QUOTED: Mayoral candidate David Soknacki on 2014’s TTC fare hike

QUOTED: Mayoral candidate David Soknacki on 2014’s TTC fare hike

(Image: Nayu Kim)

“By raising prices on passes, while holding the line on cash fares, Transit Commissioners implicitly made [a decision] in favour of infrequent transit users over those who use the system regularly enough to purchase Metropasses.”

—Declared mayoral candidate and former city budget chief David Soknacki, in a blog post about 2014’s TTC fare increases, which are set to go into effect on Wednesday. His point is that the TTC board’s decision to hold cash fares steady at $3 while increasing the prices of tokens and Metropasses (by five cents and $5.25, respectively) effectively puts the burden of propping up the TTC’s perennially wobbly budget on the shoulders of frequent users. Soknacki thinks that the narrowing price gap will discourage people from becoming regular public-transit riders.