°Õ³ó±ðÌýTTC board on Friday approved its $2.81-billion operating budget for 2025, which freezes fares and promises better service, and also passed its $16.4-billion capital budget, which helped slice the transit agency’s projected state-of-good-repair backlog by almost half.
“While we’re spending a lot, we’re also doing our part to ensure the money we spend is done so properly,” said TTC chair Jamaal Myers on Friday ahead of the TTC budget meeting with the board.
“This will be remembered as the budget that the TTC got its groove back.”
This year’s operating budget requires $1.39 billion in subsidies from the city — $85 million more than last year, an amount that Mayor Olivia Chow earlier this week said was “worthwhile.”
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Meanwhile, some commissioners on the board Friday remained cautious about whether this means TTC riders will be fully satisfied.
“I wouldn’t characterize the TTC as having its groove back ... if you talk to the average TTC rider, they’re not satisfied with the TTC yet,” said Coun. Josh Matlow.
The 2025 operating budget also sets aside $101.5 million for “budget planning purposes only” to operate and maintain the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the Finch West LRT as early as this summer — a $26.2-million increase over the amount the TTC earmarked for the same reason in last year’s budget.
The money that the TTC set aside in its 2024 operating budget was used to cover the subway and bus service it had to run in place of the LRTs.
Metrolinx has not yet announced opening dates for the light-rail lines, but the TTC has said for years that it will be ready once it does.
“The TTC is ready whenever we get the go-ahead from Metrolinx,” Myers reiterated Friday. “If they say the lines are opening tomorrow, we are ready.”
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Over the past year, dozens of slow zones across the TTC subway — which were put in place to minimize wear on the tracks — frustrated riders and lengthened commute times.
“We are committed through this budget to never seeing that number rise above an average of 12,” Myers said. Right now, there are 10 slow zones across the subway system, down from 34 last year at its peak.Â
The TTC has previously said that, given the system’s overall state-of-good-repair backlog, slow zones are meant to help extend the life of the subway tracks, especially in areas where certain defects have been documented.
The transit agency’s investments to improve service include a goal of riders not having to wait longer than five minutes on Line 1 and Line 2 during off-peak hours and no more than six minutes on the Dundas, St. Clair and Bathurst streetcar routes — “as long as no construction is planned,” Myers said.
Matlow noted that the TTC still has a lot of work ahead of it, including making fares more affordable, as well as maintenance and state of good repair work that need to get done before he can be as optimistic as Myers.
“I think it’s too early to say, ‘Mission accomplished,’” Matlow said.
Myers acknowledged these investments and money are going to take time before riders fully feel and see the effects.
“But they are coming,” he said.
Mahdis Habibinia is part of the Star's city hall bureau, based
in Toronto. Reach her via email: mhabibinia@thestar.ca
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