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Nov/094
Nov/094
Blame games.
Posted by Dipp.I've had a Metropass for ten years now. I don't own a car. I don't plan on owning a car. I'm OK with that. Public transit, with its occasional shortcomings, suits me just fine. So, I, like just about everyone in Toronto, am unimpressed about the impending TTC fare hike. But I'm not nonplussed about it. As a result of the fare hike, a lot of people are up in arms and pointing fingers in the wrong directions. So the following is the reality, in simple bullets, in the hopes of correctly framing the discourse....
- The TTC's operating budget (the cost to run the system on a day-to-day basis) and its capital budget (the cost of new equipment such as streetcars, subways, station renovations, route modification projects, etc.) are two separate entities and money cannot legally be transferred from one to another (i.e. "Hey, why would the TTC renovate Museum Station but not be able to afford to run the bloody buses next year? That's so stoopid [sic]").
- The capital budget gets its funding heavily from the federal and provincial governments (e.g. TransitCity, new buses) as these are warm fuzzy (see: politically advantageous) news stories - but not before a lot of begging and pleading.
- Fare revenue makes up about 70% of the TTC's operating budget. Compare that to 36% in NYC, 44% in Boston, 57% in Montreal and 54% in Vancouver. The rest of money comes from government subsidies and TTC revenue generation (e.g. advertising, etc.). This makes the TTC's operating budget the least subsidized in North America.
- Until the Harris government in the 1990s, the province used to shell out 50% of the TTC's operating budget.
- All Toronto budgets must be balanced as per the delegation of financial duties between the province and municipalities. The city cannot run a deficit. Therefore, it's a zero sum game.
Where do you want to point your finger now? If the public is so outraged, why aren't they knocking on the right doors?
PH0T0ADAY.
FLICKR TAG W0RD.CA.
November 20th, 2009
Dude, well argued. It sucks when being so critical bears no fruit, Transit will never quit in terms of fucking over its main demographic.
November 22nd, 2009
You’re so very right, Dogleash. To paraphrase something I read somewhere recently, a transit system that doesn’t cater to the poorest within a city’s population is a shitty transit system. Six dollars for a round trip on the TTC is absurd, and it actually causes people and families on a limited income real financial strain. Plus, from a public conception, a fare hike just seems asinine in the wake of all these service improvements; busses until 1:30am, more of them generally, dedicated bus routes (like the new one at York), going ahead on Transit City. But, of course, as Dipp explained, the funds for those projects were capital budget items, funded through whichever levels of government, funds not dedicated to actually running the system. It’s like building a big house without a solid foundation.
I seriously wonder if Toronto has any legal recourse in getting the provincial government to pony up half the operating budget again. That would be such a tremendous boon to the system – maybe they’d even lower fares! Sadly, nothing of the sort will happen. I don’t even want to think what it’s going to be like for the Pan Am games (I know it’s a smaller event but it’s still international sports).
Transit is one of those things you can only complain about. Dogleash, I actually disagree with your “well argued” nod. What Dipp wrote wasn’t arguing anything. It was pointing out the realities of a decaying transit system. We might have new streetcars but tunnels are crumbling. God forbid the TTC layoff any workers or “cut service” to fix it. Riders (and their money) are seen as a given, their acceptance of the hike taken for granted. You’ll bitch, alright. But you’ll pay it.
Like Dipp, the TTC suits me fine. I don’t drive. I don’t want to. But if the TTC is just going to, as if by reflex, hike fares every time there’s an operating shortfall (which, with all the improvements being built, there always will be), fewer and fewer people will take it (which will cause further shortfalls). Piddly one-time payments from the province or the feds are well and good, but sustained funding is what’s needed. Period.
/rant
November 22nd, 2009
Well, technically there are come bullets above that have premises that follow to conclusions. But for the most part, yes, a series of well structured statements, rather than an argument.
6 dollars to and fro? Man alive! Or broke as fuck… It seems almost just as much of a hassle as having a car, seems more expensive, at least in terms of money put into travel per kilometer.
November 23rd, 2009
Great post. I find it frustrating that this isn’t a bigger discussion and people aren’t holding the governments accountable for this. Matt, you’re 100% right that the TTC needs sustained funding. On top of that, we need to be encouraging ridership, in order for expansion and in order to show the provincial and federal governments that this city desperately needs to fix it’s shameful public transit system.