Metrolinx proposes integrated fares for the GTHA
Metrolinx is proposing that “distance-based fares” be considered for all modes of public transit, except buses

TheStar.com
Sept. 22, 2015
Stephen Spencer Davis, Tess Kalinowski

It could be a decade before the region’s 11 transit agencies have a single integrated fare system even though the TTC will be fully accessible by the provincial Presto fare card at the end of next year.

But Metrolinx officials say they expect some aspects of a unified fare system to roll out much sooner.

Putting Presto on the TTC -- scheduled for the end of 2016 -- was a key building block for a unified regional fare system, Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig told reporters following the agency’s board meeting on Tuesday.

While fare integration is meant to correspond with the 10-year timeframe of GO’s electrified regional express rail expansion, some decisions will have to be made sooner. For example, transit officials will have to decide how York Region buses and GO integrate with the TTC when the Spadina subway extension begins running to York University in 2017.

“The total package will take an extended period but we will come to clear directions and conclusions over the next six- to 18-month period,” said Metrolinx chair Robert Prichard.

Metrolinx says it will make some fare recommendations in the spring. While Tuesday’s board report stopped short of specifics, some themes are already emerging.

The provincial agency is proposing that “distance-based fares” be considered for all modes of public transit, except buses. It is also suggesting that a regional fare system take into account the length of a trip and the type of transit being used.

Metrolinx will be further studying “zone-based” and “hybrid” fare systems that combine zoned, timed or flat-fare approaches.

Rather than paying different fares to different transit agencies in the region, passengers would pay one fare per trip under an integrated regime.

Geoff Marinoff, transit director for MiWay, argued that people currently paying double fares as they take transit across municipal borders “are obviously getting punished.”

“When I look at our border, when they cross over to the TTC, they’re probably not going to Scarborough,” Marinoff said. “They’re probably travelling a short distance within the TTC, but they have to pay a full fare.”

The Presto system is the key to an integrated fare regime, according to a Metrolinx spokesperson, who argued that users aren’t concerned with which transit agency they’re riding—just that they arrive at their destination.

The impact of fare integration would be felt most by the TTC. Unlike GO transit, which uses distance-based fares, the TTC and most other systems in the region have flat fare systems. York Region is an exception. Its buses have a zoned price structure.

TTC Deputy CEO and chief customer officer Chris Upfold said there are unanswered financial questions about fare integration.

“You’re on a TTC bus and you cross Steeles into York region. You immediately pay a double fare,” Upfold said. “And TTC get a fare and York get a fare. If one of us no longer gets a fare, where does that money then come from?”

The impact of fare integration on the TTC hinges on that money, according to Upfold.

“I don’t believe it’s the TTC’s responsibility to subsidize that,” he said.

McCuaig said Metrolinx is coming at fare integration from a revenue neutral position. But it will test different scenarios.

“We start off with an approach that looks at revenue neutrality. But then if we make an adjustment where there’s a change in who is contributing -- whether that’s governments or customers -- if we make those changes, how does that impact,” he said.