Olivia Chow said that if she is re-elected, she will introduce a new weekly TTC fare cap, the latest announcement by a mayoral candidate to put the city’s transit system on the fall ballot.
How Chow’s new TTC plan would work
Under Chow’s proposal, announced at a campaign stop in Scarborough on Friday, riders would only need to pay to use the transit system 10 times during a week before they can ride for free.
“No monthly pass, no big payment up front. Ride more, pay less,” she said. “That’s money you can use to pay your bills, that’s money you can keep in your pocket.”
Chow, who also promised that she would freeze TTC fares a fourth year in a row, said the new fare cap, to be rolled out in September 2027, would cost next year’s budget $12.2 million.
On Sept. 1, the TTC launched a fare cap that lets people ride for free after they pay for 47 trips in a calendar month — an initiative Chow frequently points to as a way she is trying to make Torontonians’ lives more affordable.
The 47-trip version of the fare cap is expected to cost the TTC and the city $3.5 million in the final months of 2026. The transit agency has previously estimated that over a full year, it would cost $10 million and attract an extra 3.6 million riders.
Last year, Chow told the TTC to come up with a plan to lower the fare-capping threshold to 40 monthly trips for 2027, which would cost about $35 million per year, which a Chow spokesperson said would be roughly the same annual amount for the weekly cap.
The 10-ride a week cap would be in addition to the 40 rides a month the TTC is studying, to offer “more flexibility for different travel patterns.”
The TTC’s monthly pass is currently priced at $156, which is roughly the equivalent of the cost of 47 Presto adult fares.
Rivals question whether cheaper fares fix transit’s real problems
A spokesperson for Brad Bradford, one of two main rivals to Chow in the mayor’s race, said the announcement about fare capping sidesteps the real issue.
“People aren’t choosing the TTC because under Mayor Chow it isn’t safe and it isn’t reliable,” said Mark Pelayo.
To improve transit, Bradford has proposed police officers at every subway station, platform edge doors and a refund policy for lengthy TTC delays. He has said a funding plan for his policies will be announced later in his campaign.
Chris Alexander, polling third in the mayor’s race, said Friday he supports the idea of fare capping but that he wouldn’t lower the 47-ride cap.
He also said he disagrees with yearly fare freezes, calling Chow’s pledge “populism” that isn’t worth it if it means losing millions in TTC revenue.
“It’s not a bad idea in principle. But going from 47 to 40 is a big drop and a big loss of revenue,” he said, adding that he would want to have a targeted fare cap and freeze for people who need it most like students and seniors.
“We need a combination of measures to generate more revenue, more ridership, and above all, better reliability,” he said. “All of those issues are on the table as far as I’m concerned, including a fare that rises with inflation, and including fares that go down for those who most need the break.”
Steve Munro, transit expert, said the 10-ride cap may help attract more riders to the TTC, but it’s only part of the story.
“If we’re going to have promises about fares, what are we going to do about service quality and quantity?” he said.
Munro said the TTC claims it has restored service levels to pre-pandemic levels, but that isn’t exactly accurate.
“They measure how much service is running based on vehicle hours,” he said. “But the problem is that because vehicles are running more slowly today than they did seven years ago, they don’t provide as much service.”
Munro said problems like traffic congestion need to be fixed in parallel with promises like a reduced fare cap.
Andrew Pulsifer, executive director of advocacy group TTCriders, said a reduced fare cap is always welcome, but he questioned what the province’s Bill 98 would do to such a policy. The Star revealed in April that a confidential TTC document warned that the province’s new law gives Doug Ford‘s government powers to take over the TTC to regulate fare prices and even share revenue with other transit systems.
“We don’t know what the future of fare capping will be if the entire region is integrated into one fare system,” said Pulsifer.
With the current trade war with the U.S. hitting Canadians’ pocketbooks, Pulsifer said he doesn’t think Torontonians can afford a fare increase.
The municipal election is on Oct. 26.
