Another set of comments from the backlog: Continue reading →

Three comments originally posted here were on the subject of the TTC strike on May 29th.  I have moved them to the post specifically dealing with that issue.  If you want to comment on the strike, please do so there as it makes my editing job simpler.  If you want to talk about fare collection issues, please comment here.  Thanks. 

Sometimes, events unfold in unexpected ways.  What seemed like a bit of late afternoon trivia has turned into front page news. Continue reading →

Today, Ottawa unveiled a expected tax credit for people who buy monthly or annual passes.  Although this will not put more money in the pockets of transit agencies, it will substantally change the break-even point for people who buy passes.

Without the tax credit, a monthly pass costs $99.75, equivalent to 47.5 fares.

On the Monthly Discount Plan, a pass costs $91.50 per month, equivalent to 43.6 fares.

The new tax deduction, at 15.25% reduces these multiples to about 40 and 37 respectively.  This is an important psychological breakthrough when the cost of using a pass falls below the perceived cost of a regular, daily commute.

The TTC needs to proceed on two fronts:

First, a revamped Metropass Discount Program campaign to swing even more riders over to the pass market which has already seen the benefit of a transferrable pass.

Second, a thorough review of service implications especially in the off peak.  We can reasonably expect that most of the marginal growth through shifting riders to passes is in trips they might not have taken otherwise and to pass sharing.

The City of Toronto has to get serious about funding growth in transit services in any time period where vehicles are available to do so.

One aspect of the pending fare change that has received little publicity is the fact that the Day Pass will be valid all day long.  This will take effect concurrently with the other fare changes on April 1st, 2006.  Until then it’s tokens and tickets until 9:30 am.

We have Chair Howard Moscoe to thank for moving this amendment to the new fare schedule.

Effective on April Fool’s Day, TTC fares will go up again.  You all know my position:  if we have to choose between fare increases and service cuts, fares should take the hit.  Having said this, let’s look at the way the fare structure has subtly changed over the past two years.

For all practical purposes, the price of monthly and weekly passes is frozen because the proportional change in cost is much lower than that of tickets, tokens and the cash fare.  This brings us to a philosophical divide:

Should we reward people who ride the TTC a lot (counted by number of boardings) with cheaper fares because they buy passes, or should we reward people who travel short distances with cheaper fares based by distance or zones?

All transit systems reward frequent users with cheaper fares, and one can argue that passes make it possible to take many short trips without incurring the extra cost of a token for each one.  The flip side of this is that someone who rides a lot, but not enough to make a pass worthwhile, is hit by the fare increases while pass users are almost immune. Continue reading →

Every year we go through a charade about who really is responsible for a fare increase, assuming we have one.  In the bad old days of Mayor Mel Lastman, the TTC and Chair Howard Moscoe made a big point of forcing this debate onto the floor at Council.  If Council was going to limit or cut TTC funding, then Council should make the decision.

Something strange has happened:  now the TTC is raising fares because those baddies on the Budget Advisory Committee won’t relent.  In years past, this would be laid at the feet of the mayor, but, oh dear, we have a different mayor, one we shouldn’t try to embarrass too much.  I’ll take Mayor David Miller over Mel Lastman any day, but he has to stop hiding in his office and say publicly where he stands on transit.

Transit and the Ridership Growth Strategy are key parts of the City’s budget (RGS is listed as one of the “strategic” points this year), and the Official Plan’s scheme for accommodating a growing population hinges on much more and better transit.  If David Miller doesn’t want to pay for it, he should say so.

This may be fobbed off as a one-year setback, a situation forced on us by the half-billion-dollar hole in the City budget.  Funny thing, those one-year setbacks, they keep coming back year after year, and programs that were just within reach fall away to the indefinite future.  Political fortunes change, an anti-transit regime gains control, and the reduced transit system becomes the new base from which even more cuts are demanded.

We have been here before. Continue reading →