The nine billion dollars in transit funding recently announced by the province of Ontario and city of Toronto is definitely good news. An effective public transit system is a vitally important social and economic resource allowing people to shop, get to work, and lead active social lives.

However, there is a very important issue that still needs to be addressed. A big shiny new transit system is great, but how valuable is it if low and moderate-income people cannot afford to get past the turnstiles?

Torontonians pay transit fares that are among the highest in North America. There is no fare reduction for people on low income like they have in Calgary, Edmonton or Saskatoon. Durham Region Transit has a special fare for people who are on ODSP. Many American cities provide a special fare for people on low income.

It is particularly disturbing that seniors in Toronto carry a significantly higher burden of transit costs than in other cities. A survey of 10 Canadian cities shows that, on average, seniors pay about 50% of the regular adult monthly pass. The highest was in Halifax at 70% and in some places seniors can purchase passes for as low as 25%. In Toronto, seniors pay 84% of the regular monthly pass. Reducing the seniors’ burden to the equivalent of 50% would mean a savings to seniors in Toronto of $36.75 dollars per month or $441.00 per year. This would be a substantial savings, particularly for those seniors on low income.

A soon to be released Wellesley Institute research report from our partners at at the Alternative Planning Group highlights this issue.  The report says, in part:

“The absence of affordable public transportation cuts the most needy and vulnerable seniors from the activities and services that are designed to help them. They have difficulty making trips to see their doctors, picking up grocery, going to community services, visiting friends, or going to places of worship”

Or as one of the participants in the study put it:

“Seniors, they need to visit each other because they cannot live lonely… Seniors, they cannot pay everyday the fares for the bus and street car so they have a big difficulty to meet each other, to go to friends, to go to families to visit because they have no money”

The importance of accessible public transportation in combating social isolation and providing people opportunities to access the services they need is crucial to a healthy city.  Many cities are now grappling with the issue of how to make sure that all their residents have access to public transportation regardless of income.

The city and province are to be congratulated on allocating the resources to bring transit infrastructure into the 21st century.  Now they to tackle the problem of making sure that everybody can get on board.