Public Transit

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) recently decided to implement a fare hike, from $2.75 a ride to $3. Now, as someone who lives in the city with the largest metro system in North America, I am somewhat spoiled. NYC has a 30-day metro card, that can be purchased ANY day, not just on the first of the month. It costs $89. Considering how much I use the metro that works out to less than a dollar a ride. So I admit that for me, coming back to Toronto is aggravating when taking the TTC. Not just the (now) higher expense,

but the absolute ridiculousness of how incredibly inefficient it can be sometimes.

The two lines parallel to each other at the southern end of the system, are in reality about an 8 minute walk from each other. So why put all that effort into two lines that are so close? And you might wait for 25 minutes on King St for a streetcar, only to have two or three come along at the same time. Oh, and when they implemented the fare hike, in the weeks leading up to it the TTC stopped selling tokens, to avoid 'token hoarding' (ie everyone buying the tokens at the cheaper price and hoarding them to avoid having to buy them at the elevated price). Instead their solution was to sell paper tickets, which you can't slip into the handy token slots but instead have to line up to place into the little plastic container in front of the TTC dude (who, by the way, is making probably twice as much per year as tenured academics. Ugh.). This created insane lineups in stations, and sometimes ten minute waits JUST TO PLACE YOUR TICKET IN THE BOX. I heard from a friend that as she was waiting in line one day, someone went up and opened the extra gate to the station, because they were so frustrated waiting in line. People flooded in and TTC personnel started going mad, screaming at people to get back in line. What she noticed that was most interesting though was that as this happened, EVERY SINGLE PERSON placed a ticket on top of the box. People weren't trying to gyp the TTC, they just needed to get wherever the hell they needed to go.

Anyway I've noticed that while the NYC system is certainly not perfect, there is a stronger emotional tie to it, more of an unconscious fondness of the NYC metro as compared with the TTC. And I think that maybe if the TTC worked on developing an emotional connection with their ridership, they might not have to hike fares as often. The NYC metro has commercialized their logos - you can buy countless paraphernalia with the different stops on, and in the metro system itself there are subway ads sporting poetry and art.

I was rifling through my wallet the other day and a friend, who used to live in NYC, says, looking into my wallet: "awww... NYC metrocards! I miss those." And I thought: I would never say that about a TTC token.