To hear some members of city council tell it, Toronto is like the setting of some heist film — Ocean’s Fourteen: The Great Transit Caper. Hardened thieves are scheming and sneaking and disguising themselves as children all to the ends of ripping off the transit system. Sounds like a case of [Duh-duh-duuuuuuuuuuhhhhn] fare evasion.

Earlier this year, TTC chair Josh Colle and TTC commissioner Joe Mihevc were spinning tales about this scourge on transit finances, and the topic came up again, inevitably, at the transit budget meeting this week. Monday night, Mayor John Tory found himself musing about it on his call-in television show. “I even said we may have to get to the stage where we have to shame people and publish their picture in the newspaper and say this is somebody, who for the sake of a TTC fare, you know, made everybody else pay,” Tory said.

Judging by the email in my inbox, this dramatic rendering of why “we end up without all that money that we need to help run the system,” in the mayor’s words, has fans. People write, suggesting rear-door boarding has created a widespread culture of free-riding, of how nefarious adults and teenagers are pretending to be children with impunity, of how if you watch at a subway station you see people sneaking in. (It is a theory almost as popular as “the greedy public sector union is sucking us dry” among armchair transit budgeters — although with the difference that TTC union head Bob Kinnear was, earlier this year, among those advancing the theory that a surge in bearded “kids” paying no fare was a problem.)

All this finger pointing at schemers, apparently, makes for great political drama. It’s satisfying! There’s someone to blame. We get to say that part of our difficulty balancing our budget and keeping fares low is that bad guys are cheating us. Having a villain makes for easier politics and better storytelling. If we can somehow work a high-speed streetcar chase through the financial district into the climax, it will make for an entertaining film adaptation.

As a way to actually discuss any real problems — budgetary or otherwise — that the TTC faces, however, it leaves much to be desired.

First of all, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross tells the Star there’s no reason to think fare evasion is a particular problem at the TTC, nor any reason to think it has risen dramatically. Most transit systems, he says, see about 2 per cent of riders try to sneak on without paying, and that’s about what the TTC estimates it suffers from — a percentage that has remained “fairly consistent” even as the TTC has introduced all-door boarding and free rides for children.

So: management says they see no evidence of this problem that politicians are banging on about. There’s that.

Second, if politicians wanted to develop theories about why ridership and revenue are lower this year than had been projected, there’s no reason to begin by scouring the back doors for expired transfers. In the past two years, cash fares were hiked by a quarter, and monthly passes by $8 — the price of a pass is the reason I, for instance, stopped buying one, and as a result have been a less frequent rider. The recently introduced Presto system has, by many anecdotal accounts, been out of service (both reload machines and card readers) often enough that a substantial number of people may be having trouble paying when they’re trying to. The air conditioning system was down on the Bloor line through the dog days of summer. Parts of the subway system have been shut for maintenance during popular downtown events (such as the World Cup of Hockey and Word on the Street) that might normally boost ridership. Streetcar and bus service reliability are frequent complaints from riders who may hail an Uber, or walk, when a vehicle is late. Riders during rush hour often face uncomfortable overcrowding, which may drive them to explore alternatives.

That is: the system has gotten more expensive, and there have been substantial customer service problems. If I were the detective on the case of the missing riders, I’d begin my investigation there. Because while running a transit system is ridiculously difficult and complicated, a few basic principles that guide those running it are simple. If the system is inexpensive, convenient, and comfortable, many more people will use it. The TTC has become more expensive, arguably less convenient, and substantially less comfortable this year. If you want more fare-paying riders, focus on the things that will attract them.

The New York City website Streetsblog recently reported on a discussion panel in which transit executives from Boston, London, San Francisco and Oslo talked about how, in order to serve riders well, they basically stopped worrying about fare evasion. “Fare payment isn’t the point of running a bus system, (the point) is getting people to the places they want to go,” David Block-Schachter of Boston’s transit authority reportedly said. London, England’s transit authority is no longer even handing out fines for turnstile hopping. “When you stop worrying about fare evasion, but you focus on the convenience of the fare system — you focus on the service it provides to the rider — it opens up a lot of options for the agency, which could allow you to offer better service at lower cost,” one speaker at the event said.

This isn’t because it isn’t annoying that some people cheat the system. It’s because some people will always cheat the system, and the cost and hassle of making it difficult for them is not worth it — especially since most enforcement measures make the system a hassle for all riders. And what you want to focus on, if you want more riders, more honest, fare-paying riders, is making the system as hassle-free as possible.

Now, that’s a less satisfying story for politicians to tell, because the story of how steeply rising fares, long-deferred maintenance, and stagnating service are limiting the TTC’s service potential is one in which politicians making budget decisions wind up being the villains. It’s a less exciting story in a lot of ways. True stories so often are.

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With files from Ben Spurr

Correction - November 24, 2016: This article was eidted from a previous version that misspelled David Block-Schachter's surname.

