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Councillor Doug Ford suggested Wednesday Toronto taxpayers are not getting good value for their transit system — “is your TTC cleaner? Is your TTC faster? Is your TTC cheaper?” he asked — drawing a blunt rebuttal from the transit agency’s CEO, Andy Byford.

“To be honest, and you can quote me if you want, I pay more attention to what TTC riders say and to what my customers say. They’re the people that matter to me and they are saying it’s cleaner,” Mr. Byford said in an interview.

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“No, it’s not cheaper but Mr. Ford I’m sure is aware that the TTC has had to endure a two-year freeze on its subsidy, and that was against ever mounting customer numbers,” he said. He described the freeze as “a cut in real terms” and said “we’ve cut our costs as much as we can.”

The Toronto Transit Commission is seeking a $27-million bump from Toronto taxpayers, bringing its annual subsidy to $534-million, or under one-third of the cost to run the sprawling system, including Wheel-Trans. It needs the money to hire 479 new employees, many of them bus, streetcar and train operators.