If you thought streetcars and buses were already crowded, you may be in for a rude awakening.
The Toronto Transit Commission has announced that riders will have to contend with longer waits and less elbow room on 62 bus and streetcar routes, beginning Jan. 8.
The changes are needed to help the commission meet a 10 per cent budget cut ($70 million) demanded by Mayor Rob Ford.
Some of the affected routes include the 501 Queen streetcar, the 85 Sheppard East bus, the 25 Don Mills bus, the 29 Dufferin bus and the 35 Jane bus.
For a full list of affected routes follow this link.
"The alternative was to eliminate routes entirely and that was not what we wanted to do, so what we did was change our crowding standards, so that we could protect all bus routes, all streetcar routes and all subway lines," TTC Spokesperson Brad Ross told CP24. "There will be increased wait times, there will be increased crowding, but in the end all routes will be saved and that is an important point."
The TTC voted in September to approve the changes, which will see the peak time occupancy of buses go from 48 to 53.
On Thursday morning a memo outlining the changes was leaked to the media. That memo was followed shortly thereafter by a press release from the TTC outlining the cuts.
Ross said the changes will allow the TTC to continue to serve its annual ridership of 503 million; albeit using a pre-2004 standard for crowding.
"We will have service on the street to meet our ridership," he said.
Ross added that going forward the TTC may have to consider a fare hike, something that was floated, but eventually scrapped last winter.
"We will have a report in December to deal with the remainder of our budget," he said. "We still have a shortfall of about $30 million and we have always said that it [a fare hike] is something we think needs to occur in the face of significant financial constraints."
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