Teenagers and adults may soon have to pay an additional 10 cents to ride Toronto transit, but children under 12 will be allowed to ride for free, Mayor John Tory announced on Monday.
Starting March 1, Tory said the TTC will be dropping its 60-cent children's tickets, letting kids aged 12 and under ride for free.
Until March, children's tickets will continue to be sold in multiples of 10.
In addition to dropping the child fare, Tory told media on Monday morning that the cost of tickets and tokens will increase by 10 cents starting in March. Those who opt to pay cash when boarding a bus, streetcar or subway train will still pay $3. Tory said the increase will result in $43 million in revenue. The city will also invest $95 million in the TTC.
Both motions are subject to the approval of city council, but Tory said he expects that there will be no issues.
"I have made a difficult choice in the past few weeks that we simply cannot freeze fares and have a functioning transit system in this city," Tory said.
The money from the increase will go to solving the crowding problems on the 21 busiest bus routes and improve wait times, he said.
"Smart Track won't be ready for 7 years and we need to do something now to get our city moving," Tory said.
Election promise broken
Tory's decision to increase the fare breaks a campaign promise made last year when he swore there would be no fare increase in 2015.
Calling the increase "reasonable," Tory said he no longer felt it was possible to hold off.
He said he'd been made aware of several complaints about current service problems since being elected.
Tory said he sat down with TTC CEO Andy Byford, and together they came to the conclusion that a fare hike was the only option.
"Once I was fully briefed on everything that was going on… What I learned more than everything else is that we have to get this city moving."
