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TTC Board Meeting Dec. 3, 2024: Follow-Up

This article is a follow-up to TTC Board Meeting: December 3, 2024. The following items are covered here:

  • Accessibility Plan and Family of Services
  • Work Car Hydraulic Leak Incidents
  • Seasonal Prohibition on Lithium-Ion Battery Powered E-Bikes and E-Scooters
  • Retirement of Legacy Fare Media

See also:

Five Year Accessibility Plan and Family of Services

The TTC has a Five-Year Accessibility Plan and Wheel-Trans Transformation Program. One aspect of this plan is the question of dealing with growth in demand for paratransit services through demographic changes and the provisions of the Ontarians With Disabilities Act. For some time, the TTC has attempted to shift trips off of Wheel-Trans and onto the so-called Family of Services concept (FOS). This move is currently optional, but there is concern among WT users that it will be made mandatory.

Several issues were raised by deputations at the meeting including uneven application of rules about WT eligibility, inherent bias in the allocation of riders to regular WT services or to FOS, and poor FOS route planning that involves more complex and onerous travel on those deemed fit to use it.

The issues are covered in detail in articles by TTCRiders:

There are discrepancies between the way TTC management describes their plan and claims by actual users of Wheel-Trans. These come at a time when the Board has begun to distrust what they are told based on other factors, notably the series of maintenance failures.

The Board passed the following motion:

  1. Receive the Wheel-Trans Transformation Program Update in Attachment 1 for information and forward a copy of this report to City Councillors; and
  2. Approve the 2024-2028 TTC 5-Year Accessibility Plan in Attachment 2 of this report.
  3. That TTC staff explore and report back with an equity analysis of the impacts of Family of Service trips on Wheel-Trans users.
  4. That TTC staff request the Province of Ontario provide funding for increased Wheel-Trans service.
  5. That staff explore and report back not later than September 2025 on opportunities to maximize the effectiveness of TTC investments in providing accessible transportation services to customers with disabilities and that such opportunities be informed by an analysis of approaches other transit authorities may be employing to meet the increasing demand and associated costs of paratransit services.

What was missing, sadly, is a desire to review the actual operation of the WT qualification process and the trip assignments that are given to FOS riders. The analysis of other transit systems will likely encounter situations where paratransit services are not as good as Toronto’s. This should not be an excuse to downgrade.

The equity analysis is intended to review whether there is a proportionately higher assignment of FOS trips to parts of the city where riders might not understand their options to challenge their WT status and the types of trip they are assigned.

Assuming that Ontario is even open to additional funding, such a decision would have to take into account other transit systems and the standard Ontario wants to set. If Toronto’s standard is higher than what Ontario wants to support, then additional funding might be hard to come by. The request will also have to compete with many other calls for provincial subsidies.

Work Car Hydraulic Leaks

The Board discussed this at some length, but in the end passed no motion other than to receive the report for information. Management has already accepted the need for changes in employee training, ongoing inspections and standards.

On the subject of maintenance practices, management reported that TTC Internal Audit will set up a routine review of various sections within the organization as a pro-active way to address problems revealed by recent incidents and reports.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 submitted a letter responding to the report. It is not on the agenda page, but is available here.

My original article about this report is here.

Seasonal Prohibition on Lithium-Ion Battery Powered E-Bikes and E-Scooters

This item was carried forward from the November Board meeting and was presented this month with a supplementary report on the equity implications of a ban.

The overall sense of the Board was that concerns related to Lithium-Ion batteries trump other considerations, and that passenger safety comes first.

The Board adopted the following:

  1. Approve the prohibition of lithium-ion-powered micromobility devices, including e-bikes and e-scooters, onboard TTC vehicles and inside TTC stations and facilities from November 15 to April 15 each year.
  2. Request that the City of Toronto and the Toronto Parking Authority
    a. Work with TTC Staff, food delivery companies (including Uber, Doordash, Skip, etc.) and labour unions (such as Gig Workers United) to study the feasibility of providing more secure e-bike storage and battery charging and exchange facilities near transit stations; and
    b. Develop an E-Bikes in Indoor Public Spaces Policy by March 2025.
  3. Request that the City of Toronto and the Toronto Parking Authority work with food delivery companies to provide e-bike and battery storage, exchange, charging, and transport solutions to support their workers’ needs, including requiring verification of e-bike and battery certification for workers to use their delivery platform.
  4. Request that TTC staff to work with Toronto Fire, the City of Toronto, labour associations (such as Gig Workers United) and food delivery companies (including Uber, Doordash, Skip, etc.) to develop a communications campaign to inform e-bike users of the TTC’s e-bike policies.
  5. Request that TTC staff to continue to work with Toronto Fire to monitor the evolution of lithium-ion batteries technology and safety considerations in order to assess future compatibility with public transit.
  6. Direct TTC staff to communicate with the Ministry of Transportation and Transport Canada to advocate for developing and implementing safety regulations for e-bikes and the lithium-ion batteries they use.
  7. Forward this report to Transport Canada and the City of Toronto for information.
  8. Receive the Supplemental Report: Equity Analysis for Seasonal Prohibition on Lithium-Ion Battery Powered E-Bikes and E-Scooters for information.

