Toronto councillor wants TTC to start giving back money to riders facing delays of 15 minutes or more

Toronto City Councillor Brad Bradford discusses his plan to improve transit in the city.

A Toronto councillor wants the city’s transit system to launch a “money-back guarantee” for riders who experience delays of 15 minutes or more.

Councillor Brad Bradford, who is running for mayor, made the announcement on Thursday, saying his motion will help restore “trust and accountability” in the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).

“As a TTC customer you are paying for service but far too often the TTC is not delivering on their end of the bargain,” Bradford said on Thursday. “It is a accountability exercise, it’s about respecting our customers’ time and it’s about making the TTC more reliable.”

The motion, which would be presented to city council next week, states that TTC customers would receive a refund when their trip is significantly delayed similar to the GO Transit system and some international cities like London, Washington and Singapore.

“For too long, riders have not been getting value for money,” Bradford said. “People routinely add 20 or 30 minutes to every commute because they expect something to go wrong.”

The guarantee would apply across the entire system, including for subways, buses and streetcars. Bradford added that the strategy would make the TTC more reliable because its revenue would be on the line.

“I expect the TTC will pull up its socks and start delivering better for our customers and I think the downstream benefit of that is that is going to bring more people back to the TTC,” he said.

“Ridership is still not at the levels that we saw before the pandemic. It’s creating a revenue shortfall year after year and so we have to improve safety. We have to improve reliability.”

If adopted at city hall next week, the TTC Board will be directed to implement the refund program.

A spokesperson for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told CTV News Toronto on Thursday that Bradford along with the previous city administration allowed the TTC to “crumble and become more unreliable, all while service was cut and fares were raised repeatedly.”

“Mayor Chow has made record investments in the TTC and has a real plan for making transit more affordable, reliable and safe. The mayor has frozen fares for three years running and is working towards making the TTC free after 47 rides per month, while providing record investment in repairing our aging transit system and increasing service,” the spokesperson said.

“The mayor has also invested heavily in increased safety personnel, including more mental health workers and police on the TTC.”

Bradford said The TTC already tracks delay data and arrival times, which will make implementation of the initiative feasible within existing infrastructure.

“This isn’t reinventing the wheel. The TTC has the technology, the data, and the capacity to deliver this quickly,” Bradford said. “What’s been missing is accountability.”