.
Since you quote the Torontoist poll, let's all remember the demographic that reads these hipster blogs is not the children, seniors and general working poor who probably cant even access blog.to and torontoist.
There is a growing divide in Toronto between working poor and those who blog and own cars. Some can be slightly disgruntled about TTC costs and choose to drive cars on weekends - but please realise that to a huge majority of Torontonians the transferable mteropass can be a family's equivalent of a car. ( Citizens with children who for obvious reasons, like myself, are less likely to voice their opinions in a medium like this)
Roughly a 120$ increase a year actually can mean over the 1200$ already being paid out on one annual metropass - the increase is equivalent to one extra metropass every 12 months.
Seeing that this the single fare remains unchanged is not a good idea.
They shouldnt be punishing riders who frequently take the TTC - I think they should have raised single fares slightly, and metropasses a little bit less.
I agree with Ray, too many people in this city are working poor and obviously that poll is completley unrepresentative of Torontonians.
As for comparing to US transit fares: we're only worried now because USD is near parity. When CAD was 0.70USD the gap was nowhere near as wide, and it may be again once GWB's replacement tackles the huge fiscal deficit the US is running.
Glad to see that blog.to isnt increasing the price of a ttc token:D
I see now that you changed that the single fares arent increasing as well. I was telling ppl all day that I read it - thats fear mongering I tells ya:P