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
Comments (23)
Wow, I'm really sorry for you guys in Toronto because $2.75/$111 is insanely steep. Since the Star seems disinterested in any kind of original research, perhaps BlogTO could run a feature on the current fare pricing for major transit systems in North America? For example, New York is $2/$76 US, Boston is $2/$59 US, Los Angeles is $1.25/$62 US, SF is $1.50/$45 US, Montreal is $2.75/$65... We all know that Toronto has a relatively high level of service yet gets the worst funding of any system, but it is always nice to remind people come election time that if the city had proper funding they could be enjoying that extra $50-$60 a month...
this news is infuriating. torontonains pays the most money to ride the crappiest transit system in north america.
Forget about investing in Real Estate. The real 'sure thing'-guaranteed to always go up in value-are TTC Tokens!
The real horror is the increase of the adult monthly pass by nearly $10. Sure I will keep riding the TTC, but that is because I don't have any other options for getting all the way up to York 4 days a week from the East End. Continued ridership is not necessarily indicative of anything but the essential services nature of public transit.
Crappiest transit system in North America? Man, you need to get out more.
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.
Obviously the message from the public isn't clear enough, so let's try this again.
CUT THE FUCKING SHEPPARD LINE.
James: by the time they finished all the new subway lines, the fare rate would be $6 a trip anyway!
If you are experienced in the urban planning, engineering and infrastructure in different cities you will find that the TTC system is actually quite good. Buses where buses make sense, light rail along arterial roads near the core and subways to act as commuter transit from nodal points. All are well integrated with multimodal stations and easy transfers. There are minor issues of too many stops, fare collection, dedicated right of way and so on but the main issue here is simply funding. The system is overpriced at any level of service due to getting less funding than comparable systems receive. Focus on that simple fact and elect politicians who will change the funding structure.
When you're comparing with other cities, don't forget Ottawa: currently $3 cash fare (though only $1.90 in tickets, and the monthly pass is $73). Ottawa's transfer system is arguably superior: your transfer is good for about 90 minutes, and can be used to board any bus. This means that you can go shopping and come home on one fare, or even run a series of errands connected by buses.
(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.)
Eric Smith--We have similar on/off priveleges on the St Clair W Bus/Streetcar route. It's still a test, but it's awesome when the streetcar is running. It should be rolled out system wide especially if they ever do implement metrocards.
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.
At least before it was easy to cary around a toonie and 3 quarters. But now what...1 toonie, 3 quarters, 1 dime and 1 nickle? The horror...
At least before it was easy to carry around a toonie and 3 quarters. But now what...1 toonie, 3 quarters, 1 dime and 1 nickel? Oh, the horror of it all...
"Judging by the results of a survey conducted by our friends over at Torontoist, Mr. Webster is mostly correct in his assertion. 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."
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.
When you had up that the TTC was upping the single fare, although a mistake on your part, it makes much more sense.
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.
I have an honest question, though I'm not sure this is the place for it... if Toronto is so big (in population) and we have so many people employed and paying taxes, why are we so poor? Why is it that I get better service from government funded offices (hospital, DMV, passport) outside of Toronto, like in Peterborough? How can other cities afford to subsidize their public transport to a greater degree than Toronto can?
Ryan C - as Steve Munro points out today it looks like the TTC found when they actually priced it that it wouldn't save much to close Sheppard since they would have to put huge numbers of buses on to replace it.
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.
lol
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
I'd just like to know how's the operating cost structure for the TTC. How much is the salary of a TTC high executive/manager/supervisor? How much are their benefits? They should cut their juicy salaries instead of bugging the people. Have you seen how old and abandoned some of the subway stations look like? It's a really bad service that no one can trust. If you want to go somewhere, you need to get out at least 1 or 1-1/2 hrs. in advance. If I had the money for a used or new car, I wouldn't think it twice, would be a lot faster, even with the traffic!!!
Yeah sorry about the screw up on the original post. I was hoping I had it fixed before too many people started spreading my lies :)
The TTC is a joke and so is a metropass. I gotta take the TTC at every opportunity even if it's one or two stops just so it's worth it. Malarky.
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