Yesterday’s announcement that TTC fares will remain unchanged through 2009 warmed the hearts of many including a packed room at spacing magazine’s birthday party last night. However popular a fare freeze may be, it’s only part of the story.
Through 2008, the TTC implemented many service improvements to catch up with a backlog of overcrowding and to restore hours of service and a half-hour maximum headway to the network. There’s more to do including further catch-ups on crowding problems and proposals for even better service. I will turn to that topic in a separate post.
Meanwhile, the cynics among us have been here before. Freezing fares sounds great until you’re waiting for a bus that never shows up, or is packed to the roof when it arrives, because the TTC can’t afford to run more service. Past years have shown what happens when the “you can just stretch the money you have” attitude prevails — service and maintenance deteriorate.
If City Council wants to freeze fares, they have every right to expect that the TTC will go through its books carefully to look for spending that can actually be deferred or eliminated, but this must not be a shield to hide a subsidy freeze. More service costs more money, and we all know that the TTC does not make a profit on most of its riders. Council cannot bask in the glory of a rejuvenated TTC and the Transit City mantra but refuse to pay the price of a better transit system.
I await details of the 2009 City operating budget and proposed subsidy arrangements with much interest.
Steve Munro 
Steve,
Every time the TTC and this can be taken to any City “department”, announces something good happening I wait for the dark side…..like it if they announce that they will make the 24 Victoria Park bus to be every 2 minutes, they have to disrupt a lot of other routes for that (the dark side).
We kind of talked about the whole 30 minutes maximum and I should of let you listen……
You (or anyone that reads this comment) call the TTC Info line (416 393-4636 (INFO)). Press 1 then 37 for 37 Islington.
I discovered this when I was waiting for the 37 Islington bus @ Finch going southbound…you know that wonderful moment when you miss the bus by a few seconds?…anyways……LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY
During rush hour the 37 Islington is every 6-32 minutes, non-rush is every 6-36 minutes.
Ward 7 York West Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti
Ward 1 Etobicoke North Councillor Suzan Hall
The southbound stop @ Finch for the 37 Islington is on the EXACT border, above the river which is the border between Mammoliti and Hall’s wards.
Now here is a pop quiz for you – one of those two Councillors is a TTC Commissioner, guess which one?
I lived in the area and it is not the most safe area in the city, there is also a forest behind the stop when certain riders can be assaulted and robbed. It is such a bad safety risk. Yes I have been through that intersection MANY times and buses do come every 32 minutes.
Steve: Looking at the service summary, I suspect that you are seeing the combined effect of the branching nature of the Islington bus, including one infrequent service that wanders up into York Region, and possibly some short turning. The full schedule for this stop is on the TTC’s site.
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We don’t just need to freeze fares. We need to lower fares – Metropasses in particular. The number of rides you have to take for a Metropass to be cheaper than tickets/tokens is much higher than any other major system I am familiar with. With tokens at $2.25 and monthly passes at $109, you still have to take 49 trips a month to cover the cost of a pass; that would be 25 return trips. With only 20 to 22 working days in a month, many do not do this. With Christmas, I’m only working 15 days this month … 4 of those days I have to drive out of town. Needless to say, I use tokens. Even if one gets the federal tax credit (and remember that the poorest people in society don’t qualify for this credit!) you still have to do over 41 trips a month.
Compare 2008 fares to other cities (same-zone, peak).
Toronto: Token $2.25, Pass $109, Student pass $91.25
Montreal: Ticket $2.00, Pass $66.25, Student pass $36
Ottawa: Ticket $2.00, Pass $81, Student pass $62.65
Vancouver: Ticket $1.90, Pass $73, Student pass $42
Calgary: Ticket $2.10, Pass $75, Student pass $50.50
New York: Pay-per-ride US$1.67, Pass US$81, Student pass US$40.50
Seattle: Cash/Ticket US$1.75, Pass US$63, Student pass $27
London: Oyster single-trip £1.50, Pass £93, Student £64.90,
Interestingly, only New York and London come close to the kind of trip multipliers that Toronto has to pay for a pass, passes are much cheaper elsewhere in Canada. And both of those have single-trips taken using a card, rather than a token or ticket (a cash fare in London is £4 compared to £1.50 with a card). In no city do you see the student price being such a large percentage of the adult price. And nowhere in North America did I find monthly passes as expensive as Toronto.
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Who’d pay for lower fares? The city hasn’t had any money for years. The province was trending towards the black, but the economic downturn is torpedoing that. The feds have squandered their surplus.
Yes, funding the TTC is in an incredible investment that enables a great deal of economic activity. But we can’t make that investment while sliding towards bankruptcy.
Fares have to be raised in small increments as long as not a single level of government has its books in order. Freezing them is irresponsible.
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Big surprise – trip multipliers are highest where transit draws in the most ‘choice riders’ instead of the poor, young, and elderly. I for one would prefer higher fares if it meant more frequent service, and I suspect many others would feel the same way.
If you want to subsidize fares for low-income users, do it directly because otherwise you subsidize those people who can easily afford something approaching the true cost of providing the service. We don’t want to starve the system of cash just because some people can’t afford it.
