TTC Approves End Of Free Parking At Subway Lots
Posted August 27, 2008 12:00 pm.
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If you ride the Red Rocket, you already know how much it costs to buy a Metropass.
The monthly card currently sets adults back almost $110 but at least there’s a perk attached – it means you can use it to park free at any of the TTC’s subway lots.
Or at least you could before officials voted on Wednesday night to end the practice.
We first told you about the possible change on Tuesday. It was contained in a recommendation to the Commission as a cost saving plan and passed at a meeting 24 hours later. It doesn’t need the approval of city council and is considered a done deal.
The TTC complains the cost of maintaining the lots is costing them too much money and they need to make the users pay. So they decided to remove the freebie, planning instead to use the added revenue for upkeep and improving bus service. The TTC is upgrading its routes after Labour Day in advance of the extra funds.
Chair Adam Giambrone confirms the amount you’ll pay will depend entirely on the size of the lot. The more room for cars, the higher the fee. Smaller parking places will be as low as $2 a day. But the more sprawling areas – like the one at Finch station – could go as high as $6 a day.
That’s an added $30 a week, an amount that – assuming a 5-day work week and two weeks vacation a year – adds up to a whopping extra charge of as much as $1,500 annually for transit riders.
The change will take effect in early 2009 at all of the TTC’s 16 lots.
Some uneasy riders have already pledged they’ll no longer take transit, insisting that was the only reason they bought the pass and it’s almost cheaper now to either take their own car or grab a cab.
But TTC Chair Adam Giambrone suggests those that park in TTC lots with Metropasses make up only one per cent of all riders, meaning they’re not a significant enough segment to continue to serve at an estimated cost of $6-7 million each year.
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