TORONTO 2012 BUDGET: The TTC still needs to find $30 million in savings to cover a projected shortfall

TTC about to get more crowded; fare hike still to be decided


The TTC still needs to find $30 million in savings to cover a projected shortfall across the conventional and Wheel-Trans systems.

City councillors on the Toronto Transit Commission have agreed to $70 million in cuts to the 2012 operating budget that will further crowd buses and leave riders standing at the curb longer starting in January.

But they are waiting until December to decide whether to approve a 10-cent adult fare increase, while they continue looking for savings elsewhere.

The TTC still needs to find $30 million in savings to cover a projected shortfall across the conventional and Wheel-Trans systems. That’s the amount the fare increase would raise.

City councillor and TTC board chair Karen Stintz stressed that no bus routes have been cut and the Blue Night bus network will remain intact – a move that was recommended by a city consultant.

About 500 TTC union and management jobs, including 171 frontline positions, will be eliminated through attrition, voluntary separation packages and lay-offs. Another 500 will likely be lost to contracting out under a budget report approved at a special TTC meeting Friday.

To save about $5 million, about 800 dialysis patients will loose their Wheel-Trans service if the TTC can’t find more money to pay for transport to their treatments.

“We’re working very hard with not just the provincial government but with the Kidney Foundation (of Canada) to find ways that we can continue to service dialysis patients,” said city councillor Karen Stintz, who chairs the TTC board.

But if no funding is found, “that’s a decision we’ll have to wrestle with in December,” she said. But the report calls for those patients to be eliminated from the Wheel-Trans roster in January if the money isn’t found.

“Customer service remains a key focus of the organization. What we’re trying to do is look at efficiencies that won’t have an impact on the customer,” said Stintz, who said the TTC is doing its best to eliminate as many of the jobs as possible through attrition.

The cuts will mean a return to pre-2008 loading standards – the average number of riders on a bus per hour that signals when a route is due more service. That reverses a Ridership Growth Strategy implemented to attract riders to the TTC. Although it’s anticipated that further crowding buses will drive away about 4 million riders, the TTC still expects to deliver about 3 per cent more rides next year.