[This piece has been updated to correct information about the tax deductibility of weekly passes. Some comments in this thread will reflect the original version of the post that didn’t include take this into account in price comparisons.]
Cynthia Cheng wrote to me recently:
I know plenty of people who don’t even realize that GTA passes exist and are paying two or more fares to get to and from work, school, etc. I am sure that if enough people know about it, then perhaps we’ll have monthly passes rather than weekly and perhaps more outlets would sell them. Do you know why this is?
A while ago, I had written about the demise of the GO/TTC Twin Pass thanks to GO-Transit’s refusal to pay its share of the $10-subsidy built into the pass.
There is, however, a GTA Pass that costs $43/week. The only place it seems to be advertised in Toronto is on a pulldown on the TTC website for the various types of fares and passes. It is not on the TTC fare card, nor is it on the VIVA farecard.
I had lots of time to contemplate this today while I languished in Don Mills Station waiting 22 minutes for the nominally 15-minute headway on the 190 Rocket to STC. In vain did I search for any mention of the GTA pass on TTC or VIVA displays.
According to the web page, I can even buy one of these mystery passes at Don Mills Station. The only problem is, I cannot do this in the bus loop, but at the collector’s booth which is somewhere else, I am sure, but not on the path I take from the Sheppard Subway train to the buses. [In one of the comments below, directions to this booth were provided.] I could also do this at STC station where the bus/RT interchange actually passes through the same space as the collector’s booth.
But would I want to buy this pass? What does it offer me? If I am a 10-trip-a-week person, my TTC fares at ticket rate would cost $21, compared with $30 for a TTC weekly pass. That pass is tax deductible only if I buy 4 a month, and there is no bulk buy discount because, obviously, if I wanted that I would be in the Metropass Discount Program.
Meanwhile, over in Mississauga, I could pay $22 for 10 tickets or $23 for a weekly pass. This means that a GTA pass equals the combined cost of 10 trips at ticket rate on the TTC and Mississauga Transit, and I can get a combined pass for the TTC and other GTA systems for only $13 more than a TTC-only weekly pass.
If we were pricing things the same way for monthly passes, the equivalent cost would be $143 assuming no discount for bulk purchase, but eligible for a tax refund of roughly $21 for a net cost of $122.
As things stand, I can pay $172 for four weeks’ worth of GTA passes, or buy a monthly pass for both systems. The after-tax cost of the weekly passes is $146.20. This is cheaper than buying monthly passes for the TTC and Mississauga Transit separately, about $166 net of the tax rebate, or $159 if I buy TTC passes on the discount program.
The situation is comparable for other GTA systems combined with the TTC.
This is a good example of how fare structures can be bastardized depending on what one is trying to achieve, not to mention the marketing issue that this is an almost unknown type of fare. Given the discount, I’m not surprised they hide it!
Integrating fare systems where there are existing deep discounts for certain types of usage will be a real challenge. Once we eliminate the artificial barrier between the 416 and 905, what should the fare be? What should passes cost?
Steve Munro 
I used to use the GTA passes back when they were still $40.25, before the TTC and YRT hiked their prices.
Since I was using both systems twice every day, and more and more often on the weekends, it was an excellent bargain, and as you mentioned, cheaper than the monthly passes (this was before the tax credit).
But again, I was only using two systems – if I could, I would’ve easily gone without the MT and Brampton service for a lower price.
A customizable GTA pass (offered by the GTTA?), weekly or monthly, would be something I’d snap up in a second.
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I used to buy the GTA pass when commuting from Toronto to Mississauga. It was a very popular choice for people on the routes leaving Islington station and seemed to be well-advertised by Mississauga Transit. Perhaps the TTC doesn’t advertise it because it’s not useful for most riders?
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Just for your information Steve, the fare booth for Don Mills Stn is just east of the staircases down towards the subway platform (looking from the passage to the bus loop, it is to the left, it really is hard to miss).
The GTA weekly pass should be less expensive, and in monthly form. This would make transit usage for the 905-to-416 commuters a more viable alternative. It is only really useable for transit to/from Toronto, since most of the 905 transit systems have little-to-no connections with each other. This would make a GTA pass more useful.
I agree with you that the strict fare boundary should be eliminated at Steeles. If the GTTA wants to make a wide fare boundary (similar to YRT’s zones 1/2), then go ahead, but don’t charge a full extra fare. This discourages transit usage between the 2 regions if passengers have to pay twice. I already do not ever want to head south of Steeles because of the exorbant extra cost to a student to do such a trip. If my family needs to head downtown for an outing using transit, we drive to the nearest subway station (Don Mills, Finch or Scarborough Centre).
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That’s true – YRT advertises the GTA pass clearly on its fare card in buses and online.
