Councillor calls for TTC money-back guarantee for system delays

One city councillor is calling for a money-back guarantee if there’s a delay of 15 minutes or more on the TTC.

Brad Bradford says under his “back-to-basics, customer-first approach,” TTC riders would get a refund when their trip is significantly delayed, similar to what is in place for GO Transit riders.

Bradford, a mayoral candidate, says the guarantee would apply across the entire transit system but would not say who would pay for the “guarantee” and how much it would cost.

“When I look at jurisdictions around the world that have done this, it typically is a fraction of a percentage of total trips,” said Bradford. “But again, as a customer, there’s nothing more frustrating than being at a station and getting kicked back up and put on buses.”

“This is really a measure to say we need more accountability, we need better performance, and we need policies in place like this to drive a culture of performance and accountability at the TTC.”

A motion is set to go before City Council next week that, if adopted, would direct the TTC to implement a refund program.

Coun. Josh Matlow says while he likes the idea of providing accountability for delays on the system, the issue he has with Bradford’s proposal is where the money will come from.

“If there’s no money to actually fix the system, deal with the state of good repair issues, actually invest in the infrastructure to prevent tragedies and delays in the first place, then this is just going to be a vicious cycle,” he said.

Bradford’s comments came on the same morning Metrolinx says “weather-related switch issues” delayed the newly-launched Finch LRT for several hours.

“Although maintenance teams were out overnight inspecting the line due to weather conditions, the incident will be reviewed to identify ways to better mitigate weather-related impacts on the line in the future,” read a statement from Metrolinx.

TTC Chair and fellow councillor Jamaal Myers told CityNews that the TTC is not the maintainer of the LRTs, adding,”TTC is the operator, we drive it, that’s it.”

On Wednesday, the TTC Board approved a motion asking its CEO to work with Metrolinx, the City, and the consortium that built Line 6 to get signal priority for the LRT. However, any change is not expected before the new year.