Planned TTC fare hike now in effect
Posted January 1, 2012 8:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – The cost of riding the red rocket has gone up, with the fare increase expected to raise an extra $30 million a year for the TTC.
The 10 cent fare hike will not include the cash fare, which will remain at $3, but the cost of tokens, Metropasses, day passes and week passes will increase.
The cost of tokens has increased to $2.60 and a Metropass jumped by $5 to $126 a month.
TTC chair Karen Stintz said asking riders to pay more is the only way to avoid crippling service cuts.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure we have a sustainable budget and we’re trying to make sure that we can provide service levels that we can afford,” she said.
However, even with the fare increase, the TTC will still have to reduce service on some bus and streetcar routes.
The Commission spent much time debating the hike at city council, and with the fare increase, Stintz confirmed to 680News that officials were able to come up with a plan to save or delay service cuts to some of the city’s busiest bus routes.
Stintz told 680News she feels they’ve come up with a pretty good compromise for riders.
“So we found about $5 million, so that means we can keep the service the same for January, and then starting in February, we’ll be able to keep the service on the busiest routes intact,” she said.
Five-million-dollars is a lot of money to just find, but Stintz said they overestimated the cost of diesel fuel, so they would have likely ended up with a surplus at the end of the 2012 budget.
So instead, that money will now help to keep the buses rolling on busy routes like Dufferin, Don Mills and Finch, and delay cuts on other routes for a month.
TTC FARE INCREASE INFO:
- Adult cash fares remain $3, student/senior cash fares remain at $2
- Tokens: $2.50 to $2.60
- Weekly pass: $36 to $37.50
- Regular Metropass: $121 to $126
- Post-secondary Metropass: $99 to $104
- Senior/student tickets: $1.65 to $1.75
- Child tickets: 55 cents to 60 cents
- Day pass: $10 to $10.50