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I commute between Mississauga and Toronto too. A few years ago I used to use the GTA pass when it was cheaper overall than a monthly GO pass. I still had a 10-ride in the event I needed to get to work/home in a hurry and didn’t want to endure the 1.5 hour commute.
The one problem with the passes were that they weren’t available downtown. Trying to beat the rush in getting one at one of the end stations as well was frustrating. Thankfully with access to the TTC I could simply go to another station.
As for discounting the passes to tailor them for specific agencies (TTC-MT, YRT-TTC, BT-YRT, etc.) as all of the participating agencies allow free transfers between each other to travel into the adjacent agency wouldn’t be a problem. I’ve used the GTA Pass once to get to Oakville. One simply has to pay the return fare.
Logistics aside of distinguishing between all of the permutations between the 4 participating agencies (plus the 2 GO routes that YRT eventually took over), I don’t think tailoring is worth it. The convenience of knowing you can travel across the GTA if you have to without having to figure out the fares of the other agencies makes it worth it.
Steve: Just for clarity: I am not proposing separate prices and passes for different combinations of agencies. The purpose of this post was to observe that, in effect, we already have the single fare zone I have advocated for the GTA, and at a price considerably lower than the well-advertised fares of the individual systems.
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I thought the 2007 federal budget extended the tax credit to weekly passes, as long as you bought them four weeks in a row. And — since there seems to be no such thing as a GTA Monthly Pass — this would be a case where you might do just that.
The net cost is $146 per four weeks (or, averaged out over the year, $158 net per month over the year.) Terribly confusing, but slightly cheaper.
Steve: Yes, you are correct, and clearly someone buying a GTA weekly pass every week is going to save a bundle relative to any of the monthly passes on an after-tax basis.
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When I first started working in Richmond Hill in the spring of 2000, I was living in West Hill and had to commute using TTC and South York Region services. This was before YRT was formed, so there was Markham Transit, Richmond Hill Transit, and TTC contracted services that had a single integrated fare system that used common tickets and transfers.
If I recall correctly, TTC tickets were about $17/10 and SYR tickets were about $16/10. That would be $33 per week for tickets and at that time the GTA weekly pass was about $36 per week.
Despite the slightly higher cost, I usually bought the pass as the convenience of not having to use tickets and transfers, along with the occasional extra use that made it at least equivalent in cost, of not slightly less costly made it worth the price.
The GTA weekly pass has ALWAYS been transferable, which made it an even better value for me as my wife had to travel downtown one evening a week.
Most of the time, I would pick up my pass at Scarborough Centre as it was on my way to things I did on the weekends. I do rememeber at least one time finding that they had run out and I had to go to another location to purchase it.
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Since not very many people use more than two transit systems regularly, I don’t think that it makes sense to have GTA passes which are only valid in two municipalities. This explains why the current GTA pass costs about the same as passes for two systems. It would require that several types of GTA pass be kept in stock but it would offer little financial benefit to the transit agencies. Passes should be valid for either one GTA municipality or all GTA municipalities. And of course, they should be available in monthly versions.
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Steve:
You may not be aware that the Harper Government has recently agreed to a tax rebate for weekly pass users provided that one buys four consecutive passes in a given month. Personally, I do not think that a tax rebate on passes is the correct way to “incent” transit and note that a bank executive going from Rosedale to the towers saves a lot more in taxes than a cleaner going from Parkdale to those same towers. However, the system, such as it is, does allow for weekly pass customers.
Michael
Steve: Although I would hate to sound like a defender of the Tories, the deduction for transit passes is taken off of the tax payable, not off of income, and so it is the same dollar value regardless of your income — except if you have so little income that you have no tax against which to claim the deduction.
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Living in Brampton, the GTA pass has been very convenient, and economical for me. A lot of Brampton residents take advantage of the pass, especially residents who use the 77 bus to travel to Finch, and residents who travel through Westwood Mall to go to Toronto.
The pass is easier to carry around then 2 seperate passes.
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I buy the GTA weekly pass every week. Does anyone know when this new tax credit will be applied? Currently, there is no price printed on the GTA pass itself and the TTC does not issue receipts…so I can’t see how riders will be able to make a year end tax claim. The transit websites don’t even mention this Federal tax revision at all.
Frankly, I would prefer if they just made a monthly pass. I hate having to line up every Thursday with wads of cash to see if there is a pass available. They run out all the time and tell people to come back ‘later’.
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Michelle
Start asking for a receipt or pay with a credit card. You must have proof of payment to claim a fed tax credit in case CRA requests a copy after you file.
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Michelle, you’re right (and not alone!). I go through the same issues every single week. The GTA pass is great but here are a few wrinkles that could be ironed out:
You cannot buy the GTA weekly pass with a credit card and thus won’t get a receipt from the TTC.
