Mayor John Tory says that there is “virtually no chance” that the TTC will be overwhelmed this week, even with the reopening of some retail stores.
The TTC reduced it service levels by 15 per cent in late March as it dealt with the fallout from a significant drop in ridership that cost them millions of dollars in revenue.
They then announced last month that they would temporarily lay off 1,000 operators as their revenue losses hit $25 million a week.
Speaking with CP24 on Saturday, Tory said that TTC officials continue to monitor bus and streetcar routes with an “eye towards maintaining physical distancing” but don’t expect to see a big change in terms of crowding when some stores open up for curbside pickup only on Monday.
“I think there is virtually no chance that the service will be swamped on Monday, I think what you are going to find is some increased level of activity and we are already seeing that,” Tory said. “If you remember ridership is down to 600,000 riders every day. That is against a normal day of 1.6 million so it is a long way to go before we get back to anything even approaching anything we had before.”
While the TTC has been operating with reduced service levels for some time, spokesperson Stuart Green tells CP24 that published schedules are now being changed to reflect the reduced frequency on some routes.
He said that the TTC will, however, “continue to monitor passenger loads across the system” and remains committed to redeploying vehicles to relieve crowding when necessary.
The union representing TTC workers is, however, expressing concern about potential crowding as the city’s economy gradually reopens.
For that reason the union is calling for face masks to become mandatory on all TTC vehicles.
“The math is straightforward - as more businesses re-open, more people will be taking public transit with less TTC vehicles on the road,” Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 President Carlos Santos said in a press release Friday. “The City of Toronto must protect workers and the public by making face coverings mandatory on the TTC.”
The province previously permitted garden stores and nurseries to reopen on Friday and hardware stores to reopen on Saturday.
Speaking with CP24, Tory said that officials are watching the situation very carefully “with a view to changing advice” but don’t believe precautions like making masks mandatory are necessary at this point.
“We are still having a very high level of service and paying very close attention to physical distancing and we will take whatever steps are required but I don’t think they will be (required) on Monday,” he said.
