For the first time, the city and TTC are working together on a low-income fare to make transit available to those who need it most.

“There’s a lot of talk about transit expansion but if we don’t have a companion conversation about affordability we might not be providing transit benefits to those Torontonians who most need it,” said Chris Brillinger, executive director of Toronto’s social development, finance and administration.

With Toronto region gridlock and transit expansion atop the public agenda and the Presto electronic fare’s ability to offer a wider range of TTC fares, experts say the time is right to tackle transit affordability.

The issue of income-based fares has been raised at the TTC and other city departments individually. Now, however,a report before Toronto’s executive committee July 2 recommends that staff from social development, the TTC, public health, planning and others develop joint guidelines for affordable fares. The policy would come back to council in early 2015.

“Six dollars a day, two trips, is a significant hit for someone who is unemployed and looking for work, (or) a single parent trying to move kids around to get to an aquatics program that isn’t in their local neighbourhood,” Brillinger said.

“If you want a concession pass for lower income people you have to fund it,” said TTC chief customer officer Chris Upfold. That’s a policy decision that has to come from outside the TTC.

How much an income-based concession fare costs would depend on the qualifying level and how the rest of the fare system is structured. “It’s not necessarily fair to ask other customers to pay more,” said Upfold.

Hamilton, Windsor, Calgary, York Region and Kingston have affordable fare policies, said Monica Campbell, of Toronto Public Health.

A report before its board last March showed that the lowest income commuters are nearly twice as likely to depend on transit for work as the highest income group — 27.4 per cent compared to 42.8 per cent.

The board of health has already recommended that a portion of the funding for Toronto transit expansion be used to enhance affordability, said Campbell. Many of the transit improvements planned for the region are designed to serve low-income areas, she said.

“I don’t think it’s easy to create affordable transit. This is the time, this is the moment to have conversations about it and to work toward it,” she said.

TTC board chair Maria Augimeri said it’s the kind of report the next mayor and TTC board will need so they can get people moving. “If the province is serious about gridlock they would be wise to consider these kinds of innovative programs,” said the councillor for York Centre.

Augimeri has already asked for a meeting with newly appointed Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca to press him for provincial TTC operating subsidies. She said $52 million a year, half the operating budget of Wheel-Trans “would show great goodwill.”