It is a real pain that they won’t come up with a monthly pass for people who end up buying it every week like you and I.
It’s not sold at all “key stations”, such as Kipling, Yonge/Bloor, Union. Why??
The TTC changers [collectors] always run out of the GTA passes and tell you to come back “later” (whatever that means). Go figure, they probably only have a handful at a time. But I guess that’s not new or exclusively a GTA pass problem as I’ve once been told by a [collector] that the TTC day passes were sold out!
FYI, the new tax credit on weekly passes applies from January 1, 2007 and they mention to keep your weekly passes. I’ll venture a guess that you could still claim it and if CRA asks for proof provide the passes with some proof from the TTC of the cost of the pass. Seems unlikely CRA would make a fuss just because the price is not printed on the actual pass.
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An update on GTA passes:
They now print the price ($43) on the pass itself, so you will no longer require a separate receipt.
Hopefully people who buy these passes are aware of the tax credit now because that didn’t seem to be the case before. I wrote to the TTC chair back in early May to complain about the lack of information and now I see the TTC has finally updated their web site with a tiny blurb regarding the tax credit revision. I also wrote to transit columnist Ed Drass and he was kind enough to write a piece in his Metro column last week.
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Is a GTA pass available in Oakville area? who can give me the answer? Thanks
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Michelle you’re right (and not alone!). I go through the same issues every single week. The GTA pass is great but here are a few wrinkles that could be ironed out:
1) You cannot buy the GTA weekly pass with a credit card and thus won’t get a receipt from the TTC.
2) It is a real pain that they won’t come up with a monthly pass for people who end up buying it every week like you and i.
3) it’s not sold at all “key stations”, such as Kipling, Yonge/Bloor, Union. Why??
4) the TTC changes always run out of the GTA passes and tell you to come back “later” (whatever that means). Go figure, they probably only have a handful at a time. But i guess that’s not new or exclusively a GTA pass problem as i’ve once been told by a TTC changer that the TTC day passes were sold out!
FYI, the new tax credit on weekly passes applies from January 1, 2007 and they mention to keep your weekly passes. I’ll venture a guess that you could still claim it and if CRA asks for proof provide the passes with some proof from the TTC of the cost of the pass. Seems unlikely CRA would make a fuss just because the price is not printed on the actual pass.
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When I was commuting to Centennial College’s CCC campus in East York, I really wish I sat down and did the math for this pass. While my classes were only 4 days per week and I sometimes got rides from my dad, many times I found myself taking transit extra times (especially being a car dependent student), or I would misplace or lose tickets. I remember one time I accidentally put a TTC ticket into the then Yonge C bus, and the prick of a bus driver (pardon my language) made me pay a YRT fare in addition to my wasted TTC fare.
I’m pretty sure I mentioned this in another thread, but I really wish the TTC would bring passes more inline with tickets. While an adult pass is kind of competitive with tickets, especially with tax discounts and subscriptions, student and senior passes are a joke. Unless you take the TTC 60 times each month, you are better off buying tickets. This is a real shame since the few times I have purchased a monthly pass, I have enjoyed its use very much and many young and old people may be missing out on its convenience and benefits.
Steve: The high relative price of the student/senior pass was the subject of much debate when it was introduced. TTC staff had been fighting a losing battle against passes in general, and they tried to protect their revenue stream by pricing this pass much higher than the adult pass. The assumption was, of course, that students and seniors tend to be captive riders and will pay whatever is asked. This rather cynical attitude to fare policy will, I hope, come crashing down as we integrate policies with the other GTA transit systems.
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I heard that there is a gta pass. Not only is there a weekly pass, but also there is a monthly pass, that costs up to 120$, i do not know if that statement is true, but I’m hoping it is, considering I travel from oshawa to toronto 4 days a week.
Steve: Nope, only a weekly pass exists.
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Sadly, I’m starting to feel like it’s cheaper to drive then public transit. We pay too much for public transportation in the GTA.
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FYI Steve the price of the pass has gone up to $52/week but still very useful for me still as I travel from downtown Toronto to Richmond Hill 6 days a week.
Steve: The article was written in early 2007.
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Does anyone know why there isn’t a monthly GTA pass? I’m trying to figure out why the powers that be wouldn’t make a monthly GTA pass available. In a world that is trying to go greener it defies logic why any organization would want to create all this extra plastic on a weekly basis not to mention all the extra energy required in manufacturing them. Then there is the fact that you have to line-up for these weekly GTA passes whether at a kiosk where it is self-serve or at the collector’s booth where then you slow down then flow of other passengers. Seems to me that this is an inefficient way to do things.
Steve: I suspect that the reason is to keep the cost per transaction down to a level people can handle with cash as that was all that was available when the GTA pass was introduced. At this point, I think you will have to wait for some sort of payment card before we will see significant changes in the offerings.
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