Stop the big fare rip-off
To watch a video released by Toronto’s auditor general, Beverly Romeo-Beehler, you’d think only suckers actually pay their way on the Toronto Transit Commission.
Caught on hidden cameras, riders can be seen hopping over gates, squeezing through them, tail-gating behind paying customers and even using well-trained dogs to walk under the gate and trigger it to open from the other side. But you don’t even have to be that creative to rip off the TTC. Others simply walk through gates that are left wide open to handle rush-hour traffic, but are left completely unattended. Or they slip through ubiquitous malfunctioning gates. Or they simply don’t bother to pay when they enter streetcars via the rear doors.
Worse, those seeking a free ride are only part of the problem that sees the TTC lose a staggering $61 million, or 5.4 per cent of revenues, to fare evaders each year.
Others ride for free because of malfunctioning Presto card readers that cost the system an additional $3.4 million in lost fares. It’s got to stop, for so many reasons. The obvious one is that the cash-starved TTC must make up those lost revenues on the backs of taxpayers who subsidize the system and paying customers who end up picking up the losses through all-too-frequent fare hikes.
In fact, city council just approved another 10-cent fare increase starting on April 1 to bring in $26 million a year in needed revenues.
But that hike, which will have a big impact on low-income people, arguably wouldn’t even be necessary if the TTC put simple systems in place to prevent riders from being able to evade paying so easily — never mind to catch fare dodgers.
There’s also this: allowing so many to ride on the TTC without paying — especially when they can easily be seen to be doing so — only encourages others to try. How did it get this bad? It doesn’t help that the TTC has hidden its head in the sand about the cost of fare evasion rather than confronting it.
As the Star’s Ben Spurr reports, the commission has consistently said about 2 per cent of riders weren’t paying, costing it some $20 million a year, even though internal reports indicated the numbers were much higher.
As well, new systems that were supposed to suppress fare evasion seem to be achieving just the opposite result.
It’s easy to trick the new gates to open, as anyone who waves a bag or umbrella in front of the sensor on the other side knows. And, as noted above, Presto readers malfunction all too often.
Worse, while it was conducting its audit the AG’s investigators found adults were using Presto cards that had been issued to children who are allowed to ride for free. That’s because no one ever thought to colour-code kids’ cards so their parents or older pals couldn’t use them with such audacity.
In the end, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if you leave a gate open to ease the crush in rush hour, it should be attended. Or that broken gates and card readers should be fixed immediately.
The good news is that even before the AG dropped her report last week, the TTC had been taking steps to reduce fare evasion.
It’s installing more CCTV cameras at subway gates, using Presto data to figure out where best to deploy fare inspectors, hiring 45 more inspectors and developing what it says is an “extensive” public education campaign.
Part of that campaign will presumably be to inform the public that fare dodgers can be hit with fines totalling $235.
That ought to make the price of a one-way fare look pretty darn appealing.
Allowing so many to ride without paying only encourages others to try