TTC eyes service, equipment cutbacks

The Toronto Transit Commission this Friday will consider several belt-tightening measures ranging from equipment purchases to service cutbacks.

TTC will weigh reducing the order it placed with Bombardier Transportation for 204 light rail transit cars by 15 cars, or 7.3%. The cutback would save at least C$71 million. TTC staff says the remaing 189 cars should be sufficient to meet projected ridership demand in the next decade.

TTC staff reportedly has asked Bombardier to quantify the financial impacts of deferring payments from the first five years to the second five years of this contract.

As well, TTC may approve service reductions on some of Toronto’s busiest rail transit routes to close an estimated C$101 million budget gap. It may also eliminate up to 1,000 jobs, with termination notices likely to begin as early as next week. To more than 250 non-union TTC employees. Voluntary separation packages also are expected to be offered. TTC also plans to cut 171 jobs, through attrition, related to the reduction in service.

Reaction to the planned moves by local industry observers and activists has been vocal. “Torontonians understand the connection between transit, their lives, and their communities,” one local source said to Railway Age. “The public backlash is growing. Equally important is the fact that the business community is not pleased.

“It is quite possible that Mayor [Rob] Ford’s failure to understand the importance of transit to Torontonians will be the focal point of widespread civic action, similar to that which halted the Spadina Expressway and saved the streetcar system back in the 1970s,” the source said.

Mayor Ford previously has vowed to turn back a purported “war on cars” in Toronto and has strongly urged underground subway construction as a preferred option for expanded Toronto rail transit, instead of surface light rail and streetcar options.