TTC must be innovative to compete with Uber, says board chair
Ridership growth strategy being released next month will recommend ways to compete with increased options at people’s disposal.

TheStar.com
Dec. 11, 2017
Ben Spurr

As the TTC plots ways to increase its ridership, the chair of the transit agency is warning that the organization will have to be innovative if it’s to compete with the likes of Uber.

Like many transit agencies in North America, ridership on the TTC has stopped growing. After more than a decade of continuous growth, since 2014 the number of trips taken each year on the TTC has remained stuck at about 535 million per year. The agency budgeted to carry 545 million passengers in 2017, but is now expecting to fall 10 million short of that target.

To combat the problem, the TTC plans to release a five-year ridership growth strategy next month. A report that went before the TTC board Monday provided a preview of the strategy, and outlined the challenge the agency is facing.

It blamed flattening ridership in part on lower than expected employment growth, which historically is closely tied to ridership levels. But changing trends in the way people get around, including the rise of “digital ride-hailing” services like Uber, is also a likely culprit.

TTC Chair Josh Colle said that while in the past the agency could reliably attract more riders by simply adding more buses and streetcars to the road, the situation is now more complicated.

“Our potential customer now can use car-sharing, ride-sharing, bike, walk, transit, and they want to have that at their disposal. So we have to provide a service offering that recognizes that range of choice,” he said in an interview.

“Does that mean different vehicles? Does that mean different routing? Does that mean different service hours?” he asked.

For the first time, the TTC is already undertaking detailed analysis of its customers, taking into account factors like family status, income, age and education, in order to determine how it can make public transit more attractive than other forms of transportation.

Although there is no hard data for Toronto, the TTC report cited U.S. studies that found ride-hailing apps like Uber have had “a direct negative effect on intracity transit.”

Uber makes 2 million trips in the Greater Toronto Area each month. The average wait time for an Uber car is less than five minutes, which is better than on many TTC routes. Transit agency staff believe at least some of the Uber journeys are replacing trips that would otherwise be taken on the TTC.

The TTC ridership growth strategy was originally supposed to be published in the third quarter of last year, but has been delayed. It will now be released at a public strategy meeting on Jan. 25.

The report debated Monday didn’t provide specific recommendations, but said the agency could boost ridership by 1 per cent by addressing current “pain points” for riders, including improving reliability on major downtown routes.

A 2-per-cent boost could be achieved by adding more “flexible fare options and transforming surface travel to make it the optimal choice.” A 5-per-cent boost would require major investments like expanding the network and investing in significant service upgrades.

Councillor Joe Mihevc, who sits on the TTC board, cautioned that despite the increased transportation options at residents’ disposal in the 21st century, the agency shouldn’t stray far from the “tried and true principles” that have historically been used to attract more customers.

“It’s pretty basic stuff. It’s around more service, at a cheaper price, and there’s some elbow room on the vehicle,” he said.

There are already projects underway that will increase the TTC’s capacity in the coming years, including automatic train control being installed on Line 1 by 2019, the 2020 opening of the McNicoll Garage, which will allow the agency to add 100 buses to its fleet, and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which should enter service in 2021.

The TTC board has also already approved one measure that was expected to be part of the growth strategy: timed transfers. The policy will allow customers unlimited travel on a single fare within a two-hour window, and is planned to be in place by next August. The policy is expected to cost $20.9 million and add 5 million rides a year once it’s fully phased in. It’s currently unfunded.