The TTC wants to freeze fares for 2026
They just need a $1.4-billion subsidy to pull it off
For a third consecutive year, the Toronto Transit Commission is seeking to freeze fares, as per a 2026 operating budget presentation given yesterday to the commission’s strategic planning committee.
Councillor Dianne Saxe, a committee member, said “it is close to miraculous” that the TTC wants to keep transit fares as they are, while simultaneously committing to improved service, according to CBC. Saxe said the freeze would only be feasible with a $1.4-billion subsidy from the city.
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“Even with that, it’s clear we are in very big financial problems,” she said, in reference to a projected state-of-good-repair shortfall of $2.2 billion over the next five years. “These are urgent repairs we can’t pay for that are essential for being able to sustain the system.”
The meeting heard that the TTC will draw on more than half of its reserves—about $35 million—to achieve its budget. Saxe said higher orders of government should grant access to more funding.
Councillor Alejandra Bravo told CBC that regardless of city budget problems, Torontonians should not be burdened by a fare increase. “[A fare freeze] is what our riders need right now at a time when there’s an affordability crunch and huge youth unemployment rate,” said Bravo.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
