This article is the third and last in my review of the April 11 TTC Board meeting. Apologies to readers for the long articles, but this happened to be an agenda with a lot of information that collectively gives a tutorial on the state of the transit system.

Updated May 6, 2024 at 11:30am: The section about farebox cost recovery has been updated to correct arithmetic errors in the original version, and a table is added to show the calculation.

Every quarter, TTC management produces a Financial and Major Projects Update, and this one covers the period to year-end 2023 including the financial results for Operations and a review of the Capital projects portfolio.

See: Financial and Major Projects Update for the Year Ended December 31, 2023

Within the Operating results are warning signals about the long return to pre-covid ridership, revenue and cost projections, and declining sources of funding including City reserves. On the Capital side, as is often reported, there is a very large shortfall between projected needs and known funding. This is compounded by long-running capital projects for fleet replacement, known and possible system expansion projects and the conflicts between political motivations and actual needs for facilities, fleet and future service.

Also included in this article are comparative figures for 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year.