TTC lost $61 million to freeloading fare evaders in 2018
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Fare evaders cost the cash-strapped TTC an estimated $61 million last year, the Toronto Auditor has revealed.
Faulty Presto equipment — which is the responsibility of the provincial agency Metrolinx — shortchanges the system for another $3.4 million, the auditor estimates.
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A video released by the office of Auditor General Beverley Romeo-Beehler Thursday shows the freeloaders in action, including one fare evader who has trained a dog to open a TTC gate.
The situation is so bad on streetcars, where a proof of payment system is in place, that an estimated 15 out of every 100 passengers got on last year without paying their fare.
About 5% of bus riders and just under 4% of subway riders failed to pay, auditors found.
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One of the scams that auditors uncovered involved adults using children’s Presto cards, which are identical in design.
The TTC is planning to hike all fares with the exception of adult cash by 10 cents on April 1 as it looks for funds to maintain and expand the system.
Chair Jaye Robinson said the 2019 budget calls for the addition of 70 new “revenue protection positions,” or fare enforcement staff.
“Fare evasion is a critical issue that has gone far too long without being accurately quantified under the legacy fare collection system,” Robinson said in a statement. “As a regular transit user, I know how frustrating fare evasion is for the residents of Toronto who consistently pay to travel on the TTC. Fare evasion has a significant impact on the TTC’s operating revenue and transit service.”
As for Presto, the provincially-mandated program, Robinson said she will be chatting with Metrolinx about the problems with maintaining the readers as the TTC moves to full implementation.
“Despite the difficult transition to this new system, Presto will provide us with an opportunity to track fare evasion more consistently and accurately than ever before,” she said. “This valuable data will give us a better picture of ridership and allow us to identify system priorities.”
The TTC has reported falling ridership, but the Auditor General points out that numbers are skewed by the fare evaders because they are not counted.
The overall fare evasion rate is estimated at 5.4%.
“The total estimated annual revenue loss of $64 million is probably understated, as we were not able to quantify the loss due to the malfunction of TTC’s subway fare gate equipment and the use of crash gates at subway stations,” the auditor general’s report says.
The report makes 27 recommendations for improvements, starting with setting an acceptable target and develop short and long-term strategies to reach it.
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