TTC board approves 10-cent fare increase

TheStar.com
Jan 25, 2019
Ben Spurr

The TTC board has unanimously approved a 10-cent fare increase for 2019, over the objections from transit users and advocates who urged members not to balance the transit agency’s budget on the backs of riders.

And while the price hike is expected to generate about $25.8 million for the TTC this year, Thursday’s board meeting was at times dominated by presentations from agency executives that warned the transit system is on shaky financial ground, both in the short and long term.

The board also received a report on $33.5 billion in capital costs the TTC says is required over the next 15 years to keep the system in good repair and cope with anticipated growth in the number of riders. Some $23.7 billion of the work, which doesn’t include the cost of building new lines, is not funded.

TTC Chair Jaye Robinson said she was “disappointed” about the fare hike, which was approved as part of the proposed 2019 operating budget that the agency first released last week.

Robinson, who council appointed TTC chair in December, told the Star earlier this month she wouldn’t back a fare hike this year. But after the vote she said she had concluded it was unavoidable because of increased costs, and because the city had made it clear it wouldn’t provide more money to eliminate the need for higher fares.

“The city has clearly stated there’s no additional funds,” she said. “That left us with no choice, because we don’t want to cut services. So today it came down to cutting services versus a 10-cent fare increase.”
About a dozen members of the public showed up to oppose raising transit prices.

“Many young people struggle to pay tuition, are straddled with student debt and precarious work or (are) unemployed. This is an additional cost that they simply cannot afford,” said Eli Aaron, a planning student at Ryerson University and a member of the Toronto Youth Cabinet.

Some saw irony in the fact that the debate about the fare hike came hours after a major subway delay that was caused by switch and signal problems left thousands of Line 1 riders packed on crowded platforms waiting for trains.

“The delays that people experienced this week really brought home the injustice of a fare hike,” Shelagh Pizey-Allen, executive director of advocacy group TTCriders, told the board.

Student and senior fares using tickets or the Presto fare card are set to rise from $2.05 to $2.15, while adult fares will go from $3 to $3.10. The cost of a student or senior monthly pass will rise $5.70 to $122.45, and an adult pass will increase $4.90 to $151.15. Adult cash fares will remain at $3.25.

The increase will be effective April 1. Although it will increase revenue, it’s also expected to drive away some 700,000 potential riders.

The proposed $2.1-billion gross operating budget the board approved for the conventional system and Wheel Trans represents a 3.1-per-cent increase over last year’s spending. The subsidy the TTC is requesting from the city, which is considered the key measure of municipal funding for the transit system, is $22 million higher than in 2018, at $763 million.

TTC chief financial officer Dan Wright told the board that represents “one of the lowest increases that the TTC has requested in recent memory.” It’s less than half the average annual subsidy increase over the previous four years.

Not all of the increased spending will go toward improved service, with new items, such as the transition to the Presto fare card system and a new collective bargaining agreement, putting pressure on the budget.

But the TTC plans to increase service hours by two per cent by deploying more buses and subways this year. There is also $14.4 million in incremental costs for the well-received two-hour transfer policy.

Wright repeatedly warned the board the budget is precariously balanced. In order to offset rising costs, it proposes relying on roughly $24 million in “undetermined corporate reductions” to balance the budget. The reductions are effectively savings the TTC thinks it can find in areas such as lower accident claims and electricity costs, but can’t guarantee it will achieve.

The budget report said the strategy “incorporates considerable risk into the budget and increases the risk that the TTC will incur a deficit in 2019.”

Wright said that although he believed the savings are possible, the agency would be relying on “luck” and had little margin for error.

“Do I think we will run a deficit? I don’t know,” he said.

“Bottom line, we have no flexibility to absorb bad news. We need to figure out how to properly fund the TTC with long term funding that we can count on.”

The board also received a report on $33.5 billion in capital costs the TTC says is required over the next 15 years to keep the system in good repair and cope with anticipated growth in the number of riders.

Some $23.7 billion of the work, which doesn’t include the cost of building new lines, is not funded.

Wright said it would be “doable” for the TTC to secure money for the unfunded projects, which include capacity improvements on Line 1 and Line 2, buying new streetcars, replacing the bus fleet, and expanding Bloor-Yonge station. But he framed the consequences of not doing so in dire terms.

“Less frequent service, a decrease in reliability, more breakdowns, more delays, poor customer service, more customers abandoning the system,” he said.

Robinson said she hoped the provincial and federal governments would come forward with more funding for TTC infrastructure.

The Ontario PC government has proposed contributing $160 million to subway maintenance if it follows through with its plan to take ownership of the TTC subway. It’s an amount that falls far short of what the agency says it requires.

The TTC capital and operating budgets will go to council in March for final approval.