Monthly fare capping is a major victory for transit riders after years of grassroots advocacy, but post-secondary students say the city policy counts them out as the monthly pass option is still the more economical choice. The Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) new loyalty program, an affordable alternative to the monthly pass, will rollout come September. Each month, transit users will ride for free once their ride count exceeds 47 trips, with more plans to reduce that threshold to 40 rides the following year.
”It’s great that the student pass exists already, and it’s great that students get to benefit from a discount. But if you’re going to implement a policy to modernize the TTC’s loyalty program, essentially by going from monthly passes to fair capping, everyone should be included,” former policy advisor for the City of Toronto Gabriel Blanc said.
Blanc said one way to bring down ride costs for eligible college and university students is by discounting single-ride fares, but there are budgetary considerations.
The director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto and planning professor Matti Siematycki told Met Radio transit systems themselves are cash-strapped. Some ‘creative accounting,’ non-service related cost-reductions and a pay check from the TTC’s rainy day fund was enough to fill the quarter-billion-dollar budget hole this year, but they’re not out of the woods yet. Staff say the transit agency still faces a $379-million shortfall due to a number of factors including ridership demands, increasing costs of providing services and the new fare capping system.
This student transit advocacy group, the University of Toronto’s Rocket Riders, said their main concern is that leaving students out of affordable policy strategies on transit is becoming a willing oversight overtime. The group also wants to retire the debate around including transit passes in tuition fees. They say while it’s an appealing concept in theory, most students can’t afford to pay the cost upfront and it’s generally “not a great idea” in practice.