Toronto used to have one of the best transit systems in North America. Now it’s overcrowded, underfunded, unreliable and dangerous. Here, the inside story of what went wrong and who’s to blame
oronto’s transit system is a mess. In the past year, fares have increased, service has decreased and wait times have ballooned. A staff report from late 2022 showed that the Toronto Transit Commission’s bus and streetcar routes were particularly migraine-inducing. About two-thirds of riders were routinely getting stuck on vehicles that were either chronically late or mired in construction. A lucky 14 per cent rode routes that were classified as on-time.
It shouldn’t be a flex. The farebox funding model has left the TTC vulnerable to dips in ridership, creating a death spiral in which, time and again, lower ridership results in worse service, slower commutes and overcrowded vehicles—all of which, in turn, leads to more riders abandoning the TTC, sending the system deeper into the hole and provoking further underinvestment. The pandemic didn’t help: in the early months of lockdown, ridership fell by 85 per cent, drastically curtailing revenue.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In 2008, voters in Los Angeles County approved a half-cent sales tax increase to generate billions for transit expansion. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is supported by a property transfer tax, a tax on petroleum businesses and tolls—the latter of which then-premier Kathleen Wynne rejected in 2017. Likewise, John Tory was typically opposed to raising property taxes during his mayoralty despite the obviously dire state of the TTC.
The issues with SmartTrack, clear to insiders and experts during the election, became more obvious during Tory’s first term. “I don’t think there was a single person who didn’t think it was a boondoggle,” former chief city planner Jennifer Keesmaat told me. Faced with SmartTrack, she said, city staff—who normally put in hundreds of hours of careful planning and analysis—“had to try to figure out a way to put some lipstick on the pig.
Eric Miller is the director of the Mobility Network at the University of Toronto. When the King Street priority corridor launched, he viewed it as “one little bright light” for a city and transit agency prone to cautious, conservative thinking. Since then, it’s become a faded blueprint for an incomplete project. The painted barriers meant to protect pedestrians are flaking, battered and, in some cases, missing. That infrastructure, which was meant to be temporary, was never upgraded.
Such problems, despite intermittent attempts to resolve them, have persisted over the years, with millions of dollars wasted. Metrolinx often grants contracts without seeking the lowest price. In 2011, for example, it took over the Ministry of Transportation’s 2006 contract with Accenture to design the Presto system.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Toronto man charged with murder after woman found dead in North York shelterA Toronto man has been charged with murder after he allegedly killed a woman living in a North York shelter last month
Read more »
Toronto man charged with murder of woman living in North York shelterA Toronto man has been charged with murder after he allegedly killed a woman living in a North York shelter last month.
Read more »
North America's biggest biochar plant takes shape in CanadaA group of Canadian and French companies will build a $80 million plant in Quebec to turn forestry waste into biochar. Find out more.
Read more »
North America's biggest biochar plant takes shape in CanadaA group of Canadian and French companies will build a $80 million plant in Quebec to turn forestry waste into biochar. Find out more.
Read more »
North America's biggest biochar plant takes shape in Canada - BNN BloombergA group of Canadian and French companies will build a $80 million (US$60 million) plant in Quebec to turn forestry waste into biochar, a black substance which can store carbon for hundreds of years and improve soil quality at the same time.
Read more »
North America's biggest biochar plant takes shape in CanadaA group of Canadian and French companies will build a $80 million plant in Quebec to turn forestry waste into biochar. Find out more.
Read more »