Metrolinx wrestles with what fare is fair

Integrating GTA transit system fares to make cross-border rides easier and cheaper will take more than saying “Presto.”

Thestar.com
June 12, 2016
By Ben Spurr

It’s a small task that millions of people perform every day, by dropping coins in a fare box, flashing a transfer to a bus operator, or tapping a Presto card at the subway turnstile.

But with plans afoot to change how, and how much, transit riders in the Toronto region pay for public transit, the fate of that simple gesture is looking very complicated.

For more than a year and a half, Metrolinx, the Ontario government’s regional transit agency, has been working on a plan to merge the fare systems of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area’s nine municipal transit operators, as well as GO Transit.

It’s a project that could transform the daily routines of millions of transit riders from Hamilton to Oshawa, and the Ministry of Transportation says it’s key to the success its plans to increase mobility in the GTHA.

“Gridlock and congestion doesn’t respect area codes or municipal boundaries,” Transport Minister Steven Del Duca told the Star in an emailed statement.

“In order to support the unprecedented transit investments that the Ontario Liberal Government is making, we need a fare integration system across this entire region that works seamlessly.”

The goal of integration is to enable transit users to go to their nearest transit stop, pay their fare using the new Presto fare card, and never notice if they transfer onto another municipality’s system.

Integration is necessary, Metrolinx says, because more than 22 per cent of the GTHA’s nearly 2 million daily transit riders cross a municipal boundary, and thousands of them pay a penalty for it.

While transit operators in the regions outside Toronto honour each other’s fares, anyone crossing over from the 905 area code to the TTC has to pay a second full fare. The same goes for regional GO riders who hop on a TTC bus or subway once they get to Toronto, even for a short trip. (Operators in the suburban regions charge a heavily discounted co-fare for transfers to or from GO.)

More than 130,000 riders a day are forced to pay two fares, creating a “fare barrier” Metrolinx believes discourages people from leaving their cars behind.

The region’s municipalities are being consulted on the project, and there’s general agreement that integration could be beneficial. But each transit operator wants to make sure that any new model doesn’t hurt its riders or end up costing it more.

“What we want to make sure is that it’s going to be simple for our customers to use,” said Rick Tagaki, director of transit operations for York Region - and that it doesn’t result in the municipality “overspending” on transit.

Metrolinx has put forward three fare integration scenarios. The first, and simplest, would see the municipal transit agencies endorse a common transfer rule that would allow riders to pass between systems either free or for a small co-fare.

The second model would create geographical fare zones for local and rapid transit and would charge riders according to the number of zones they cross. Rides on buses might cost less than those on subways or LRTs, but the same zones would apply.

Fares for GO trips would still be charged by distance, but shorter journeys would cost the roughly the same as rapid-transit trips of the same length.

The third, or “hybrid” option would have different fares for different modes: a flat rate for local service like buses and streetcars, but fare-by-distance for rapid transit on subways and LRTs, and for regional GO Transit.

The second and third scenarios would be a major departure for the TTC, which since 1973 has charged a flat rate for continuous travel across its system.

TTC officials are reluctant to abandon that flat fare model. “To be able to travel right across Toronto with one fare is a huge benefit,” said Chris Upfold, the TTC’s chief customer officer, “and I think very, very clearly, is one of the reasons why Toronto has such high proportional ridership compared to transit systems across North America.”

Upfold said the TTC’s existing infrastructure would make it difficult, “if not impossible” to switch to another fare system. Dozens of the agency’s stations were built to allow barrier-free transitions between subways and streetcars or buses, meaning charging separately would require major renovations. And there is no reliable way to measure the length of bus and streetcar trips, Upfold said.

Jessica Bell of TTCRiders, a transit advocacy group, also warned against getting rid of the flat fare. She argued that because low-income neighbourhoods are concentrated outside the downtown core, charging people a premium to ride rapid transit or to take longer trips would hurt isolated residents in the suburbs.

TTC chair Josh Colle said he considers a fare-by-mode model a non-starter but said he wouldn’t rule out fare-by-distance, although he said he’s “not a fan.”

“I think it would be logical to retain in the large part the type of system we have. But we’re doing a lot of work, the TTC and other people at the table, to look at everything,” he said, adding he would “need to be convinced” of a distance-based fare’s merits.

Colle said his main concern is “How do we fairly fund and finance all of this seamless transportation?” The TTC has estimated that even the simplest option Metrolinx has proposed - to have the commission honour the transfers of nearby Durham, York, Brampton and Mississauga transit systems — could cost the agency between $20 million and $40 million a year.

The financial implications of the other two models are murky.

No matter what, Colle is adamant that the TTC, which carries 85 per cent of transit riders in the GTHA, not take on additional costs. He notes that as it stands, each TTC trip is subsidized by Toronto taxpayers at a rate of 89 cents per ride. That means that the 12 per cent of the TTC passengers who live in the outlying regions and take Toronto transit have their trips subsidized by Toronto residents.

“If, in an effort to integrate fares and have them be consistent, that burden (to Toronto) unfairly increases, that’s problematic,” Colle said.

Colle argues that Queen’s Park should pick up the tab for integration. But for the moment, Metrolinx says it’s looking at fare integration primarily from a perspective that’s “revenue neutral” for the province.

Del Duca didn’t respond directly to the Star’s question about whether his government would consider providing operating subsidies as part of an integration deal.

Despite Colle’s concerns, it’s not clear to what extent the TTC or the City of Toronto will have a say in how the fare system changes. Asked whether Metrolinx would require a regional fare structure to be explicitly endorsed by the GTHA municipalities, Leslie Woo, Metrolinx’s chief planner, said she couldn’t say.

“There are many ways this could happen. If everybody is in agreement, it could be voluntary,” she said.

“Another way this can happen, it could be legislated (by the province).”

And while Colle asserted at a joint meeting with Metrolinx in April that the TTC board “will continue to set the fares for the city of Toronto,” Woo said Metrolinx has a mandate to set the region’s overall fare structure.

She stressed that nothing would be implemented without substantial consultation. “We will do this all working closely with the municipalities.”

The political fight could get nasty, but it’s still likely to be years before riders feel the impact of integrated fares. The TTC’s phase-in of the Presto system, a necessary condition of integration, won’t be complete until 2017.

And while Metrolinx’s official timeline would see an evaluation of the three fare models go before the agency’s board this fall, some involved in the process have privately expressed doubt that the Liberal government will push ahead with the potentially controversial plan so soon before the provincial election expected in spring 2018.