politics
How to Deal With Toronto’s “Unprecedented Transit Crisis”
Transit union releases report outlining TTC's future needs, calls for dependable, sustainable source of funding.
Photo by Dan…Mr Dan., from the Torontist Flickr pool.
“How do we recover the past glory of the TTC and shape a 21st-century transit system our city needs if it is going to continue to be one of the most attractive places on earth to live and work?” That’s the question ATU Local 113—which represents transit workers—addresses in its new report, “Toronto’s Transit Future,” released today. The result of months of analysis, the document presents 68 recommendations covering everything from service improvements, to funding sources, to the purchase of new vehicles.
In order to maintain the city’s transit system in a state of good repair, ATU Local 113 president Bob Kinnear indicates in his introduction, the TTC will need $2.7 billion more over the next 10 years than is currently accounted for. The City subsidizes the TTC’s operating budget to the tune of $428 million: that number will have grown to roughly $546 million in 2018—and that’s just what it would cost to maintain existing service levels. According to Kinnear, the system will not have enough buses and streetcars to accommodate a projected increase in ridership and, because of a lack of available funding, is unable to fulfill accessibility requirements.
In response to what Kinnear terms the city’s “unprecedented transit crisis,” the union has developed a list of 68 recommendations. It supports, for example, recommendations made in the TTC’s “Opportunities to Improve Transit Service in Toronto” report, released in August, including a 10-minute bus network and time-based transfers (although it notes that implementing the TTC’s list of improvements would cost $80 million a year). It also urges the TTC and the City to fight for more operating subsidies from the province and suggests the introduction of a low-income pass, a study of new fare structures, and the purchase of new buses.
The union does not come down for or against mayor-elect Joh Tory’s SmartTrack plan, although it proposes that studies related to the plan be accelerated, so that it can be thoroughly evaluated and modified if necessary.
In a press conference today, Kinnear stressed that the next federal election will provide an opportunity to push for additional funding and attention. The union hopes to start a transit-minded movement and will be greeting federal politicians with signs reading “Tell me about transit” and using its new website to post analyses of the federal parties and their transit policies. The union will also be working to build a coalition of transit advocacy and other groups in order to ensure that TTC-related concerns, issues, and proposed solutions are given clear voice. “The 2015 election, as far as Toronto is concerned,” he said, “is the transit election.”
Read the full report here: