The TTC budget committee has voted in favour of freezing the price of Metropasses in 2016 while deferring a decision on other possible fare increases.
Members of the committee voted 4-1 in favour of a motion from Chair Josh Colle on Monday afternoon that recommends prohibiting any increase to the price of the monthly transit passes for the next year.
Colle had previously told CP24 that the freeze is needed to help account for the fact that the cost of a Metropass has risen by $30.50 to $141.50 since 2010 while the cost of the cash fare has remained the same.
The freeze still needs to be approved by the TTC board as part of their budget deliberations.
Those budget deliberations are expected to include discussions on other potential fare increases as a way to plug a $53 million hole in the TTC’s budget.
On Monday, however, the TTC budget committee refused to make any recommendation on the size of the fare increase needed as it sought more clarity on the cost of expanding subway service on Sundays.
“Our preference would always be to have no fare increases but the reality is that at the TTC we can only really rely on the property tax base contribution from the city and that is limited,” Colle told CP24 earlier on Monday. “We need the province and the feds to step up so we are not having this interview every year and punishing our riders.”
In addition to the Metropass prize freeze, the TTC budget committee also voted unanimously in favour of the proposal to bump the start of subway service on Sundays up by an hour to 8 a.m.
The proposal was first made by Colle and Mayor John Tory last week after it was revealed that efforts were being made to reduce the maintenance window that previously accounted for the late start.
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