Transit fares likely to rise

[Crazy Canuck07]

Not just likely anymore, it's definite now.

TTC fares rise again on April 1
'I welcome the premier to ride in on his white horse and save us,' Moscoe says
Feb. 8, 2006. 04:48 PM
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM

The TTC will raise fares across the board on April 1.

At a special meeting today, transit commissioners argued about how much to raise fares to cover a $16.5 million shortfall.

They decided a cash fare would go up 25 cents from $2.50 to $2.75, tickets and token would increase 10 cents to $2.10 from $2 each and the cost of a monthly Metropass would climb a dollar to $99.75 from $98.75.

The only way to avoid the increases would be if Premier Dalton McGuinty intervened with more provincial money.

“I welcome the premier to ride in on his white horse and save us,†said TTC chairman Howard Moscoe, who apologized to riders after saying the budget committee had pushed for the increases.

Councillor Jane Pitfield, who has announced she is running for mayor, argued against the increases.

“We have to stand up for the riders,†she said. “This is taking the easy way out,†she continued, adding that money to cover the shortfall could have been found by making cutbacks in selected areas.

Moscoe insisted that he wasn’t prepared to make cuts to marginal routes.

Some commissioners had tried to defer the meeting, arguing there wasn’t enough time to prepare. The meeting was called on 24 hours’ notice.

The two-hour meeting featured heated debates.

TTC general manager Rick Ducharme argued for an increase of between 15 and 20 cents for tickets and tokens but Moscoe wanted to hold the increase to 10 cents.

The 10-cent fare increase will net the transit commission $9 million.

Last year, tickets and tokens went up by 10 cents, to $2 from $1.90, while the cash fare rose to $2.50 from $2.25.

A fare hike became inevitable after city council’s budget committee recommended limiting the taxpayer subsidy for the TTC to $246.3 million.

While that is a 7 per cent increase from 2005, the TTC was looking for a 2006 subsidy of $263 million, citing a $27 million increase this year in fuel costs and $25 million more for negotiated wage hikes.

The TTC has argued in the past that with riders covering more than 80 per cent of the cost of operating the TTC, it is by far the least-funded mass transit system in North America and one of the least-funded in the world.

Last year, for the first time in years, the TTC drew more riders (430 million) than anticipated (424 million) but service didn’t keep up with demand. The service level has been the same since 2001, when ridership was forecast to be 420 million.

For 2006, ridership is expected to top 437 million and is on its way back to its 1988 peak of 463 million.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

But if you're condo board was mismanaging corporation finances and not getting best value for your dollar, would you still be glad?

Of course not. But then I don't think the city is mismanaging anything. They make mistakes and do waste money at times but then what organization run by humans doesn't. Corporations waste money all the time.

 

[markayca]

Call me a dreamer but wouldn't "uploading" all the stuff that the province took care of 8 years ago help us out much more than property tax increases?? Sure the province is claiming that they themselves are broke at the time being but what about us !??!

 

[Ed007Toronto]

^ absolutely! But can we get the province to do this?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Enviro:

I think (not 100% sure) the Federal and Provincial funding came with strings - i.e. the city having to contribute similiar amounts to capital spending at the TTC.

billonlogan:

He failed miserable last year during union negotiations leaving Miller no room but to capitulate to the union to stop a transit strike.

I am not an expert in labour negotiations, are you? Perhaps you should jump into the fray?

“We have to stand up for the riders,†she said. “This is taking the easy way out,†she continued, adding that money to cover the shortfall could have been found by making cutbacks in selected areas.

The riders who pay, or the riders whose routes are to be cut? I wonder.

AoD

 

[doady]

The $400 million or so of funding that Toronto has received so far from from the Federal and Provincial government is being used to pay for the TTC's captial costs, so the city has saved a lot of money and there is no reason why they cannot increase the subsidy of the TTC by the mere $33 million that the TTC is asking for and avoid this fair hike.

