Reaction continued Monday from students and experts to news of a $366 million budget shortfall and a 10 cent increase in single cash fares for the Toronto Transit Commission.
“Raising fares will mean readjusting my weekly budget to accommodate bus fares,” Sven Bajaro, a Humber College 3D Modeling and Visual Effect Production student said.
As an international student Bajaro is only able to work up to 20 hours a week and also pays 184.0 per cent more than Canadian students according to Statistics Canada.
“I have a monthly rental, then monthly food expenses, and transit fares that are going up. Personally I believe this would affect me emotionally and thus will affect my performance in school,” he said.
The extra cost for a two-fares-per-day rider would be $4 roughly per month based on 40 trips. Bajaro said this would make his daily two hour commute to class more expensive.
“Whether or not this will cause a difference for someone who travels daily is how much $4/month represents a burden, and that will depend on the economic condition of the rider,” Steve Munro, Canadian blogger and transit advocate, said.
Even though many students and other commuters still struggle from the fare increase, Munro believes there is an attempt to show that the less well off are protected, since the increase applies only to single adult and student fares.
For riders that travel daily there are alternative options available such as the monthly PRESTO pass which is not subject to the increase compared to the single-fare cost.
“Passes are not attractive to people who don’t travel every day, and there is an added concern for people who do not want to make a single big outlay on a pass rather than pay as you go at smaller incremental amounts,” said Munro.
As a result of the ridership levels being 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, the TTC was forced to implement fare increases in order to make up for the budget shortfall.
“We understand fare increases are hard for people, but it’s something we needed to do in order to get some more revenue in the TTC,” Stuart Green TTC Media Relations said.
“We also need to invest in safety improvements and maintaining our service levels, so the fare increase will generate another 16 million dollars to do that.
The TTC states, In order to match service with ridership demand, service will be reduced in the mornings and afternoons from Monday through Friday.
During these periods, buses will arrive every 10 minutes or sooner. Schedules will be adjusted on both weekdays and weekends to improve service reliability.