How well, if at all, this will actually be enforced remains to be seen.

Retirement of Legacy Fare Media

The Board decided to extend the validity period for legacy media – tickets, tokens and day passes – to June 1, 2025 for the conventional system, and to December 31, 2025 for Wheel-Trans to give riders and organizations with a stock of old media time to use them up.

A proposal from Chair Myers originally specified that a decision would be deferred to the January 27, 2025 Board Meeting, but this was changed as shown in the full motion below.

  1. That the TTC defer the stop acceptance of TTC tickets, tokens and day passes until June 1, 2025 for conventional transit users, and December 31, 2025 for Wheel-Trans riders on the Wheel-Trans service as a promotional fare.
  2. That TTC staff begin to immediately implement a communications plan to inform customers about the June 1, 2025 retirement of legacy fare media for conventional transit users, and December 31, 2025 for Wheel-Trans riders on the Wheel-Trans system, and monitor and report on legacy fare media acceptance rates through the CEO’s Report over the course of 2025.
  3. TTC staff to continue closure of crash gates as directed.

The decision to close the crash gates will create a problem for riders who get a paper transfer or fare receipt from a surface vehicle that does not connect with the subway in a fare-paid area. If the Collector is not currently at the station entrance, there will be no way for such a rider to enter.

In a press conference after the meeting, the reason for the June 1 date came out: that is the earliest possible opening date for Lines 5 and 6 where there is no provision for legacy media on the cars or in stations. This is the first time an explicit date, if only “not before”, has been stated by Metrolinx or by the TTC.

7 thoughts on “TTC Board Meeting Dec. 3, 2024: Follow-Up”

  1. Is there a breakdown by ward on Wheel-Trans usage? Are the downtown walkable mixed-use wards more busy or do the sprawling cul-de-sac single-use wards use Wheel-Trans more?

    As the population ages, their eyesight and mobility deteriorates. Having their doctor available across a narrow street is advantageous. Unless they have to face a wide stroad to get across. Can see them requiring Wheel-Trans to cross the stroad.

    Steve: TTCRiders issued an FOI to get postal codes for the origin of all FOS trips, but not for overall WT which is in the hundreds of thousands annually. I’m sure the info is available within the TTC, but not published.

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  2. “management reported that TTC Internal Audit will set up a routine review of various sections within the organization as a pro-active way to address problems revealed by recent incidents and reports”

    Isn’t that what an internal audit team should always be doing? Have they not had scheduled reviews of procedures and risk controls for each organisational group, and required documentation and evidence of review be available on demand that those procedures and controls are being followed?

    If not, then what exactly has this internal audit team been tasked to do, as my understanding is that’s exactly what internal audit is for. My background is a little different working for a bank, but that’s how it works there; you must have all the proof available on demand to show you followed procedures and that your risk controls were effective because they conduct a review and analysis for each business unit every single year.

    I am guessing they are likely very understaffed.

    Steve: I think that the whole issue of maintenance practices has only recently come onto Internal Audit’s radar. It will be interesting to see if the 2025 budget includes money to expand their staff. This would require people with the technical background to understand what they are looking for.

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  3. It’s a bit ironic that after 9/11, all the storage lockers in the city had to be removed because we were scared that people would put dangerous, explosive things in them. Now, we might need to build a system of storage lockers in the city specifically so that people can put potentially dangerous, explosive e-bikes and batteries into them. The world is a mess.

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  4. Off topic but what is the latest on the 2025 planning report? Last year, I think that you posted about the 2024 plans in late November. Has the TTC provided you with any intel as of yet?

    Steve: I posted about the second consultation round recently here. The final version of the report will likely come to the Board in January.

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  5. Banning eBikes, etc is meaningless when TTC fails to enforce its own policies. Bikes, eBikes, etc are banned on the subway during rush hours but this is never enforced. Smoking is banned on the TTC property but everyday, people are smoking unlawfully at TTC stations including TTC drivers. Stop making policies that you have ZERO INTENTIONS to enforce.

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  6. On the day of the Santa Claus Parade, for hours after it had ended, the TTC was short turning all 504 & 505 Streetcars and sending them back downtown. Leaving riders on Broadview looking for alternative transportation to get to their destinations.

    They should have put buses on the King route running to Parliament from Broadview Station.

    Steve: The routes should be split east and west of parades like this. This idea that somehow streetcars (or even replacement buses) can get through gaps when traffic is generally snarled is ludicrous. This would also require figuring out how to handle crew shifts and changes with a major upheaval. Should be standard procedure, but it’s not.

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  7. When the Lansdowne Garage still had trolley buses, the 89 WESTON, 63 OSSINGTON, and 6 BAY would also use Annette Street, Dupont Street, and Lansdowne Avenue to get to the garage. This resulted in increase of service or headways on Annette Street, which filtered into good headways for the 4 ANNETTE trolley bus itself (6 minutes). Today, the 27 DUPONT diesel bus has terrible service (30± minutes) because is no garage bound bus service.

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