Miller's million-dollar baby no free ride: Transit pass changes to cost Toronto taxpayers
TORONTO: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation responded today to the announcement by Toronto Mayor David Miller and TTC Chairman Howard Moscoe that the City of Toronto will make monthly transit Metropasses transferable, with no increase in price.
"According to the TTC, this change is going to cost Toronto taxpayers one million dollars in the first four months alone. Where is the logic here " questioned CTF Ontario Director Tasha Kheiriddin. "Increasing ridership is pointless if there's no cost recovery."
Kheiriddin notes that Toronto taxpayers already subsidize the operating expenses of public transit to the tune of 53 cents a ride.
Including capital costs in this equation increases the subsidy by an additional $1.20 a passenger, according to the Financial Post's Terence Corcoran, based on an annual capital subsidy of $500 million, or 10% of the total municipal and provincial subsidy of $5.7 billion. This brings the average cost to transport a monthly transit user to $200 - twice the current cost of the Metropass.
"A better solution would have been to maintain the non-transferable pass and introduce a transferable option that costs slightly more, to offset the loss in revenue. This would still save families some money, as members could make multiple use of such a pass, but would lessen the impact on taxpayers," added Kheiriddin.
With regard to the argument that the change will improve passenger-driver relations, as some passengers don't like showing photo id, Kheiriddin added, "What have you got to hide by not showing your id It's very possible that the transferable pass will increase fraud in the system, with more than one person using the pass at one time. And that will only place a further burden on taxpayers," Kheiriddin concluded.
"According to the TTC, this change is going to cost Toronto taxpayers one million dollars in the first four months alone. Where is the logic here " questioned CTF Ontario Director Tasha Kheiriddin. "Increasing ridership is pointless if there's no cost recovery."
Kheiriddin notes that Toronto taxpayers already subsidize the operating expenses of public transit to the tune of 53 cents a ride.
Including capital costs in this equation increases the subsidy by an additional $1.20 a passenger, according to the Financial Post's Terence Corcoran, based on an annual capital subsidy of $500 million, or 10% of the total municipal and provincial subsidy of $5.7 billion. This brings the average cost to transport a monthly transit user to $200 - twice the current cost of the Metropass.
"A better solution would have been to maintain the non-transferable pass and introduce a transferable option that costs slightly more, to offset the loss in revenue. This would still save families some money, as members could make multiple use of such a pass, but would lessen the impact on taxpayers," added Kheiriddin.
With regard to the argument that the change will improve passenger-driver relations, as some passengers don't like showing photo id, Kheiriddin added, "What have you got to hide by not showing your id It's very possible that the transferable pass will increase fraud in the system, with more than one person using the pass at one time. And that will only place a further burden on taxpayers," Kheiriddin concluded.