Why Toronto mayoral candidate Chris Alexander wants to hike TTC fares - Toronto Star

His plan includes raising adult fares while reducing fares for seniors and youth.

Former MP Chris Alexander speaks during the Daily Bread Food Bank debate on Monday.

Mayoral candidate Chris Alexander said he would raise TTC fares for adults and staff more plainclothes inspectors on streetcars, if elected, in a bid to reverse what he describes as a crisis of waning ridership and reliability across the transit system.

“This is a plan to restore the viability of the TTC,” he said at a Friday afternoon press conference outside Davisville station. “To stop running it down, which the current mayor has done for three years, to restore revenue, to restore the reserves, to get ridership back up.” 

TTC fares have been frozen at $3.30 since 2024. Incumbent mayor Olivia Chow has said she would extend this until at least 2028, if re-elected next month. Before the freeze, fares went up an average of about 4.6 cents a year since the TTC opened its first subway line in 1954. According to the TTC, raising fares five cents generates about $13 million.

Earlier this year, the TTC board warned of a “terrifying” $397 million budget shortfall next year that would require either a $1.90 fare hike to cover, or funding from the province. 

Alexander would increase adult fares 10 cents at off-peak times and 20 cents during morning and evening rush hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. He would, at the same time, reduce fares for seniors and youth by 15 cents, create a $120 post-secondary monthly pass and reduce the fare for Torontonians using the city’s low-income discount by 10 cents. Alexander claims this would add millions of riders and $43 million in revenue annually.

The candidate would also crack down on fare evasion, which costs the TTC an estimated $140 million a year, in large part through a “significant plainclothes contingent” of fare evasion inspectors, expanding on a pilot program already in place. Alexander said at a debate earlier in the week that some money he saved by curbing fare evasion would go toward his 10-year, $62 million arts funding program. 

“If you’re on the Queen Street streetcar and you poke your head inside and there’s no one there in the uniform right now, you’re pretty sure you’re not going to get a fine,” he said. “Anyone who wants to evade fares needs to know that there could be someone not wearing a uniform who’s going to hold them to account.” 

Executive director of transit advocacy group TTCriders Andrew Pulsifer said while wanting to reduce fares for students, seniors and youth is laudable, he is a “strong proponent of universality” and would prefer to see fares reduced across the board. Raising fares for anyone, he said, is unacceptable during an affordability crisis. 

“We consistently hear from riders that fares are too high already,” said Pulsifer, who worked on Chow’s campaign in the 2023 mayoral byelection. “Ten cents adds up over months and years. The TTC is not a business, it’s a public service. We need to ask for funding from the provincial and federal governments.” 

Alexander said his TTC platform is more “detailed” and “substantial” than what his competitors have unveiled so far. Brad Bradford has pledged to build platform-edge doors on the subway, which would cost an estimated $4.1 billion, but did not immediately explain where the money would come from, saying at a press conference Thursday that he would share the “financial particulars” at a later date. Chow promised to reduce the fare cap she instituted this year — meaning the amount of rides commuters have to take before subsequent trips become free — from 47 per month to 40. This, she said, would cost $12.2 million. Alexander said he would keep the cap at 47. 

Chow accused Alexander in a statement Friday evening of “hurting working people” with his proposal at a time of “economic uncertainty.”

“Chris Alexander’s proposal takes money directly from a family’s household budget,” she said. “Instead of making the TTC more affordable, Mr. Alexander wants to make it harder for Toronto families to make ends meet each month.”

Bradford’s campaign did not return a request for comment by deadline.

Ben Cohen is part of the Star's city hall bureau, based in Toronto. Follow him on X: @bcohenn.