Toronto launches discounts for low-income TTC riders

Living in Toronto is expensive, and the rising costs of basics like housing and groceries are making life in Canada’s biggest city less affordable by the day. But for thousands of its most vulnerable residents, starting Wednesday the cost of riding transit will actually fall.

That’s when the first phase of the city’s Fair Fare Pass program will go into effect, offering cheaper TTC fares for eligible low-income residents.

At a press conference Tuesday to mark the start of the program, Mayor John Tory hailed the Fair Fare Pass as a key plank in the city’s poverty reduction strategy. “It is important that everyone in Toronto has access to public transit. It is transit that connects people to opportunity, and this initiative will help more Torontonians with opportunity and with affordability in our city,” he said.

Council first approved the Fair Fare Pass in December 2016. The program is being administered and paid for through the city’s employment and social services division, rather than the TTC.