Mayor John Tory announces 10-point plan to alleviate TTC crowding

Mayor John Tory has unveiled a 10-point plan to address crowding on the TTC, two weeks after subway delays almost prompted the evacuation of a busy downtown station.

Ahead of a council meeting Monday to decide on the city’s 2018 budget, the mayor announced at a city hall press conference he would support a motion to add $3 million to the TTC’s budget to address crowding.

Tory said it would be up to the transit agency, which, before the meeting, was set to receive a city subsidy of about $577 million, to decide how best to use the extra money. “I’m dedicated to making sure that the TTC is doing everything possible to minimize delays, and to ease crowding, and doing those things as soon as possible,” the mayor said.

Tory explained: “I understand how frustrating delays and crowding can be for people. I know that people want an expanded transit system as soon as possible. I know how maddening it can be when traffic and transit don’t move properly in this city.”

The mayor’s announcement came three weeks after the city budget committee, which is helmed by Tory’s hand-picked budget chief, voted down a similar motion that would have added $3.2 million to the budget to tackle crowding.

Since then, the subway network’s capacity has been under scrutiny, thanks to a series of delays on Line 1 during morning rush hour on January 30.

Bloor-Yonge station became so overloaded that the TTC came close to taking the unprecedented step of shutting it down and evacuating passengers.