TTC bringing back tickets for fare evasion in late March

Three years after the TTC hit the brakes on fines for fare evasion, the network is looking to get enforcement back on track to address what officials say has become a “huge problem” on some routes.

“There’s a sense of disorder that’s going on in the TTC. A sense of anything goes,” Councillor and TTC Board Chair Jon Burnside NEWSTALK 1010’s Moore in the Morning on Tuesday.

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“I want to get back to the basics of expectations. It’s an understanding that you have to pay for service and it’s not about you choosing whether you’re willing to pay or not.”

In a report that’s set to go before the board on Tuesday, the TTC said it plans to reintroduce the practice -- which was paused in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- by late March as part of its “overall fare recovery strategy” as it believes 13 per cent of customers are not paying.

While the ticket itself will cost you $235 if you’re caught on the transit without proof of payment, Burnside said he believes it’s not just the steep fine that will deter fare evasion.

“It’s not so much the ticket itself, or the amount, it’s the actual likelihood of getting caught which really motivates people,” he said.

The TTC employs 110 fare inspectors across the network who are primarily focused on streetcar routes -- of which the Queen and King Street lines are a specific problem, Burnside said.

Since December 2022, roughly half of those inspectors have been placed on special assignment to support safety efforts on the network amid a rash of violence in the last several months.

Those inspectors will return to fare evasion enforcement once the practice resumes next month.

• READ MORE: Toronto transit violence went up 60% since 2019

The $5 million which the TTC hopes to recoup through the effort will help towards not increasing fares and keeping service in tact, Burnside said.

Last week, the city approved the TTC’s $2.38 billion operating budget that includes a 10 cent fare increase for most riders and service cuts to address a $366 million budget shortfall.

A police car is stopped as traffic moves along the street on November 13, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives

The TTC said that from June 2019 to Feb. 2020, fare inspectors issued an average of 1,800 tickets per month. However, the agency said that due to the “culture change” its revenue protection department is going through, it expects that the number of tickets issued will decrease “significantly.”

In 2018, the TTC made headlines after a Black man was forcibly detained on a streetcar platform by three fare inspectors. The incident triggered an investigation by the Toronto ombudsman and a lawsuit filed against the agency by the customer, which ended in a settlement and a personal apology by CEO Rick Leary.

Ombudsman Susan Opler’s report included, among other things, a recommendation for training internal investigators to look for racial bias. She said at the time that the TTC's investigation into the incident fell short in several ways, particularly in that it failed to analyze evidence that would suggest whether racism -- conscious or unconscious -- was a factor in the inspectors' actions.

• TTC apologizes to black man pinned by fare inspectors as video emerges of the altercation

In Tuesday’s report, the TTC said continuing to implement the “comprehensive anti-racism strategy” that followed that review.

“To address this, and past findings, the Revenue Protection Department is undergoing transformative internal and external change to demonstrate a commitment to accountability, transparency, building public trust, addressing regulatory concerns and ensuring bias-free service delivery,” the report reads.

Additionally, the TTC said it plans to roll out a pilot of body-worn cameras on 40 of its officers in an effort to achieve more public transparency.

No specific date has been provided as for when fare inspection enforcement is expected to return to the TTC.