Mayor-elect John Tory wants to restore bus service on 41 routes cut under Rob Ford, but won’t say if the money needed could come from increased fares.

The service increase is one of several priorities Tory identified in a “state of the city” address given from his 15th {+-} floor transition office overlooking Nathan Phillips Square. He also highlighted several other major transit projects, the “crisis” of both congestion and affordable housing, policing and a review of Pan Am traffic.

“I will be directing my personal attention to both the services and the financial challenges in the weeks ahead,” he said on restoring the bus routes.

He has asked TTC CEO Andy Byford to look at options for restoring service that was cut in 2011 and 2012 and to find enough vehicles to make an “immediate” impact.

Starting in 2011, to meet Ford’s quota for a 10 per cent cut from all city budgets, the TTC reduced service on 41 routes across the city, including during off-peak, night and weekend hours, saving an estimated $4 million.

Neither Tory nor Byford put a dollar figure on how much restoring service would cost. Tory said his plan is subject to the budget realities to be discussed in the new year.

“Those cuts in 2011, 2012, did have a very hurtful impact upon the travellers,” Byford said Thursday. “It is something that we didn’t want to do at the time, and we’re very keen to add service back in order to both make the services less crowded, but also to add service to an ever-rising ridership.”

The TTC doesn’t have enough buses to implement those changes, according to Byford. It is looking at potentially leasing as well as purchasing new buses.

In August, TTC staff tabled a slate of measures to improve surface transit in the near term, including returning to a reduced level of permitted crowding on vehicles, and a network of buses that would provide 10-minute or better service.

At about $650,000 per bus, the cost of adding 40 new buses — the number the TTC’s August report suggested would help relieve crowding during the rush — would be at least $26 million. That estimate does not include operating costs to pay drivers and fuel vehicles.

It also doesn’t include the cost of a new storage facility, something the TTC says it desperately needs to house additions to the fleet. Transit officials, planning a new garage at McNicoll Ave. and Kennedy Rd., put the cost at $180 million. But the TTC only has $80 million so far for that project, which would take five years to build.

Tory won’t say whether he plans to increase TTC fares to pay for the cost of boosting service. During the campaign, he promised to freeze fares in 2015.

“You know what I campaigned on, and I think the challenge that rests in front of the city government is to find the money by whatever means are identified during the budget process,” Tory said.

A 5-cent fare increase would add only about $23 million a year to the system’s $1.6-billion annual operating budget.

Tory said he spoke at length with Byford about the recommendations in the TTC’s August report.

The plan would add $19 million to the TTC’s operating costs in 2015 and would increase incrementally as ridership grows, to about $69 million annually in 2018, according to the report. The cost of new vehicles, storage and maintenance facilities, and other infrastructure would cost an additional $288 million over five years.

“I wanted to know what would make the biggest difference, the fastest,” Tory said Thursday. “We have those lists in front of us. They will form part of the budget deliberations of both the TTC and the city council.”

And just days after the province announced it would add HOV lanes on some major routes in advance of the Games and temporarily restrict carpool lanes to cars with three or more riders, Tory is asking they review those decisions.

The province says the restrictions will be in place on highways a week ahead of the Games next summer to allow drivers to get used to the rules.

Tory said he would like to work with the province, but is looking for a review of lane restrictions, especially in advance of the Games and the number of people allowed per car.

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Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said Thursday that the province has been working closely with the city on the transportation plan. The minister has not yet met with Tory, who will be officially sworn in next week.

“As Minister responsible for keeping the region moving during the Games, I look forward to working closely with Mayor-elect Tory and his team and sitting down with them soon to discuss every effort being made to minimize the traffic impacts on local residents and businesses.” Del Duca said in an emailed statement.

With files from Tess Kalinowski

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