Public transit systems in Canada's major cities in dire straits, CUTA warns

The Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) is warning that public transit systems in Canada's major cities are in dire straits.

The organization is urging federal and provincial governments to help, saying that if municipalities can't find the money in their budgets, a lack of funding could fall on Canadians.

“We’ve seen from Vancouver to Montreal to Halifax to across the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) as well, is there is an operating funds crisis and we’re leaving people stranded at bus stops or unable to board new capital projects that would help move people more quickly and reliably around their community and it’s really a shared federal and provincial responsibility,” says CUTA’s president Marco D’Angelo.

Global’s Amandalina Letterio reports.

#GlobalNews #transit

[ting]

they're thinking about increasing our property taxes so we can catch the bus on time because the rest of our taxes is going towards Ukraine, Israel and developers.

[terraugman]

Main reason i got a car here in EDM ....the ETS system is slow and dangerous homeless/mentally disturbed people who some bus drivers can't deal with, not every driver is an impossing 6'4, most female driver's can't deal with them nor should they have too and even when security/police get's there they basically don't do much unless said person is being violent, transit systems in cities are afraid of that 6 figure lawsuit too boot😟

[DeeSmith]

No problem. Just bring in more immigrants, send more money to India and pay more carbon taxes and the budget will not only balance itself, the infrastructure will magically fix itself also.

[wishwasvlogs]

TTC services are becoming increasingly uncomfortable and inconsistent

[CanadianExtremist]

Its almost as if these systems wern't designed for millions of Indians.. 🤷‍♂️

[andrewcrisos]

One reason they are losing money is gas prices are high. We should produce more oil in Canada.

[johnnyboyvan]

Vancouver's transit is pretty good. I don't know what people are whining about.

[practicaljoker]

Somebody needs to show CUTA president how to tie a proper Windsor knot

[DaKrawnik]

Profit until things get dire THEN do something. Rinse and
🤡🌎

[Junknown]

The substantial financial investment required for this initiative has led to a lack of political will for funding and budgeting. Elected officials, cognizant of their limited tenure in office, often defer addressing the issue, hoping their successors will take on the responsibility. This pattern of postponement has persisted for approximately two decades, resulting in a continued lack of action on this critical matter. Additionally, any construction efforts are frequently delayed, with work sites often inactive even during favorable conditions, such as at 6 PM when it is still bright outside.

[phillipv]

People stopped paying their fares, so what do you expect?

[RoboJules]

Transit should be used to help solve the housing crisis instead of further subsidizing single family sprawl. Frequent transit should serve high density neighborhoods with actual destinations, while RS1 neighborhoods that won't even allow townhomes or a walkup apartment near a bus stop should expect a bus every half hour at best. All rail stations should be the centerpiece of a square mile of higher density urbanization to drive ridership and take advantage of transit oriented land. Please stop building rail to connect parking lots and busses to connect low density sprawl. For the sake of our pocketbooks, we have to stop subsidizing sprawl and start subsidizing density.

[Funk]

Nobody wants to take the bus, the people who do just don’t have a choice

[b]

Torontos line 1 subway- the busiest in the nation is plagued by so many slow zones it has literally become unusable. I have an annual transit pass and rely on the TTC, thankfully I do not need to use line 1 to get to work but I do absolutely avoid it for other trips wherever possible. Situations like this aren't just bad for riders but also the economy, think of all the people like me who simply don't go to certain stores or events etc because the transit just sucks.

[letmedietomorrow]

Need new CEOs for the companies, and new policy makers in these cities. There's clearly no incentive for them to improve if they plan to receive bailout taxes every year.

[MultiBrodeur]

Stop asking for handouts and mismanaging the budget. If Public transit was invested into real estate over each subway station, they wouldn’t need to rely on funding. And fares should be paid based on distance. Figure it out.

[joshuabom]

We need more private transit companies like in Japan. Instead of relying on government funded transit.

[samuelo]

I mean I think Calgary is doing fairly well, except for the province trying to kneecap the new green line…
Edit: to clarify I know we are in a deficit but for the amount of people it moves the saved cost on parking space and roadrepairs I would imagine more that makes up for it

[jackjanpour]

But we are spending billions and billions and billions.

[stones]

Work close to where you live, in your community.