At TTC headquarters, where a meeting of the agency's audit committee is about to begin. Main attraction is dual reports on fare evasion, which I wrote about here: thestar.com/news/gta/2020/…
Those reports spell out the TTC's plans to crack down on fare evasion. Days after they dropped fare inspectors were filmed in a violent confrontation with a streetcar rider. thestar.com/news/gta/2020/…
The committee is made up of three TTC board members, none of them councillors. Only two of them are here today. Councillors tend to be a bit more talkative, so not sure how much contentious discussion we'll get on the fare evasion issue, which has sparked a lot of public debate.
TTC CEO Ricky Leary is not here today. Deputy CEO Kirsten Watson is here however.
Here's @GraphicMatt on the fare evasion debate: thestar.com/opinion/contri…
Speaking to committee, @ttcriders director Shelagh Pizey-Allen says report before us "makes a really big assumption about why people are not paying… it points the finger at individual behaviour rather than the barriers to paying for transit," such as affordability, Presto.
"People sometimes want to pay but can't," says Pizey-Allen. She says Presto machines on the streetcar she took this morning weren't working.
"We don't think that fare enforcement will solve these root causes," Pizey-Allen says. "It's really criminalizing and hurting people who are the poorest in our city."
CEO Rick Leary has arrived.
Deputant Sean Meagher says incidents like last Friday's altercation between inspectors and a rider undermine the public's confidence in the enforcement system.
Leary gives some brief prepared remarks about last Friday's incident. "I do take this very seriously," he says, TTC puts safety of customers and employees first.
Leary urges against speculating what happened on the streetcar. "For the TTC it’s about factual accounts," he says, adding that TTC immediately pulled streetcar out of service to get onboard security camera footage of the incident.
The incident involved both fare inspectors and TTC special constables. The latter are peace officers empowered through an agreement with the police board. Leary says TTC has duty to report incidents involving special constables to TPS, who can defer investigation back to TTC.
Leary reiterated that TTC is in the process hiring an external investigator to look into the incident.
According to TTC study, about 1/3 of all fare evasion network wide is attributable to fraudulent use of child Presto cards. (Chart on left). 
The kids ride free rule is one of Mayor John tory's signature transit policies, which has been welcomed by transit and anti-poverty advocates. But this is the apparent downside, exacerbated by the Presto system. Child cards don't look different than regular ones.
Also notable that TTC believes 1/3 of evasion is deliberate fraud, rather than simply boarding without paying. Critics of TTC policy have argued people don't pay because they can't afford to.
Carlos Santos, president of largest TTC workers union ATU Local 113, tells committee fare evasion is a result of agency reducing number of front-line collectors, faulty Presto machines.
Santos claims that fare evasion actually costs the TTC more than $100 million a year, instead of the ~$70 million the agency's audit report found.
Should note that ATU Local 113 doesn't represent transit officers. Santos says solution is more fare collectors in booths, not hiring more fare inspectors or special constables.
Santos raises Presto, which is owned by provincial transit agency Metrolinx, as significant source of fare evasion. "The commission has lost control of its own fare collection system, with predictable results," he says.
TTC presentation says that up to 89 per cent of *all* taps using a Presto child cards could be fraudulent, given patterns in data. For one thing, the appear to be a lot of children under 12 attending York University.
Leary says he spoke recently to Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster about the child card issue, and "he’s agreed that he’ll look at the child card," with intent to introduce some visual distinction. City AG flagged this need a year ago.
TTC board member Ron Lalonde asks whether agency is considering getting rid of child Presto card, and just allowing kids to ride for free without one. Deputy CEO Watson says "that option remains on the table" but is not the recommendation at this time.
Watson refers to child Presto card abuse as a "massive problem."
Audit committee meeting is done.
