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The year it all went down the tubes for the TTC

Flack, Derek
http://www.blogto.com/city/2016/04/the_year_it_all_went_down_the_tubes_for_the_ttc/

Publisher:  BlogTO
Date Written:  01/02/2016
Year Published:  2016  
Resource Type:  Article

Flack analyzes the provincial budget cuts imposed by the Mike Harris Conservatives and the resulting lack of funding that led to the Toronto Transit Commission having to increasingly rely on revenue from ridership to fund transit, leading to a decrease in customer satisfaction, a lack of opportunity for expansion, and general decline.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

In the 1980s and early '90s, the TTC really was the better way. A cash fare hovered around a dollar, service levels met the cities needs, and the transit provider could even advertise how great it was on television. Not only that, but big plans were in the works to expand the TTC over the next few decades to ensure that it met Toronto's rapidly growing population. Then everything changed.

The date was June 26, 1995. Mike Harris was elected the 22nd Premier of Ontario, and one of his first orders of business was to cut provincial contributions to the TTC's capital projects. The Eglinton West Line, which had broken ground only a year before, was promptly killed.

That spelled the end of major expansion projects until the arrival of the Sheppard Line in 2002, though that remains one of the most ill-conceived plans the TTC has seen come to fruition given its ridership numbers.

After funding was slashed to capital projects in 1995, subsidies to the TTC's operating budget were also killed in 1998. That's when service really took a hit. Transit expansion was certainly important, but ridership only climbed with the formation of the Megacity, and the TTC had less money to cover its day-to-day operations.

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