Per a suggestion by chairman Adam Giambrone, The TTC has voted to provide free service after midnight this New Year's, along with extended subway hours until 4 a.m. The free service—an attempt to deter people from drunk driving—hasn't been offered by the TTC since the late 70s, and you'd think it might be a costly venture. But it's not exactly setting them back that much; the free admission offer will only cost the TTC an estimated $80,000 to $90,000 in lost revenue, and they're looking for corporate sponsors, such as beer companies, to foot the bill.
We don't know about you, but for us, New Year's is the one night of the year that we're too drunk to mind shelling out $2.75 for the subway. But whatevs! We won't look this gift horse in the mouth.
Photo by deneyterrio from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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Cobbling together 2.75 in that state is no easy feat, i'd probably just walk, now I don't have to!
God forbid the TTC should do something for the people of this city because it's the right and safe thing to do, without having to rely on a sponsor.
They could generate a tremendous amount of good will (very much needed) from this gesture, and take credit for discouraging drinking and driving on New Year's, but instead they're going to let a beer company get the kudos.
I guarantee you that any sponsor will get an advertising opportunity worth vastly more than $80,000 to $90,000.
oh man, god forbid a perpetually broke transit system forego goodwill in favour of actual money, the NERVE!
I don`t actually think you`re forgoing goodwill by asking for corporate sponsorship.
The numbers in this article just don't sit right with me. Maybe I'm reading it too literally, but it seems to imply that only 20-25k rate payers (ie people that don't have a metropass) would be using an all-night subway on the busiest night of the year?
Surely, that can't be right.
I used to just jump the turnstiles, along with all the other drunken-ass revellers who believe they deserved a free ride.
Nice of them to make this gesture. A lot of other cities do it. I see it this way: they lose money the more passengers they have, right? So maybe not charging for a ticket is the answer to their financial woes. Makes sense to me!
What Lands Down said. Let's see...drunk drivers vs. free ride home courtesy of a sponsor. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Perhaps MADD could take this on as an annual project to sponsor (or partially sponsor)?
Great. I like this. Don't know why they need a beer sponsor, but I'm looking forward to being jammed with tonnes of people on the Queen streetcar for free.
I overheard transit cops saying they do a blitz on Queen every six months for a week. So basically, you can sorta do this most of the time anyways. Sigh. I used to like POP so much.
I take the streetcar home, and every new years it's just insanely packed to the point where there's no point in taking it. I'm happy that they've made it free, but to me it only means that I'll have to fight even more people to jam onto the streetcars.
Oh Jonathan, will you pooh-pooh every single positive public initiative if it doesn't live up to your standards of anti-corporate stupidity?
If it's reliant on advertising, I'm not sure how much of a "public" initiative it would be.
I like the idea of MADD sponsoring it; it wouldn't be advertising but rather a furthering of their mission.