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Cut and drive

With the slashing of the vehicle registration tax and proposed TTC fare hike, Rob Ford’s first budget favoured vehicle owners over transit riders, clearly. But what’s with cutting TTC bus routes?

1. An obvious question but one that has to be asked: if the routes set for the chopping block are so underused – TTC chair Karen Stintz says some routes have fewer than 12 riders an hour – then why were they established in the first place? Er, customer service?

2. If the plan is to encourage people from all walks of life to use transit, why axe routes into hoods just north of the core where people who usually drive might be encouraged to take the bus from time to time? I’m think here of the Avenue Road routes, Forest Hill and Mount Pleasant routes, all of which have are to be reduced to no service after 7 p.m. on weekdays and no service at all on weekends and holidays under the proposed cuts.

3. How are the poor fuckers who work late in the burbs going to get home now that there’s no bus service planned on a dozen routes in the far reaches of Etobicoke and Scarberia after 10 p.m.? Let me guess, they’ll have to take cabs they can’t afford? Routes slated for service reductions include on Bellamy, Cummer, Kennedy, Milner, Morningside, Rathburn and Royal York.

4. Why are bus routes in the core serving emerging areas being considered for cutbacks? Both the 127 Davenport and 26 Dupont routes, which serve the north Annex and hard-to-reach spots all the way up to St. Clair West and Old Weston, as well as the Junction and Bloor West areas, will no longer be running after 10 p.m. on weekdays under the TTC’s plan.

5. Is the endgame to make the TTC even more difficult for Torontonians to use? You gotta wonder when a 10-cent fare hike has been proposed with the cuts in bus service. Will the next step be privatization? No doubt. The province is not committing to stable funding for the TTC this year or next. And the Ford crew doesn’t seem inclined to push transit, unless it’s underground and means big density bonuses for developers.

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