One city councillor is calling for a money-back guarantee if there’s a delay of 15 minutes or more on the TTC.
Brad Bradford says under his “back-to-basics, customer-first approach,” TTC riders would get a refund when their trip is significantly delayed, similar to what is in place for GO Transit riders.
Bradford, a mayoral candidate, says the guarantee would apply across the entire transit system but would not say who would pay for the “guarantee” and how much it would cost.
“When I look at jurisdictions around the world that have done this, it typically is a fraction of a percentage of total trips,” said Bradford. “But again, as a customer, there’s nothing more frustrating than being at a station and getting kicked back up and put on buses.”
“This is really a measure to say we need more accountability, we need better performance, and we need policies in place like this to drive a culture of performance and accountability at the TTC.”
A motion is set to go before City Council next week that, if adopted, would direct the TTC to implement a refund program.
Bradford’s comments came on the same morning delays due to switch issues plagued the newly opened Finch LRT for several hours.
“TTC is not the maintainer of the LRTs, that’s the third party,” said TTC Chair and fellow councillor Jamaal Myers when asked about the delays. “TTC is the operator, we drive it, that’s it.”
On Wednesday, the TTC Board approved a motion asking its CEO to work with Metrolinx, the City, and the consortium that built Line 6 to get signal priority for the LRT. However, any change is not expected before the new year.
