Deadline to use TTC tickets, tokens, day passes extended until June 2025

TTC riders can keep using old tickets, tokens, and day passes until June 2025.

On Tuesday, the TTC board approved a motion to extend the deadline to use legacy fares on the transit system, which was set at the end of the month.

As a result, TTC tickets, tokens and days passes can be used until June 1, 2025, for conventional transit users. For Wheel-Trans riders, those payment methods will be valid as a promotional fare until Dec. 31, 2025.

Speaking to reporters at city hall, TTC board chair Jamaal Myers said the new deadline was reasonable as it’s the earliest possible date that Line 5 (Eglinton Crosstown LRT) and Line 6 (Finch West LRT) could potentially open.

“Lines 5 and 6 will not be accepting those types of payments, so that seems to be a reasonable compromise,” said Myers, who moved the motion.

He made clear that June 1 is not a firm date for the opening of the two new lines but the “earliest possible date of the report.” Metrolinx has not announced when the two LRTs will open to the public, but outgoing CEO Phil Verster said last week that the Crown corporation was pushing towards a 2025 opening date.

In his motion, Myers is also directing staff to begin implementing communications plans immediately to inform customers about the retirement of legacy fares.

“We’re probably looking at the very least maybe an email to our riders, reaching out to some of the social service agencies that we work with because they were purchasers of a lot of these tickets. Looking at what we can do on the system, on the bus, on the streetcar in terms of announcements, in terms of just having visuals there, in terms of letting people know whatever date we decide,” Myers said.

“Just giving people the opportunity to use the tokens they bought in good faith and to get their value.”

The TTC has said only one per cent of riders pay with legacy fares. The agency noted that most customers now pay fares using PRESTO fares and debit and credit cards.

The TTC stopped directly selling tokens, which were introduced in 1954, in subway stations in 2019.