Toronto's new one-fare program will make long commutes cheaper, but will it make them better?

Subaita Refaaf says she pays $17 each day of the week that she commutes from her Scarborough home to the University of Toronto's St. George campus.

That's over $100 a month. For a student, Refaaf says the cost, along with the time hassle — an hour on two buses, a GO train and a subway — can make for some tricky math.

"Sometimes I am kind of juggling the budget," she said. "Like you know, is it worth going to class today?"

Some relief is coming soon. On March 14, commuters will be reimbursed their single-ride TTC fare when transferring to and from GO Transit. Additionally, TTC riders will also be able to use their free two-hour transfer to and from other municipal transit agencies. 

The savings aren't guaranteed long-term.

The province has committed to fund the new one-fare program until March 2026, with the option to extend based on results.

According to a motion to the TTC board in November, the change will lower the costs of about 29 million to 36 million customer trips annually — meaning the province may have to spend $40 to $60 million to cover revenue the TTC will lose through free transfers.

While lower fares are popular and may help boost ridership, there are bigger considerations, says transit advocate Shelagh Pizey-Allen, who is executive director of TTC Riders.

"It's a discount that's long overdue, but it's just part of the equation of building ridership back," she said. "We also need [better] service and for that we need permanent provincial funding for the TTC."

Program 'not enough' to sustain ridership

Though free transfers are new for commuters, this isn't the first time the province has subsidized transfers between the TTC and GO Transit.

The Ontario government under Kathleen Wynne introduced a similar program in 2017, but Doug Ford's government discontinued it in 2020, when funding for the program expired.

Pizey-Allen says the change went largely unnoticed as a result of TTC ridership plummeting due to pandemic restrictions that soon followed.

TTC Riders would like to see a simple flat rate fare for all transit in the GTHA, be it TTC rides, GO Transit or the Union Pearson Express. 

Further, Pizey-Allen says the city needs to focus on the service itself, particularly as the TTC contends with low ridership, budget woes and service cuts, as well as concerns around safety and security.

"If the service isn't there, you know, people are still not going to choose to take the TTC or the GO network, if they can't count on it coming when they need it," she said.

Province says affordability is key

The TTC has reversed cuts on some transit lines recently, and the province still says the potential savings from a free transfer are likely to reverse flailing ridership numbers.

Commuters who regularly transfer between the TTC and GO Transit could save around $1,600 a year, Associate Transportation Minister Vijay Thanigasalam told CBC Toronto.

"This program is coming all over GTHA," he said. "That will definitely bring more people attracted toward the transit system, because we want to make sure when people go from point A to point B, it is affordable."

Other municipalities in southern Ontario already have the same arrangement between their transit systems and GO Train service. Those changes are still relatively new, coming into effect in 2023.

While Refaaf says the program will go "a long way" by shaving $6.60 off each commute day, she says it's not enough.

The hassle of getting across town, she says, is a bigger barrier than cost. Simpler, more reliable service and routes would make Refaaf more likely to take transit every day.

"Using three different modes of transit to get to school, it just reduces my freedom," she said.