Transit advocates take temperature of mayoral hopefuls on key TTC issues

A group of TTC users is raising concerns about the public transit platforms of some leading contenders to be Toronto's next mayor, urging voters to parse their key promises — or lack thereof — before casting a ballot.

With just one week until election day, on Monday the advocacy organization TTCriders — which has close ties to transit worker unions — released the results of a survey sent to mayoral hopefuls.

The questions covered topics like restoring TTC service to pre-pandemic levels, funding a rapid busway to replace the Scarborough SRT and generating revenue for transit by imposing a commercial parking tax.

The group highlighted the responses of eight candidates that public opinion polls have consistently put at the front of the field: Olivia Chow, Mark Saunders, Anthony Furey, Ana Bailão, Josh Matlow, Mitzie Hunter, Brad Bradford and Chloe Brown.

TTCriders raised so-called "red flags" in the transit platforms for four candidates: Saunders, Bailão, Furey and Bradford, whose campaign did not respond to the survey questions.

Public transit has been a major theme of the byelection, particularly in terms of improving service, getting further expansions going and the safety of riders on the TTC network.

You can compare the big promises of the top candidates on transit and other key issues here.

WATCH | These issues may decide the mayor's race:

In a news release Monday, TTCriders noted that Bradford is the only leading candidate who has not committed to reversing TTC service cuts introduced in the city's 2023 budget.

City staff said the cuts were necessary as the TTC continues to struggle with flagging ridership coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and a spate of violence on the network. Reductions in service were accompanied by a 10-cent fare hike, drawing ire from many TTC users.

Over the course of multiple mayoral debates, Bradford has stressed the difficult fiscal reality facing the TTC and the city more broadly. He has accused other candidates, like Chow and Hunter, of making transit-related promises the city cannot afford, such as Hunter's commitment to make the TTC free for seniors and Wheel Trans users.

Just how much it would cost to reverse the recent cuts and then return to pre-pandemic service levels is a complicated question. On his blog, well-known transit watcher Steve Munro points out that the TTC puts the figure at around $69.5 million per year. Munro, using different metrics, argues it is closer to $141-million annually. 

TTCriders also targeted Saunders and Bailão for their positions on building a rapid bus corridor to replace the Scarborough SRT, which is set to shut down this fall. Both candidates have said they would only move forward with the project if the province pays for its construction.

Chow, Hunter, Furey and Josh Matlow have all said the busway would be a priority as mayor because without it, Scarborough transit users will need to rely exclusively on existing bus routes for at least seven years before alternative projects are completed.