We will likely never know who made the call to phase out the TTC’s token and ticket fares without offering refunds or exchanges to riders, according to a report by the city’s ombudsman set to be debated by Toronto City Council today.
Kwame Addo released his findings in a 65-page report which examined the decision-making process behind sunsetting the legacy fares in 2025. He said the move left some riders with hundreds of dollars in tickets and tokens, and at least one non-profit organization with $22,000 worth of the now useless fares.
Addo said the ombudsman’s office began to receive complaints from riders following the initial announcement by the transit agency on Oct. 24, 2024, to discontinue the fares later that year. Refunds, exchanges, or credits were not provided.
The TTC eventually extended that deadline by six months, but complaints persisted as some riders claimed they wouldn’t be able to use their surplus of soon-to-be archaic fares by then.
“We contacted the TTC to better understand why it decided not to provide refunds, credits or exchanges (referred to as the refund decision in this report) for the discontinued fare types,” the report read.
“However, in response to our initial inquiries, the TTC failed to provide clear answers on who made the refund decision or whether those responsible for the decision had the authority to do so.”
The lack of answers behind the process triggered a full-scale investigation by the ombudsman on Aug. 6, 2025, which included interviews with current and former TTC staff, executives, board members, and riders who complained to the office.
The investigation did not examine the fairness of the TTC’s decision to discontinue these fares, or its decision not to provide refunds or exchanges.
Why did the TTC discontinue tickets and tokens?
Prior to the 2024 announcement to phase out the fares, the TTC partnered with Ontario’s Metrolinx in 2012 to deliver automated fare collection through Presto. As part of that agreement, the TTC committed to discontinuing those fares and stopped selling them at stations in 2019. Third-party retailers continued to sell tickets until July 2022 and tokens until March 2023.
Staff members who spoke to the ombudsman pointed out that one other reason for discontinuing the fares was that tickets and tokens wouldn’t work on the new light rail trains, and that an automated approach through Presto would ensure uniform fare collection.
A few months before the TTC announced it would soon stop collecting tickets and tokens, staff submitted a report to the board which found discontinued fares represented 0.1 per cent of all fares on the TTC.
Officials later said there were approximately 6.7 million tokens and 573,000 tickets still in circulation as of October 2024, representing a total value of $24 million. However, staff did not expect all these fares would be used by the deadline as they assumed that some had been lost, damaged, or added to personal collections.
Following interviews with staff and board members, the investigation discovered the TTC believed there would be “logistical and financial” challenges to authenticating fares and implementing a refund or exchange program.
‘All I’m looking for is my money’
Several of the riders who spoke to the ombudsman’s office said they had over $800 worth of fares when the announcement was made to discontinue them. One rider had as much as $1,700 in tickets and tokens, and an unidentified non-profit organization had roughly $22,000 worth.
One complainant reached out to the TTC following the announcement, looking for a refund for $300 worth of legacy fares they were unable to use before the deadline. The report noted the TTC denied the request and provided no reasons for the decision.
“I cannot afford for [the] TTC to take my money and not provide me the 100 rides they owe me. I was not asking for a handout,” the unnamed rider is quoted as saying in the report.
Another rider, who the report states supports their family on a disability pension, had saved $800 worth of tokens for their daughter to use when she started university. The TTC also refused their request for a refund.
“All I’m looking for is my money … I’m not asking [the TTC] to get some free rides, but we’re asking, at least give me what I paid for,” the rider said.
The report notes the TTC did not conduct any equity impact analysis to understand and mitigate the impact of the decision not to issue refunds to riders. In fact, it found that some staff “demonstrated a lack of understanding and empathy” towards customers who were sitting on large amounts of unused tickets and tokens.
Report highlights ‘broader systemic issues’ within the TTC
One unnamed executive who spoke to the ombudsman’s office said the refund decision was emblematic of other ongoing issues within the transit agency.
“One executive told us that they could ‘swap this [refund] issue out and give you 10 others and you’d be asking me the exact same questions today.’”
Thirty TTC board members, executives and management staff were asked who exactly gave the green light to phase out legacy fares without issuing refunds. Their responses were mixed: 12 said the decision was made by the TTC board, seven said TTC executives made the call, and 11 said the decision maker was “unclear.”
The report went on to say the TTC justified its decision not to provide returns by referring some riders to a fare policy document that “does not exist,” and a refund policy that some staff relied on was outdated and unknown to some employees who were involved in considering refund requests.
What’s more, in April 2019, the board requested that staff report on the impact of refunding tokens, but the report was never completed and “no one could explain why.”
“Although this investigation focused on the process leading to the refund decision, it uncovered broader systemic issues at the TTC,” Addo wrote.
TTC accepts ombudsman’s recommendations
Addo submitted eight recommendations to the TTC board and staff in the conclusion of his report.
They included the development of a board-approved process that clearly delineates how fare decisions are made, ensuring the TTC uses its equity impact analysis tool (or equivalent) when making fare decisions, and making a publicly-available document that tracks the status of board directives and requests to staff.
In response to the report, TTC Board Chair and Coun. Jamaal Myers thanked Addo for his work and accepted all eight of his recommendations, with timeline goals of when they should be implemented.
Myers conceded the issues brought to light in the report occurred during a period of “significant organizational transition, operational change, and leadership” within the TTC.
“Since that time, work has been undertaken to strengthen internal governance, improve oversight practices, and support greater consistency in organizational decision-making and documentation processes,” he said.
Myers added that the board views the report as an opportunity to strengthen and clarify governance practices, increase transparency, and accountability, and enhance customer-focused decision-making across the organization.
