Riders will be facing fare hikes and service cuts in 2016 unless we take action.

Over 100 riders rallied for more service and lower fares at the key November 23 TTC Commission meeting. So what did we get? The bad news is riders are being slapped with $23M in fare hikes, but we’re getting just $5M more in service. Don’t get us wrong – this new service is necessary – it’s just that these modest improvements do not meet today’s Toronto transit needs.

City Hall now gets to weigh in on the TTC’s budget, and decide how much government funding our TTC will get in 2016.

We must take action to keep what we have, and get what we need.

Budget highlights so far

$5.4M in possible new service

Sunday subway service will start at 8.00am instead of 9.00am in January. Connecting bus and streetcar routes will also start running at 8.00am on Sunday, but later in the year.

Bus service will become more reliable. Bus schedules will be changed to match actual bus route times, there will be more rapid-response replacement buses when something goes wrong, and there will be better maintenance of old buses.

Reliability on the 501 Queen St and 504 King St lines should improve.

Four soon-to-be-announced new express bus routes will run all day.

The Commission rejected $4.2M in recommended service improvements

There will be no new improvements to subway service reliability. Yep, next time the Yonge Line breaks down and we get crazy ridership experiences like that seen in the picture below, let’s remember the Commission said no to subway reliability.

No 3-minute service on the line 1 subway during off peak hours.

No money for the new Cherry St car route.

Fare hikes are coming

On January 1, the TTC will:

hike cash fares by 25 cents to $3.25

hike tokens by 10 cents to $2.90

Freeze senior and student fares, and metropasses.

While fare freezes are a step in the right direction, it’s no victory. Our metropass is the most expensive in Canada, having risen 42% in the past decade. This is the second year running where John Tory has broken his election promise and hiked fares.

We’ve got a big funding shortfall

Thanks to riders’ grassroots advocacy, the TTC has been re-introducing most of the service cut during the Ford years. We cannot go backwards again.

The TTC needs $41M from governments this year just to maintain current service levels, and bring in the small service improvements that were listed above.

Here’s what we need

City Hall and the Province must show true leadership and give fair funding to the TTC so riders can have great service and lower fares, especially for those in financial need.

The City must fund the TTC at $1.26 a ride this year, and the Province must match the city’s contribution. That would bring our funding levels up to about the Canadian subsidy-per-ride average.

We are also calling on the City and Province to fully fund the TTC’s capital budget (there’s a $2.4B shortfall) so we can get more accessible transit, more reliable service, and more street cars, buses, and subways.

Riders already pay more than our fair share. We pay a greater percentage of our public transit systems’ costs than riders anywhere in the continent. In fact, the TTC’s subsidy per ride for 2015 (about 89 cents) is LOWER than it was in 2010.

Here’s what we are going to do about it

The city budget process will begin on December 1 and go until March 2016. This is the time where your councillor gets to decide how much money goes to each city department, including the TTC. Contact your city councillor and ask them to fairly fund the TTC at $1.26 a ride, and tell Premier Wynne to match the City’s contribution. Click here to send a message to Premier Wynne and Mayor Tory right now! We have also included the contact details of these elected officials below so you can send your councillor a personal email explaining why you want the TTC to have more funding.