TTC considering switching to time-based transfers

The TTC is considering switching from the single continuous trip transfer system to a time-based transfers.

It would allow riders to get off a bus (or streetcar or subway), run an errand, and then make the return trip with the same transfer.

Officials say there is a benefit to the customer, but it comes with a cost.

“If you had, for example, a two-hour time-based transfer, the cost we imagine would be approximately $20 million annually,” TTC spokesman Brad Ross told 680News.

“For a 90-minute transfer, that would mean a $12-million loss,” Ross told CityNews.

The revenue loss would have to be made up by an additional subsidy from the federal government, the province or the city. That funding is not guaranteed.

The Toronto Transit Commission will look at a report on the proposal at their meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

The meeting will also consider eliminating some of its closely spaced streetcar stops to speed up trips and improve rider safety as part of a review of its more than 10,000 bus and streetcar stops.

Staff is proposing the commission get rid of the 39 Sunday stops, which were established many years ago to reduce the walking distance to nearby downtown churches. They are “lightly used” and less than 100 metres from a regular streetcar stop.

If it’s approved, it’s hoped the plan would be implemented by 2015 in time for the full rollout of the Presto card system and the Pan Am Games.

What do you think of the plan? Let us know in the comments.

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