No Cuts to TTC Bus Routes

At the end of 2010, the city of Toronto was left with a budget surplus. Unfortunately, this influx is not enough to stop Mayor Ford from imposing his slash-and-burn policies. The latest victims of Ford's ideals are public transit riders on 41 "underperforming" bus routes, whose service is set to be cut starting in May.

To push this agenda, the TTC is using skewed numbers to make ridership look slimmer than it is. Councillor Josh Matlow has done independent research finding over double the TTC's claimed ridership on the 74 Mount Pleasant bus between the hours of 7-10 pm (95 vs. 43).

Further adding insult to injury, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong is blaming riders protesting the cuts as being part of the problem. This is an attack on these riders, who must now reroute and spend a significantly larger amount of time on their feet at the darkest hours.

As a regular rider on one of these "underperforming" routes, I can attest that with improved service (more consistent schedule adherence, replacement buses arriving when buses go down, etc) to the already thinly spread routes, ridership would improve substantially.

Ford has been vague in pinpointing how service will be improved in certain inner city suburbs. He has neglected to acknowledge just how much most of the routes on the chopping block impact the inner city suburbs, which, might I add, were the driving force behind Ford's election this past October.

Toronto, let's stand up to our Council and demand what's right: no bogus cuts to already under-serviced routes. By signing this petition, we are urging the TTC to reverse its decision to reduce 41 bus routes and find creative ways to continue to improve their service in other areas.