Survey shows some mayoral candidates falling short on transit commitments: TTCriders

With just a week to go before the mayoral byelection, a local transit advocacy group is warning TTC customers about “red flags” in the policies of four of the top-polling candidates.

On Monday, TTCRiders released the results of a survey on where mayoral candidates stand on a number of issues impacting the TTC, including service cuts, Wheel-Trans, the Scarborough RT, bus lanes, safety, and funding.

According to the group, Ana Bailão, Mark Saunders, and Anthony Furey, all raised red flags with some of their responses, while Brad Bradford did not participate in the survey.

“Ana Bailão gets a red flag because she has not committed to making transit more affordable, installing more bus and streetcar priority lanes, or building the Scarborough RT replacement busway if the province does not fund its construction,” TTCriders spokesperson Chloe Tangpongpursh said in a news release.

“Anthony Furey gets a red flag because he wants to get rid of red [priority] bus lanes. Scarborough transit users will need bus lanes and better service more than ever after the Scarborough RT closes this fall.”

They added that Mark Saunders would not commit to making transit more affordable or to building the Scarborough RT replacement busway if the province doesn’t come forward with money to fund the project.

“Although Brad Bradford did not respond to the 2023 TTCriders mayoral candidate survey, in 2020 he voted in favour of studying a commercial parking levy. Before the 2022 municipal election, Bradford pledged to oppose cuts to transit service, but did not act on the promise during the 2023 municipal budget process, when TTC service was reduced,” the news release read.

According to the survey, when asked if they would vote to reverse TTC service cuts and increase service beyond pre-pandemic levels, candidates Olivia Chow, Josh Matlow, Mitzie Hunter, and Anthony Furey all agreed that they would.

The TTC is currently facing a $366 million budget shortfall and service cuts were implemented this year amid a steep drop in ridership following the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, the TTC hiked both the youth and adult cash and PRESTO fares by $0.10.

“I equate it to like if somebody opened a restaurant and said they are going to give really crappy service and they are going to hike the prices on the menu, it is a bad business model and it is unfair to riders,” Matlow said in a video posted on the TTCRiders website.

Hunter told the transit advocacy group that she would “stop the TTC death spiral” by reversing the cuts as well as the most recent fare hike.

Chow also vowed to roll back the cuts, telling the TTCRiders “When you increase fares and you cut service, people will say ‘I’m not going to take the TTC anymore.’”

“Absolutely we shouldn’t be having service cuts,” Furey said. “We have a ridership problem, we have lots of congestion issues, roads are closing with the Ontario Line construction, so you want to have as many options as possible.”

It should be noted that both Bailão and Saunders said they would reverse service cuts but would not commit to returning service to pre-pandemic levels.

“We need to attract ridership back to the TTC,” Bailão said in the TTCRiders video. “The way to do it is to make it safer, to make it more reliable, and to make it convenient.”

On the issue of safety on the TTC, nearly all of the candidates committed to establishing a roundtable on transit safety that prioritizes important community voices and experts. Bailão did not respond to the question.

All of the candidates pledged to allocate funding to create supportive, welcoming TTC staff roles that are unionized.

Only Chow and Matlow said they would end the TTC’s fare enforcement program.