Dear Urban Diplomat: how should I fight people sneaking onto the streetcar without paying?
Dear Urban Diplomat,
I ride the King streetcar every day, and lately I’ve noticed people sneaking on through the rear doors without paying. I know it’s allowed on Queen Street if you have proof of payment, but it’s not allowed on my route. I mentioned it to the driver and he said, “Nothing I can do.” The price of the Metropass just went up again. It’s unfair that honest riders have to subsidize the scammers. I want to do something, but what?
—A Streetcar Named Defrauder, King and Sherbourne
I understand your annoyance and admire your sense of civic responsibility, but I don’t recommend you style yourself as a petty-crimes Batman. Fall into that trap and you’ll go bonkers restraining jaywalkers and chastising zigzagging bike couriers. Plus, standing up to a scofflaw has sucker punch written all over it. Some battles call for confronting the perp. This isn’t one of them. What you can do is submit a formal complaint to the TTC and your city councillor. What you should do is download some whale sounds and practise travelling inward to your happy place.
Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com
hey, why isn’t there proof of payment access on king streetcars?
I completely agree with you, it really is frustrating when you are honest about these things and other people misuse it to their advantage. I have noticed at Spadina and Dundas that there is sometimes an extra ttc staffer that stands on the Northbound platform and monitors people getting on through the back door. We should start doing this more at times when the streetcar routes are busy!
In defense of the people who “sneak” through the rear doors of the streetcar without paying… you have you understand that the King streetcar is absolutely packed every morning. It’s so bad that sometimes streetcars don’t even stop at the stop unless someone needs to get off. And even if a streetcar does stop, the front is often packed and the rear doors are your only opportunity to get on. It’s a rare sight to see a streetcar with an open front section during rush hour in the morning. As a result, people do what they need to do to get to work on time, and they use the back doors. I assume that most of these people aren’t trying to cheat the system, but rather, it’s the only thing that they can do in a frustrating morning commute.
Correct.
In reality, the people that look like they are sneaking on the streetcar through the back doors without paying are actually the people that use the TTC the most. Metropass holders. I often have to let at least 3 streetcars go by (on a daily basis) before I can squeeze on in the hope of getting to get to work on time. You’re damn right my metropass and I are getting on through the back if we need to.
I know many other Metropass holders that do this as well. It’s not our fault city hall is building transit where they hope it will attract new users (Scarborough, subway to Vaughan) instead of building it where it’s already overused and woefully behind current demand, and will only fall further behind as more and more people move to the areas surround King and Queen.
I agree wholeheartedly that sometimes the backdoor entry is
the only way to get to work on time. But you’re also right that from
time to time (as a non-metropass holder) I don’t pay. But frankly for the
service that I am given (and as far as I’m concerned) it’s owed to me, the TTC steals my fares regularly.
I can name multiple occasions this winter alone where because of shorturning cars,
cars that go out of service, back log due to accidents…I have to get off the
streetcar half way to or from work when I have paid full fare and I have to
walk the remainder of my route because there’s no streetcars in sight.
How is it possible that when I’m dropped at Queen & Parliament
and told another streetcar will be along shortly that I can wait for 10
minutes, give up and walk all the way to Queen and Carlaw (my stop) and not a
single eastbound streetcar has come along as promised? Because the system is outdated and completely unreliable. I’m being lied to as a passenger (…guess what TTC…I can tell you’re lying…or didn’t you know consumers can download multiple smartphone apps that tell me with accuracy that there’s no streetcar on its way!)
I will be fair in my assessments of the TTC in a fair situation (bad weather/accidents…it happens) but when unexplained disruptions kick me off the streetcar through a partial journey (and they do…frequently)…as far as I’m concerned…the TTC has stolen my fare. So guess what…I’m just returning the gesture by hoping on those back doors now and then.
PS – let’s not forget the summer of 2013 where downtown construction just led me to walk regularly to and from work because it was faster than taking the streetcars which were all bottlenecked downtown. I didn’t help those metropass holders then either becaude the TTC didn’t even get any of my individual fares.
There is at certain stops along king.. BUT ONLY when there is a TTC supervisor to Stand at the back doors and check to be sure those boarding have POP or a metro pass… It’s insane to me that a relief route has not yet been built or that they have not put more double cars on the king street route… When you have to wait for more then 4 cars to pass just to board and you have not even hit Dufferin, let alone Liberty village! This city transit is deplorable and we NEED FEDERAL funding! The service keeps getting worse and the price to ride keeps getting higher…Can you honestly you blame people for “getting a free ride” every now and again?
Let it go. Maybe they forgot their wallet at home. Maybe they spent all their money and now need to get home. As a former caseworker looking after the Homeless population I have heard from former clients of kind acts with TTC drivers allowing them to ride for free to shelter them from the weather! Coffee shops are now promoting a “Pay it Forward” program allowing paying customers to pay for coffees in advance for those who can’t afford to pay. Maybe the TTC could adopt a similar program.
I would like to hear more about the kind acts people do for one another than hear about the occasional person not paying for a ride. This could be your family member trying to get home next time.
Sorry, your sympathy for the homeless population doesn’t help the tax payers. Why should they get a free ride? I think an act of kindness is awesome and have done that- HOWEVER-I don’t think that the TTC should enforce payment for some and not others. Its discrimination. And if you spent all your money thats your fault- perhaps you should have thought about that before buying crap. Its expensive to live in this city and the people who contribute are carrying the burden of those who don’t.
Allowing a homeless person a free ride to the shelter doesn’t cost anything more as the bus would be running that route anyways. It doesn’t cost any more gas to drive 5 people to a destination than it does 4 right? So what burden are you talking about? Why should they get a free ride? Because life is shitting on them right now and they need a break.
The absolute worst is being short-turned at Church Street, I have to walk the remainder of my trip to St. Lawrence Street almost EVERYDAY. Its ridiculous.
Also, I will be sneaking on the back of the streetcar until I get $30 worth of rides for last night when I was taken off the Queen streetcar at Yonge street on my way home from work at 5 am (because of a Pneumatics problem) then left on the street only to watch the car continue on its way – leaving me and 6 other passengers to CAB home together because the wait for the next car was 67 minutes.
As a number of people have already mentioned, people often get on at the back doors because streetcar riders apparently have some sort of mental problem that leads them to bunch up at the front of the car, making it impossible to get on, while the back of the car is relatively empty. This certainly isn’t helped by the kids (and some adults) in backpacks that stand up front, blithely taking up two peoples’ worth of space when the car is rammed.
I don’t have a metropass and I often get on at the back doors on my route (Carlton) for this very reason. I’m clearly not doing it to save money, since I’m connecting to the subway anyway and I’ll have to pay my fare when I get there.
I am desperately trying to be an adult here and not make a lewd joke about “back-door entry…”