By Molly Simpson

A Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) report released for November found a decline in street car on-time arrivals and a four per cent dip in boardings, reflecting the frustration of commuters with the transit system as a whole.

“The report stated the TTC was $30.1 million under budget”

The Chief Executive Officer’s November report focused on street car performance measurements. It also showed the metrics for other TTC transportation methods, including reliability, cleanliness, elevator accessibility and safety.

According to the report, the TTC was $30.1 million under budget. It stated this was due to “fewer international postsecondary students, inclement weather in Q1, and a softer-than-expected economic environment.”

Street car performance in September was also affected by traffic congestion, road closures and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Barbara Goss, a first-year computer science master’s student, commutes with her bike all year. She said she finds the TTC too unreliable to commute to school, only taking transit if it’s “really heavily snowing.”

Goss said she had a bad experience when she needed to be on time for a class demo and decided to take the TTC during bad weather. “I ended up getting short-turned…randomly in the middle of…nowhere,” she said. Another streetcar was meant to come get them, but when Goss checked, the next street car was 40 minutes away, she said.

Goss said she ended up taking a taxi to make it to her class. She would take the TTC if it were more reliable, saying she “love[s] public transit.”

Gabriel Joseph Remot, a second-year urban and regional planning student, had a different, more positive experience on the TTC.

Remot often makes “small talk,” with the people around him, finding the people on the subway to be friendly. He said he’s found a sense of community while commuting. “I meet people on the subway, we’re not going to the same place but I see them at the same time…say hi.”

Polly Yang, a second-year accounting and finance student, takes the streetcar for her commute to school but has issues with the TTC’s timeliness.

“I do generally like it…when it works optimally”

Much of the transportation methods were below the TTC’s 90 per cent reliability targets including buses, streetcars and Line 1, according to the report.

“I do generally like it…when it works optimally,” Yang said. “I had to go to an exam, and the streetcars just would not come. There were no updates, I had to walk all the way to campus which took an hour.”

The delay was due to a streetcar malfunction at Dundas and Bathurst Streets, something Yang didn’t learn until she walked there and saw it herself.

In an email statement to The Eyeopener, a TTC representative said the information in the report was current only to September. “We continue to look for internal efficiencies and expect to see a revenue bump this fall as more workers return to office in the [f]all,” the email read.

“Frontline services,” such as buses, streetcars and subways, “will not be impacted,” they said in regards to the budget shortfall.