Report slams TTC, calls for additional funding - CP24

July 18 2012
Chris Fox
cp24.com

The TTC is failing to meet three out of the top five priorities that have been outlined by commuters, according to a new report card from a transit advocacy group.

The report card, which was prepared by a cluster of environmental groups, was released Wednesday morning. It gives the TTC a failing grade on having fair and affordable fares, providing frequent service that connects all of Toronto and making public transit fully accessible. It also assigns a grade of “unknown” on the TTC’s environmental sustainability, citing insufficient public records.

The lone passing grade assigned was in transit expansion.

“While transit expansion is on track, service levels are going down while fares are going up,” Franz Hartmann of the Toronto Environmental Alliance told CP24 after unveiling the report. “If the TTC was a student, this report card would be a wake up call with a very clear message: You must do much better.”

The report was compiled using publicly available documents that were then interpreted by the group, which calls itself “TTCriders.”

Hartmann said the underlying problem is funding.

With 70 per cent of its operating budget paid for through fares, the TTC has the lowest government funding ratio of any transit authority in North America.

“The reason for this lackluster performance is because there is not enough money being put into the system and the major cause for blame are the federal and provincial governments that are not contributing to the operations of the TTC,” Hartmann said.