The TTC is so proud of having been named the American Public Transportation Association’s Public Transit System of the Year that it is spending $50,000 on ads trumpeting the achievement.

The campaign, which is being displayed in 5,000 buses, streetcars and subway cars, recalls a lesson about good writing many journalists learn early on:

Show, don’t tell.

If you’ve endured a long wait just to squeeze onto an overcrowded bus or streetcar, an ad touting the TTC’s efficiency could easily ring hollow.

Instead of spending scarce dollars to tell riders about its wonderful service, the TTC might better devote that money and energy to improving said service. More important, the city needs to make the kind of investment necessary to bridge the gap between the TTC’s accolade and the lived reality of Torontonians.

The award came the summer after a January that saw the TTC slash rush-hour service on 13 heavily traveled bus routes. Back then the commission blamed the service downgrades on a simple shortage of vehicles, a backlog created as Bombardier remains woefully behind schedule on delivering its end of a $1-billion streetcar order.

“Our customers will notice minimal difference, if any,” TTC spokesperson Brad Ross told the Star in January.

Riders are certainly noticing something.

Starting in 2004, when the TTC recorded 334.8 million adult riders, ridership increased every year until 2014, when it reached 437.3 million. But adult ridership has declined in the two years since then, from 434.9 million in 2015 to 427 million last year.

At the same time, the TTC’s revenue from ridership keeps climbing -- $582.6 million from January through June, up from $567.2 million over the same period last year.

Ridership revenue has to increase as long as the city leaves public transit underfunded. The city’s subsidy to the TTC totals just under $1 per rider, slightly less than Montreal ($1.16) and significantly less than New York ($1.52). Even Los Angeles, known more for smog and gridlock than smooth-running public transit, offers a $3.00 per rider subsidy.

As ridership declines and subsidies remain low, the TTC has little choice but to raise fares, as it has for the past six years straight. This has forced passengers to bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility for balancing the TTC’s budget and keeping buses running.

If the service is going to live up to the award, City Hall needs to strengthen transit subsidies, easing the financial burden on riders and allowing the TTC to provide service that impresses passengers just as much as it does the people bestowing System of the Year trophies.