The TTC 'fare evasion' fraud and Toronto's fiscal chickens coming home to roost

Lost late last week in the cacophony of reaction to Mayor John Tory's announcement that he would be considering the implementation of road tolls on Toronto's highways was a very interesting article from the Toronto Star's Edward Keenan. 

Keenan reported on the fact that -- as many such as myself have long believed -- the notion that TTC riders cheating on fares is a serious or significant contributing factor to the transit system's fiscals woes is nothing but balderdash. It is a convenient, though false, attempted diversion by Toronto politicians from real issues.

His article is worth quoting at some length. As I also noted here on The Left Chapter about Mihevc and others a few months ago, Keenan writes:

Earlier this year, TTC chair Josh Colle and TTC commissioner Joe Mihevc were spinning tales about this scourge on transit finances, and the topic came up again, inevitably, at the transit budget meeting this week. Monday night, Mayor John Tory found himself musing about it on his call-in television show. “I even said we may have to get to the stage where we have to shame people and publish their picture in the newspaper and say this is somebody, who for the sake of a TTC fare, you know, made everybody else pay,” Tory said....
...All this finger pointing at schemers, apparently, makes for great political drama. It’s satisfying! There’s someone to blame. We get to say that part of our difficulty balancing our budget and keeping fares low is that bad guys are cheating us. Having a villain makes for easier politics and better storytelling. If we can somehow work a high-speed streetcar chase through the financial district into the climax, it will make for an entertaining film adaptation.
As a way to actually discuss any real problems — budgetary or otherwise — that the TTC faces, however, it leaves much to be desired.

Why?:

 TTC spokesperson Brad Ross tells the Star there’s no reason to think fare evasion is a particular problem at the TTC, nor any reason to think it has risen dramatically. Most transit systems, he says, see about 2 per cent of riders try to sneak on without paying, and that’s about what the TTC estimates it suffers from — a percentage that has remained “fairly consistent” even as the TTC has introduced all-door boarding and free rides for children.
So: management says they see no evidence of this problem that politicians are banging on about. 

After noting that there are far bigger problems facing the TTC, Keenan also writes:

 The New York City website Streetsblog recently reported on a discussion panel in which transit executives from Boston, London, San Francisco and Oslo talked about how, in order to serve riders well, they basically stopped worrying about fare evasion. “Fare payment isn’t the point of running a bus system, (the point) is getting people to the places they want to go,” David Block-Schachter of Boston’s transit authority reportedly said. London, England’s transit authority is no longer even handing out fines for turnstile hopping. “When you stop worrying about fare evasion, but you focus on the convenience of the fare system — you focus on the service it provides to the rider — it opens up a lot of options for the agency, which could allow you to offer better service at lower cost,” one speaker at the event said.
This isn’t because it isn’t annoying that some people cheat the system. It’s because some people will always cheat the system, and the cost and hassle of making it difficult for them is not worth it — especially since most enforcement measures make the system a hassle for all riders. And what you want to focus on, if you want more riders, more honest, fare-paying riders, is making the system as hassle-free as possible.

This point is key and needs to be emphasized again: "This isn’t because it isn’t annoying that some people cheat the system. It’s because some people will always cheat the system, and the cost and hassle of making it difficult for them is not worth it — especially since most enforcement measures make the system a hassle for all riders."

And this is critical to understand. In a piece this past February both here and on rabble.ca, Joe Mihevc and Toronto politicians are "ripping off" the TTC -- Not transit riders! I wrote:

...hiring the new TTC goon squad that would be required to harass and police all those riders getting on at the back will not be free! It will cost millions and millions of dollars annually, so perhaps Mihevc could also investigate whether paying for the policing of transit users and constituents is actually even worth it.
Like all those now defunct "welfare cheat hotlines" that politicians promoted a generation ago I suspect it will turn out not to be.

The point is both that the enforcement measures are very expensive and that they don't only deter so-called 'cheats', they also deter everyone else. It is not simply the unpleasantness of having to interact with and be interrogated by wanna-be cops, it is also the soon to come hassle of having to have Presto cards, user IDs and even a proposal for TTC IDs for children as young as 10 to prove they should get to ride for free, which is simply absurd.

There is no doubt that the new layers of harassment the TTC is seeking to instigate in conjunction with yet another round of fare hikes will deter people, and especially casual users, from taking public transit.

Why would it not? You don't make a system appealing by making it cost more, forcing riders to jump through various hoops to use it and basically saying that you don't trust the people who are taking it! It is worth reminding the TTC's City Council overlords that they put in place the policy of opening the back doors on the streetcars to speed up the streetcars and reduce hassle. To then turn around and behave as if those riders doing what they are supposed to do and using these doors should somehow be regarded with suspicion is bizarre.

In addition, even if enough policing were put in place to seriously deter actual fare cheats, it still would not generate new revenue for the system as in most cases these are riders who are hopping on to go a few stops or who do not have the money to afford to pay. If enforcement does succeed in deterring them all the time, they will simply not use the system. They will walk or find other means instead. The net gain financially to deterring this type of behaviour is actually negative as the TTC will have to spend a lot of money to stop people who were never going to pay in the first place.

This is why when you hear politicians talk about "lost revenue" from fare evasion they are largely wrong and blowing hot air. It is not "lost" if it was never going to happen to begin with. Again: "the cost and hassle of making it difficult for them is not worth it — especially since most enforcement measures make the system a hassle for all riders."

Now, I think most Toronto politicians are smart enough to actually know this, but they need a scapegoat.

They need a scapegoat for terrible wastes of money like the disastrous multi-billion dollar proposal for a one-stop Scarborough subway extension, the increasingly idiotic "SmartTrack" John Tory signature transit 'plan', and the terrible decision to adopt the "hybrid" eastern Gardiner Expressway plan that is seeing predictable and very large increased cost projections. 

As John Tory becomes desperate enough -- after a generation of governments on all levels being unwilling to maintain (let alone increase) taxes to the extent required to actually fiance the infrastructure and public transit projects the city of Toronto requires and that are in some cases decades overdue -- to be willing to touch that 'third rail' of civic politics that is road tolls, we see that Toronto's fiscal chickens are coming home to roost.

Councillor Gord Perks called the idea of road tolls a 'distraction' and writes rather convincingly (and at some length) about the reasons for this, not the least of which is that -- in addition to not generating what is actually needed in terms of revenue --  it will be years before the laws and infrastructure is in place for tolls to even generate a single dime for Toronto.

There is also an argument to be made that they are regressive, though that can be countered by the fact that they do discourage car usage -- a societal and environmental must -- as well as the reality that public transit users are made to pay "tolls" every time they use their system which makes one wonder why car drivers should not, especially given how clearly harmful car usage is?

But tolls are not going to generate anywhere near the money required to fund TTC expansion and keep fares down.

Doing that will require our politicians and parties on all levels to start being willing to actually have a serious conversation about the kinds of progressive income and corporate taxes, in conjunction with other taxes and revenue tools, that are required to achieve the funding for the Toronto and TTC we desperately want and need.

Until that day comes -- and it does not even seem to be on the horizon -- all the rest is, indeed, a distraction and trying to make an issue of fare evasion is nothing more than a pathetic, silly, simplistic and costly waste of time.

See also: TTC fare increases continue Toronto's war on transit riders

See also: Reality again derails Tory's fantasy SmartTrack plans

See also: The new TTC youth fare rules are a revolting attack on children

See also: Joe Mihevc and Toronto politicians are "ripping off" the TTC -- Not transit riders!

TTC fare increases continue Toronto's war on transit riders

Almost no group of people in Toronto has paid more directly  for the shortsighted, austerity oriented agenda of its political class than have transit riders.

The city's government (and by proxy the provincial and federal governments) -- all while claiming to want to improve transit and encourage higher ridership -- has essentially declared war on TTC users with ever increasing fares and plans for what is shaping up to be a nightmarish roll out of the new "Presto" system.

At times it seems that the city is intent on actually discouraging people from using our public transit system.

In 2006, only ten years ago, a Metropass was $99.75 monthly. Today it is $141.50. This is a rise of over 40%. And now the TTC has decided that this will increase to $146.25.

This is not the only fare that will, yet again, be going up. In fact there is a long list of them:

PRESTO E-Purse goes from $2.90 to $3.00
Weekly Pass goes from $42.25 to $43.75
Regular Metropass goes from $141.50 to $146.25
Post-Secondary Metropass goes from $112.00 to $116.75
Senior/Student goes from $2.00 $2.10 (cash), $1.95 to $2.05 (ticket)
Day Pass/Family Pass/E-Ticket goes from $12.00 to $12.50
GTA Weekly Pass goes from $61.00to $63.00
Downtown Express Sticker goes from $41.50 to $43.00

While the $3.25 cash fare will remain the same, that is only because it was just increased by 25 cents within the last year!

All of this is happening as Mayor John Tory has forced the TTC to cut its budget by 2.6% as part of his cookie-cutter approach to cutbacks to city departments, and as he barrels ahead with the increasingly idiotic vanity SmartTrack plan and the white elephant one-stop multi-billion dollar Scarborough subway boondoggle.

While city politicians try to scapegoat alleged fare evaders and kids, the fact remains that the TTC has been underfunded and has depended far too much on the fare box for its budget directly due to a desire to keep property (on a municipal level) and income and corporate taxes (on a provincial and federal level) low.

Nowhere was an example of this thinking more clear than in John Tory's first budget -- supported by every single 'progressive' on City Council -- which contained an annual property tax increase on the average Toronto home of only $83,  a figure that was lower than that year's $93 annual TTC Metropass fare increase for transit users!

Rising fares, of course, act as a disincentive to riders using the system, a fact that both undermines desperately needed efforts to get people out of their cars and that has the circular effect of contributing to fewer fares being paid thereby increasing the likely need for another fare hike down the road as long as fares remain so central to TTC funding.

It also has a disproportionate impact on the people who can least afford it in our city given that young people, people living in poverty, people on social assistance and fixed incomes and people from lower income brackets and marginalized communities rely on public transit for transportation, social inclusion and freedom of movement the most.

Another example in a very long list of how the commitment of Toronto City Councillors and the Mayor to affordable and accessible public transit in Toronto is far more rhetorical than actual.

See also: Reality again derails Tory's fantasy SmartTrack plans

See also: Full austerity jacket -- The gloves come off in Tory's Toronto

See also: Joe Mihevc and Toronto politicians are "ripping off" the TTC -- Not transit riders!

See also: The new TTC youth fare rules are a revolting attack on children

Reality again derails Tory's fantasy SmartTrack plans

Reality, it seems, is wreaking havoc with Mayor John Tory's fantasy fiction vision for the city of Toronto.
A report issued by city staff on Monday has essentially derailed Tory's grandiose election 'vision', rather incorrectly called "SmartTrack", that was supposed to help solve Toronto's transit problems relatively quickly and for less money by using existing rail track and corridors.

As cdnpoli.net put it, SmartTrack "will now require new taxes, be at least 5 years late and [have] only 6 new stations instead of 22."

So, it turns out, the actual plan will cost a lot, take a long time to build, and service relatively few Toronto residents versus the original 'plan'.

Now, of course, Tory also absolutely promised that property taxes would not have to be raised to pay for SmartTrack, and he is doubling down on that pledge despite its increasing detachment from any sense of fiscal responsibility or sanity.

Instead Tory is insisting -- on CBC Radio this morning and in other forums -- that it will all still be done without a property tax hike through "other revenue streams...that could be developed to pay our share".

Meanwhile, Tory has refused to raise taxes to pay for all the other things the city needs and has implemented a deeply wrong-headed, cookie-cutter austerity regime that is calling for every city department -- including the TTC (!) -- to cut 2.6% of their budget next year by eliminating magical 'inefficiencies'.

In spite of this, Tory has continued to make delusional announcements -- many with grinning 'progressive' Councillors on hand -- claiming that, in addition to SmartTrack and other transit improvements, and a promise of no TTC service cuts, vast elevated parks will be built, the Don Valley transformed into a nature wonderland and his pledged anti-poverty plan will not be impacted at all!

Did we forget the part about his continued support for an enormously expensive one-stop Scarborough subway extension that will have fewer stops for fewer people than the less-expensive LRT plan it replaced?

That there is no more increased funding forthcoming from other levels of government to cover all of this is pretty clear.

The air of complete unreality that is settling over City Hall seems to know no bounds.

The fact is that Tory will have to raise taxes on a number of fronts very broadly or he will have to implement an even deeper and more vicious austerity program supplemented by selling off city assets and by regressive revenue tools like higher user fees and transit fares.

Given his ideological predispositions the latter is his far more likely course.

Tory and his council allies can stick their heads in the sand all they want, but there is simply no way to achieve SmartTrack -- let alone all the other pie-in-the-sky promises -- otherwise.

See also: Full austerity jacket -- The gloves come off in Tory's Toronto

See also: John Tory's Stupid Track derails transit in Toronto yet again

John Tory's Stupid Track derails transit in Toronto yet again

Given Toronto's transit track record, and given that it was a predictably Utopian and nonsensical plan from the start, you had to know that John Tory's absurd 'Smart Track' plan would be derailed by reality sooner or later.

It joins that sad -- and rather long -- list of fiascoes in the transit file in Toronto's recent history. From Mike Harris scuttling subway plans and even filling in tunnels that had already been dug, to the torpedoing of David Miller's relatively visionary LRT centred "Transit City", to the idiotic Scarborough subway extension pushed by Rob Ford that council capitulated to, to putting desperately needed funds into keeping aloft a section of the Gardiner mistake-by-the-lake, to this.

Toronto's transit tale is one of shortsightedness, ignorance and car-crazed political cowardice at its worst.

Today, after months of obfuscation, Tory finally admitted -- without of course actually admitting anything -- that nothing like Smart Track as he proposed it during the election in 2014 would happen at all.

Remember that this plan, which he assured Toronto's voters (despite what he claims now) was completely "doable", was the centrepiece of his entire campaign. So much so that it was on his very election signs themselves!

But it was transparently flawed and predicated on at best wishful thinking and at worst crass cynicism.

Torontonians, however, having bought into entirely fictional anti-LRT (Light Rail Transit) narratives, ate up Smart Track like the citizens of the Springfield of The Simpsons TV show sinking much needed money into a monorail to nowhere.

Today Tory acknowledged that the entire western "spur" of the plan would have to be axed and replaced with an LRT route.

Despite the fact that this eliminates a major part of Smart Track, Tory still tried to frame the reports that he had received from the city's experts as a victory of sorts by claiming that now that he and council had "clarity" the rest of what remained of the plan would be a great success.

Why? Because "the ridership study predicts SmartTrack could attract more daily riders than the entire GO regional commuter system, and could reduce crowding on the Yonge-University subway south of Bloor St. by as much as 17 per cent."

Cue the triumphal ribbon-cutting trumpets and champagne.

But (and you knew there had to be one), the problem is these "predictions" are based on factors that are not a part of the plan! 

Seriously. As The Toronto Star notes:

the report, by the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute and city planner, said those optimum results would be achieved with trains arriving every five minutes. In the election Tory promised every 15 minutes or better.The best results trumpeted by Tory also presume another uncertainty — that SmartTrack riders would pay TTC fares. Tory’s campaign plan assumed the new service would merit a premium fare.

In other words, these optimum Smart Track results would be achieved only under a plan that is not the Smart Track plan even as optimistically proposed by Tory during the election!

The "projections" might as well be based on unicorns, happy cookie elves and fairy dust. They are totally meaningless.

To make matters worse, the staggering $8 billion price tag for all of this will remain just that despite the elimination of the western spur.

I am willing to make a projection. Smart Track will be a total disaster and far more could have been done for less money by investing in the Transit City idea of a network of LRTs.

So here we go yet again -- a rapidly expanding city with a staggeringly outdated transit infrastructure led by a political class that has us on yet another mystical road to nowhere.

See also: Tory led city council continues Toronto's tragic transit farce

See also: 42-2: John Tory, Toronto City Council and the austerity consensus