The crowding on buses and subway delays are only a taste of what’s to come for frustrated TTC riders if the province doesn’t step up with more operating funds, warns the transit system’s board chair.

Councillor Maria Augimeri, who will almost certainly be replaced as TTC chair when mayor-elect John Tory takes office next month, was responding to the province’s Thursday announcement of $162.8 million in provincial gas tax this year. It’s about the same amount Toronto received last year.

The money — part of an overall $321.5 million provincial allocation — are welcome but inadequate, said Augimeri (Ward 9, York Centre).

Queen’s Park needs to return to providing operating subsidies to the TTC, she said.

“I would really like them to show their deep concern for the plight of Toronto’s transit system by at least covering one half of the Wheel-Trans budget,” said Augimeri.

That would be about $52 million — a possible show of faith toward future consideration of operating funds, she said.

“I don’t think people have a sense yet of how drastic the failures will be,” said Augimeri.

“We cannot keep up with a 60-year-old subway system that has had very little substantive work. We’ve just been patching it up for half a century. This is the tip of the iceberg. People don’t realize how raw the need really is,” she said.

Her remarks followed the province’s denial of a report in Thursday’s Globe and Mail suggesting that Queen’s Park is considering a return to subsidizing TTC operations, funding that was discontinued under former Conservative premier Mike Harris’s government. The media account was immediately rejected by a spokesman for Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

“Our government has and will continue to make capital investments to improve Toronto’s transit infrastructure, including investing $416 million in renewal of Toronto's streetcar fleet, $870 million for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway extension, $5.3 billion for the Eglinton Crosstown project, and $1.4 billion for the Bloor-Danforth subway extension to Scarborough,” said an email from Patrick Searle.

The province gives municipalities 2 cents per litre of gas sold for public transit.

Thursday’s announcement includes $8 million for Durham Region; $14.9 million for York Region; $15.6 million for Mississauga and $9.6 million for Brampton.

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