 

[blixa442]

Quite frankly, I no longer give a f*** what Moscoe or Miller or McGuinty have to say on this issue. I'm buying a Mini this weekend and the TTC can raise its fares to whatever it damn well pleases.

 

[mpolo2]

I have troube supporting this fair hike (though for me the extra buck on my metropass is completely insignificant) only because I am not getting any more for my money. I am paying more of the operating costs, but there is no increased operations. The TTC is blaming all this on rising fuel costs, but as per the Star the increase in gas prices is $27M, and the increasing labour costs are $25M. I am tired of the TTC mgmt and union not taking responsibility for keeping costs down for the user. Why are we paying the extra money from last year's strike? How can the union honestly say they are fighting for better transit for toronto when all that is happenning is our fares go up and thier wages go up? No extra service in that equation anywhere. And what about all the capital cost funding going into the system. Most is for repair and maitenance but it now appears we can not even think about expanding the system as that will only lead to increased operation costs - which we apparently can't afford. Now do you see why I am so against the union? All they have done is give us fair hikes and prevented an improved transit system - and given the city's voting record all our choices are the lefty status quo who fail to see this or transit cutting suburbanites. We are all doomed.

 

[EnviroTO]

I think (not 100% sure) the Federal and Provincial funding came with strings - i.e. the city having to contribute similiar amounts to capital spending at the TTC.

I'm sure it did but do you believe the city would have raised fares $1 if this new money hadn't been available from the upper levels of government. The city is balancing a $7.65B budget and all that is needed to avoid fare increases is $16.7M or 0.2% of the budget. Budgetting is all about priorities and unfortunately it seems the city has not prioritized transit spending as much as they claim. Keeping fares constant is key to the Ridership Growth Strategy... the strategy which council supposedly supports is actually supposed to reduce fares and make some service improvements. Obviously support is purely verbal. Rah-rah-sis-boom-bah TTC.

 

[spmarshall]

I am tired of the TTC mgmt and union not taking responsibility for keeping costs down for the user.

Let's not forget the one line item that's guaranteed to balloon every year, and whose union negotiated a pretty sweet settlement.

I am tired of the police mgmt and union not taking responsibility for keeping costs down for the taxpayer.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

spm:

Touche.

AoD

 

[JoeyCuppa]

Let's be honest... who does this fare change affect other than casual, rare users of the TTC?

A Metropass is now basically $100. That gives you unlimited travel for the entire month. No worrying about transfers, no lining up to pay cash or buy tokens. It's transferable too. It's awesome.

If someone bought tokens at $2.10 each every day of the avg. 22 business days in a month they'd pay $94 over the month.

If someone is very short-sighted and only pays cash for the TTC, those 22 business days will now cost them $122 to commute.

So, really, the TTC is rewarding Metropass buyers by saying "no fare increase for you", and only raising the token/ticket price 5%.

It's the people who pay cash (mostly the ones who don't ride every day) who will pay more.

I hope the TTC has ordered more Metropasses to satisfy the higher demand that will result.

 

[SD2]

Transit is still a bargain in Toronto. $2.75 cash fare gets you anywhere in the city - including Scarborough.

Aren't there some other creative ways to raise money for public transit? Couldn't the city start a lottery with all proceeds going to transit funding? How about a casino?

 

[JoeyCuppa]

I'd love to see something like that SD.

Something like what the hospitals have, but instead of monster homes out in the suburbs and SUVs, have nice condos in buildings all over the city and smart transportation choices like a year's worth of Metropasses, or nice bikes, or even Smartcars as prizes.

And let companies who donate the prizes claim them as charitable gifts like they can for the hospital lotteries.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

The original Yonge subway was built entirely with revenue from fares, fares that reflected the cost of providing the service. If the TTC brought back zone fares (many other cities have them, and GO, which uses zone fares, just seems to zip along from one new expansion project to the next), I don't think the problem would be as severe as it is now. I have yet to hear anyone bring this idea up. Now's the time, as smart cards and GTA-wide fare systems are being implemented in the next few years. The technology to collect zone fares is well-established elsewhere.