Come Feb. 26, transit riders across the Greater Toronto Area will only have to pay for one trip — regardless of how many subways, trains, streetcars and buses they take — thanks to a new fare integration system that includes the TTC.
Just before the end of the month, transferring between the TTC and other transit agencies across the GTA will be free.
Riders transferring from the GO network to the TTC will have the TTC fare reimbursed, while riders transferring between the TTC and another municipal service won’t have to pay a second fare.
“That means someone living in Barrie can take a Barrie transit bus to the GO station, ride the GO train to Downsview Park Station and take the subway to (Toronto Metropolitan University) campus, all with one fare,” Premier Doug Ford said. “Or a senior living along Toronto's beautiful waterfront can hop on the streetcar to Union Station and take the GO train to visit her grandchildren in Pickering.”
The move will save some transit users as much as $1,600, according to a government press release. It’ll also help boost transit ridership by about eight million.
The province will compensate transit agencies for lost fare-box revenue with an initial $67 million spend over two years, associate transportation minister Vijay Thanigalasam said at Monday’s announcement.
A 2023 internal government estimate — provided to Global News by a government source — pegged the cost of integrating the TTC at $100 million to $150 million over three years.
Just because the province is only announcing money for the program's first two years doesn’t mean it won’t be the norm going forward, Thanigalasam added.
“I am confident this is going to be a successful one-fare program moving forward in the long term,” he said.
Riders in 12 local transit systems have been able to connect between those agencies and the GO network free of charge for nearly two years but getting Toronto on board took more time.
There were some delays on the provincial side, too, and cabinet shuffles in the wake of the Greenbelt scandal.
Former associate transport minister Stan Cho promised to get the TTC on board by the end of 2023. He was shuffled to Long-Term Care in September 2023.
Prabmeet Sarkaria took over as minister of transportation from Caroline Mulroney on the same day.
Lowering costs for regional transit riders has long been a priority. In 2017, former premier Kathleen Wynne and former Toronto mayor John Tory agreed to cut the GO to TTC transfer fee by $1.50. The Ford government, however, let that program lapse in 2020.
Integration has been historically contentious because it costs individual transit agencies money unless the province covers the loss, which it’s now promising to do.
A Nov. 2023 TTC staff report recommended the country’s biggest transit agency join the One-Fare program in early 2024.
Liberal transportation critic Andrea Hazell applauded the move, but said she’ll “be watching vigilantly to ensure” the TTC doesn’t lose any money.
