The TTC board has voted in favour of a new budget that aims to restore service to pre-pandemic levels, despite some uncertainty around ridership revenues due to the new Omicron variant.
The $2.24 billion operating budget aims to restore service to 100 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the second quarter of 2022 and then maintain it at those levels throughout the rest of the year.
In a report accompanying the budget staff say that the move is in line with an existing policy that calls for full service to be restored as soon as ridership reaches 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Right now ridership is believed to be at 49 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, though it is unclear what impact some workplaces pushing back return to the office plans in the face of the new variant could have on further ridership growth.
The TTC’s budget, it should be noted, is based on ridership improving gradually throughout the year and eventually reaching 81 per cent of pre pandemic levels in late 2022.
Staff say that their model does assume a return to office in which most employees continue to work from home an average of three days a week. But they are also making a handful of other assumptions which seem less certain that they might have a month ago, including that there will be “no significant waves of COVID cases requiring additional restrictions” and that there will be a wider “return to in-class learning for post-secondary students.”
In a news release TTC Chair Jaye Robinson said that the budget gives the TTC “the flexibility to increase service up to pre-pandemic levels, in response to demand, while funding key sustainability and service improvement initiatives – all without raising fares for our riders.”
Mayor John Tory also applauded staff for their work on the budget in the release, calling it as “a right and responsible budget.”
“We have worked hard to protect transit service throughout the pandemic and this budget will make sure that it continues to increase as we come out of the pandemic,” he said.
TTC ridership bottomed out at 26 per cent of pre-pandemic levels at the height of the third wave in the pandemic in the spring but has been mostly on the rise ever since businesses were permitted to reopen in June.
The budget for 2022, which still needs to be approved by city council, estimates that the transit commission will collect more than $369 million in fare box revenue in 2022 while still facing a $409 million revenue shortfall due to ongoing ridership challenges.
The budget also estimates that the TTC will face another $51.4 million in additional costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022.
The shortfall leaves a big hole in the TTC’s budget but other levels of government have stepped forward to help cover the TTC’s pandemic-related losses in the past, to the tune of a combined $1.3 billion so far.