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quote “We need to lower fares”
No. Doing that would destroy the TTC. Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary were all referenced. Pull up budget information for all three. You’ll see that the province kicks in almost (if not more) money than the city does over there. For the TTC, if this was done, it would mean a 15% increase in revenue. Look up Ottawa, the city pumps in as much money as Toronto, yet their system is half the size. Look at New York, the transit authority there actually collects a sales tax on all purchases within the city (not a bad idea)
We do not need to lower fares. We need to increase the subsidy. Fares will then drop as a side-effect.
PS. I also notice that the fare chart is for the “Same zone”. It’s all nice and pretty when you compare trips from “zone 1” to “zone 1”. One of the reasons the TTC is so expensive is that we are a very large city, without any fare zones. Remember that in New York you cannot use a bus transfer on the subway unless you pay a larger fare. If we had fare zones we would likely have a lower “zone 1” fare.
Steve: And don’t forget that a large number of frequent riders take advantage of the Metropass and a lower effective fare. My typical riding is at least 80 trips a month, and it can crest over 100. The Metropass costs $100 on subscription, and with the tax rebate, this comes down to about $85 (yes I know that the rates have varied). My effective fare per trip is a dollar or less, and I make a lot of short “zone 1” type trips.
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I was recently in Bordeaux, where the family I was boarded with was shocked to find that the price they pay for an entire year, around 100 Euro, is little more than my parents pay for a month, and these are not people who come close to taking the tram every day, yet clearly value their public transit system regardless.
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>>>Nick,
I think your New York comment re:paid transfer between modes, while historically true is now incorrect:
MTA introduced bus/subway transfers with the Metro card back in 1997. It resulted in fares decreasing on average 22% and up to 50% for some MTA users and a surge in (mostly bus) ridership (as subways previously enjoyed free transfers between lines).
I refer to the source article on MTA in a Comments p.s. to Ed Drass’ GTA Fare Integration article on Metronauts: http://metronauts.ca/2008/11/11/passes-tokens-tickets-smart-cards-and-cash-money/ You seem well-informed, historically, so you may enjoy reading it.
Fares/fare promotion are very important in stimulating ridership growth, as are service levels (RGS), quality of service (Queen), advertising/promotion (Metropass), payment options (debit, CC, Metropass Discount Plan), etc…. It’s always easy to make black and white statements, as the TTC frequently did (to usually justify more operating subsidy) stating “It’s service not lower fares our customer want in all our research surveys” As a career consumer marketer… it’s bunk… the surveys responses are always contextual and for the last 18 years TTC surface service has been below demand and below 1988 peak levels, despite onerous fare increases (60%: 1990-1996), so the research must be analyzed contextually, with a fully nuanced understanding of the ridership dynamics.
At a recent Commission meeting TTC Staff reported that ridership on Express Routes plunged 75% when 100% Premium Express fares were introduced in 1992. The 100% fare barrier across the 416/905 divide similarly depresses GTA transit ridership, especially now GTA travel is like a spider’s web, unlike the past when it was mainly from outer Toronto suburbs to downtown TO and back. To their credit, at a recent Commission briefing, TTC Staff gave a good presentation, stripped of the usual political biases, omissions… on all the factors influencing ridership growth… it was well-balanced, fully nuanced and didn’t persist in the myth that it’s only service levels that determine ridership growth.
If you look at the TTC’s ridership history, there is no obvious correlation between the operating subsidy and TTC ridership. The TTC’s operating subsidy actually hit a recent low in 2000 with the R/C ratio hitting a high of ~84% during a 5-year period the TTC grew 50M rides!!!
Joel Gautier, President of ATM at the recent Fall ATM farecard presentation at Toronto City Hall said “Transit is a consumer business, just like Coke or Pepsi.” I agree. There is a need for better business governance of GTA transit, to ensure that transit staff are accountable for ridership and revenue results, thus ensuring effective rationing of capital and operating dollars to routes people want to ride on, not where politicians want to build them (so said Hazel McCallion at recent Metrolinx Board meeting) to secure votes for their party or buff their reelection chances, by loading up service to their riding or pet project (ask Steve for examples!)
It’s simplistic and unrealistic (especially in these volatile, uncertain economic times) to think government can provide unlimited capital and operating subsidies and transit’s woes will go away… when GTA CIty Councils/Queen’s Park have to balance transit spending against pressing social housing, education, health spending as well. Somehow, no matter how much money transit is given.. they always want more, as do schools, health care advocates and environmentalists. There will never be enough money to fund all priorities… that’s why we elect governments… to make choices in our best interests.
Bob
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Did David Miller say anything about adjusting the TTC’s subsidy so that they can afford to have their fares level off for 2008-09 or are there no details on this until the city budget comes out?
Remember when Mel Lastman was the mayor and he froze property taxes for several years? That was really hard on the city budget and then there was a nasty jump in taxes after the freeze.
My concern is that if TTC fares are frozen for 2009, it’ll put a lot of financial pressure on the TTC, unless they can absorb most of it in reduced diesel costs since the price of oil has dropped significantly, and will just serve to postpone the issue of fare increases. But a postponement is just a postponement and by pushing it off to 2010 or later, there will be a fare increase and when it does happen, it’ll be a large jump all at once. I don’t think stable fares interrupted by massive shifts upward every few years in anybody’s best interest.
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