TTC insists cost-saving measures aren’t service cuts

TTC CEO Andy Byford outlined steps the transit commission is taking to reach the target of reducing its net operating budget by 2.6 per cent.

Thestar.com
Sept. 21, 2016
By Ben Spurr

TTC leaders are saying they will do everything they can to avoid cutting service in order to meet 2017 budget targets, but some critics insist public transit is already suffering under the push for savings.

At a meeting of the agency’s budget committee Wednesday, TTC CEO Andy Byford outlined steps the transit commission is taking to reach the target of reducing its net operating budget by 2.6 per cent. Mayor John Tory and council set that goal for all city departments in July.

Among the ways the agency is cutting costs is by not implementing service improvements that had been planned for this September. Not adding service on bus and streetcar routeswill save the transit commission $1.5 million.

Byford told the committee adding the service was no longer justified because ridership this year is lower than expected. The TTC had planned to carry up to 553 million people in 2016, but agency staff said Wednesday they are now only anticipating 540 million. Last year 538 million people rode the TTC.

“I want to be clear here. We are not talking about cutting service. This is not service cuts,” Byford said of the deferred service improvements. “This is just additional service not implemented.”

While ridership for the overall transit network is not as high as expected, some bus and streetcar routes are at capacity during peak hours. Asked whether the $1.5 million could be used to increase service on those routes, Byford responded “there is a balancing act to be had here.”

“At the end of the day my chair expects me to run this business efficiently, and if the prevailing ridership doesn’t warrant adding more service, I think it’s incumbent on me not to do that,” he said. Byford stated that “the existing service can cope with what the current level of ridership is.”

Councillor Gord Perks disagreed. “Torontonians understand that the level of service we have isn’t good enough,” he said, arguing that not adding service this fall would discourage more people from taking the TTC.

“I don’t think that you’ll find very many people who take transit right now who would say there’s too much service. You’ll find a lot of people having a full bus go by them or a full streetcar go by them ... before they get on,” said Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale - High Park).

In addition to forgoing service improvements, the TTC intends to reach the 2.6-per-cent target by saving $10.3 million on lower employee health care costs, recouping $1 million through better material and supplies management, and reducing overtime, training, and travel expenses ($1.3 million). Together the measures represent $15.8 million in savings, which is equivalent to the 2.6-per-cent goal.

But the bigger issue is that the transit commission is facing $172.6 million in new costs next year that are currently unfunded. The shortfall is being driven by a number of factors including reduced revenues due to lower-than-predicted ridership, fees for the Presto card system, increased demand for the Wheel-Trans service, higher labour costs locked into the TTC’s collective bargaining agreement, and the opening of the Yonge-University-Spadina subway extension.

TTC Chair Josh Colle said that staff have been instructed to find ways to bridge the shortfall without cutting service or hiking fares. He stated that he hoped the city would help the TTC by increasing the annual subsidy it provides to the transit agency, but if the TTC has to come up with the entire $172.6 million on its own it will have to consider raising fares and reducing service.

“It’s just the basic math,” he said.