Report Raises Concerns About Transit Funding in Toronto

Ben Spurr shares news of a new report called Mixed Signals, authored by the non-profit transit advocacy group CodeRedTO, which finds that the city of Toronto's Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) system is "precariously funded, inefficiently governed and expensive to ride."

The TTC attracts more passengers than comparable networks in other North American cities, explains Spurr, but there are still reasons for concern.  

The “most alarming finding,” according to the report, was the extent to which Toronto relies on fare revenue to pay for service.

In 2017, more than two-thirds of the TTC’s $1.8-billion operating budget came from fare revenue, “a level not seen in any other city in North America,” according to the report.

According to the report, relying on fare-generated revenue can lead to a "downward spiral that drives down the quality of service, and could be contributing to the trend of declining ridership on the network."