Transit riders should be rewarded, not punished
The TTC could try to lure us in, but hiking fares at every opportunity is instead the habit.

thestar.com
Feb. 1, 2015
By Christopher Hume

Tinkering with the TTC is always a temptation, but under Mayor John Tory it’s quickly becoming a tradition. Thanks to our new chief magistrate, we now have back-door entry on all streetcar routes and - who knows? - maybe kids under 12 will get to ride free. Oh, and we’ll have Presto a year sooner than originally planned.

But as any transit regular will tell you, measures such as these will do little to improve service or alleviate the overcrowding that can make the rush hour an ordeal. The TTC is well beyond the point where tinkering can solve the real problems - too few routes, not enough rolling stock, chronic underfunding, political hostility and unreliable service - but there’s no question the existing system could be better used than it is.

One of the most interesting ideas for improvement came from mayoral candidate David Soknacki; he suggested a program that would reward early-morning passengers with free travel. Under his plan, anyone who used the TTC between 6 and 7 in the morning would ride at no cost. The intention, of course, was to reduce the rush-hour crush by encouraging people to go to work earlier.

Soknacki’s proposal went nowhere. That’s hardly surprising given the TTC’s preoccupation with its inadequate budgets, outdated technology and political interference. The cash-strapped agency, which lurches from crisis to crisis, finds itself responding to events, not leading them. It’s too busy making do and playing catch-up to have fostered a passenger-oriented culture.

Instead, Toronto’s long-suffering strap-hangers were most recently rewarded with yet another fare increase, the fourth in four years. However necessary, this only adds insult to injury.

A variation of Soknacki’s free-hour concept, implemented in Singapore in 2013, is an acknowledged success. About seven per cent of riders have switched to the earlier time, making rush-hour that much less unpleasant.

“We can change fares by the hour, by the type of user such as students or seniors and welfare recipients,” the candidate said last year. “There’s lots of exciting options to shift travel demand so that our rush hours are a little more manageable...”

Torontonians don’t often hear such optimism about public transit, or openness to new ways of organizing the TTC. It is approached as a parallel system, one most would rather avoid. There’s no mystery why the vast majority of Torontonians choose to drive, even when the car is not the best way to get around.

What makes the idea of a free hour compelling is that it’s based on reward rather than penalty. It offers an incentive, not a kick in the pants. Anyone willing to get up an hour earlier is rewarded with no-cost travel. The TTC prefers the stick over the carrot. It penalizes its most loyal users by upping the price of the already expensive monthly Metropass from $133.75 to $141.50, while leaving the $3 cash fare used by occasional riders untouched.

At a time when every commercial operation on Earth has its own customer loyalty program, our transit overlords prefer to punish the faithful. They are expected to endure the endless indignities associated with public transit.

Rush hour will never disappear - we should hope it never disappears - but that’s precisely why experiments like Singapore’s are worth consideration. To compete, transit will need to be even more convenient than the car. In parts of downtown, that’s the case today.

In Toronto, a fast-changing highrise city, the pressure on the TTC and GO to keep up with riders is more intense than ever. As it is, Torontonians use transit because they need to; the task is get them to use it because they want to.