As I write, city residents are in a city hall committee room challenging Toronto’s transit commissioners. They plead with them to raise fares, don’t raise fares; save doomed bus routes; keep dialysis patients on Wheel-Trans; provide more tax subsidy . . .

The TTC is the third largest transit system in North America. And the least subsidized. It is also being treated as a Third World jitney system — starved of cash, left to fend for itself, and jerked from one crisis to another.

Fares will rise at least 10 cents a token in January; and service on many bus routes is being cut back, even as the system anticipates a record number of riders for 2011.

At the most critical point in its history, the once-revered TTC is being starved to death. The city has frozen the tax subsidy, forcing strong budget measures. The policy is so relentless and strategic that it must be part of some master plan dreamed up in the mayor’s office.

“You suck at your jobs,” transit rider Jennifer Foulds told the commissioners. She quoted from the commission goals — namely, to provide the residents of Toronto with transit service that is “reliable, safe, and prepared for the future.”

The system is safe, she said; reliable it isn’t. And it is singularly unprepared for the future.

It’s not that planners are bereft of ideas. Rather, politics has ruined the TTC. And if the public does not rally to reverse the slide, Toronto will wake up soon with a massive transit headache requiring decades of rebuilding and loads of money.

The business sector has twigged to this. The Toronto Board of Trade is seized with the issue. CivicAction, the coalition of business and street activists, has it in its sights for 2012. Still, strong, unrelenting advocacy and an accompanying public campaign cannot arrive soon enough.

The Toronto commute is now an embarrassing worst on the continent — one that saps productivity, erodes quality of life, and adds to daily frustration.

Instead of addressing the concerns, our political leaders have aggravated the problem. Consider what just one politician, Mayor Rob Ford, has done:

• Stopped the Transit City plan, which was fully funded by the province, and promised subways instead. He unilaterally committed the city to pick up the costs already sunk into Transit City. Budget committee heard Tuesday that the tab will hit $65 million — more than twice the annual revenues from the 10-cent fare hike.

• Ford asked ex-councillor Gordon Chong to study and report on Ford’s promise to have the private sector build the Sheppard subway where Transit City planned a light rail transit line. At no cost to taxpayers. But the notorious tightwad has not equipped Chong with enough resources. Now, the study is delayed. And Chong has said Sheppard will never be built with just private-sector dollars.

• Forced the Eglinton Crosstown LRT underground, adding nearly $2 billion to the pricetag and, maybe, two years’ construction time. This, in turn, has prompted the province to consider turning the line completely over to the private sector.

• Finch West has no LRT and no plans for express buses or Bus Rapid Transit. In fact, the TTC has been forced to reduce its bus order.

In all, Ford’s transit plans kills transit to the suburbs, promises a subway that has little funding, delivers one LRT where three were planned, cost billions more, and wastes at least $65 million. And his solution is to raise fares, cut service, freeze the tax subsidy, and refuse to look at tolls and road pricing.

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How long will civic and business leaders tolerate such incompetence?

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca