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- Between 1991 and 2001 the City of Toronto grew by 9% but transit funding was cut by half in the same time period. Funding cuts led the TTC to cut the bus fleet by 22% and to close two operating garages.
- The TTC is more reliant on revenues from fares than any other transit system in the developed world.
- The TTC is the only major transit system in the developed world to fund regular operations entirely from the property tax base and from fares.
- In Toronto, 80% of the TTC's operating budget is paid by riders. This compares with 58% in Montreal, 46% in Vancouver, 59% in New York and 52% in Chicago. The Canada-wide average is 62%. In the US, the overall average is 41%.
- Fares have more than doubled since 1990 and ridership has fallen by 10%.
- The Province of Ontario used to provide 50% of the operating costs for the TTC but under the Harris Tories, this was eliminated entirely.
- Capital investment per capita in public transit in Canada, at US$60, is less than half the recent level of investment in Seattle, New York, Denver and San Francisco.
I think that these numbers are a coupl'a years out of date (I think they're for 2005) but I don't think they've changed that much in the last few years.
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Biggest problems at the moment:
- Near-annual fare hikes driving down ridership.
- Crumbling infrastructure, especially subway signals, subway stations, warehouses and car barns, streetcar loops, bus and streetcar stops and shelters, and a website that hasn't had any significant change since 1999. (It sounds small, but while cities like Seattle have route finders and web-based predictions of when the next bus will arrive at a stop and a fare calculator and online help and promotional materials, we've got HTML that hasn't been standards-compliant since the Geocities era.)
- Shortage of operators.
But what's all the money going to? Building a light rail network by 2020 and extending the Spadina subway 3-4 stations. Both of these are important projects in their own way, but focusing on them won't actually address the endemic issues that the system's been facing for a decade now. The politicians are focusing on highly-visible projects like subways into new parts of the city rather than on projects that would improve the system as it stands: "subwaying".
Makes me want to beat Liberals & Tories over the head with a big stick.