Province subsidized GO, UP by $140 per ride

Funding to Metrolinx came as ridership fell by 90% during pandemic

The Ontario government subsidized the use of GO Transit and UP Express at an eye-watering rate of more than $140 per trip last year, as ridership and fare revenue plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the most recent annual report from Metrolinx, the provincial agency that oversees GO and UP, the organization received an operating subsidy from the province of $961.6 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021.

Over the same period, ridership on the regional rail and bus network was just 6.8 million, a decrease of more than 90 per cent compared to the year before. The figures mean the province provided a subsidy of $141.41 per ride.

In 2018-2019, the last fiscal year to be unaffected by the pandemic, ridership was 76.2 million and Metrolinx received a provincial subsidy of $478.1 million, or about $6.25 per ride.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the dramatic subsidy increase last year was necessary because of the “unprecedented challenges” the agency faced as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Although Metrolinx cut service by about half, as millions of passengers stayed home, Aikins said reducing operations further would have meant abandoning essential workers and others who continued to rely on GO during the crisis.

“It remained a critical service, just for a lot less people,” said Aikins.

“When we would make adjustments, reduce hours, we would hear from nurses and doctors and orderlies and people that work in nursing homes that said, ‘this isn’t quite working,’ ” said Aikins, adding that Metrolinx consulted with hospitals to set schedules to suit their staff.

The transit agency found other ways to rein in costs, including reducing the number of coaches on trains and having every department review its budget for savings. But “nothing can make up for a 90-percent loss in ridership,” Aikins said.

The organization also had to invest in pandemic precautions, such as increased cleaning and improved ventilation.

Metrolinx is far from the only transit agency that’s been hard hit by COVID-19. For the calendar year of 2020, trips on the TTC were down by over 40 per cent, to about 225 million.

The annual subsidy the TTC receives from the municipal government nearly doubled last year, to about $1.3 billion, but that still worked out to only about $5.75 per trip, a fraction of what Metrolinx required.

The city was able to pay for the higher TTC subsidy thanks to a major bailout it received through the joint federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement. Metrolinx has received no pandemic operating assistance from Ottawa.

Ontario Ministry of Transportation spokesperson Kristine Bunker said Metrolinx wasn’t eligible for funding through the Safe Restart Agreement.

“As such, Ontario stepped up to provide additional funding to the agency to ensure trains and buses could keep running so that essential workers could get to work and home to their families safely throughout the pandemic,” she said.

Metrolinx has been particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic because its GO bus and rail lines were primarily designed to serve suburban commuters, who stopped travelling to downtown offices once the crisis hit.

The market for the UP Express, which links Pearson Airport to Union Station, also evaporated when the pandemic grounded flights.

As Ontario vaccination rates rise and the province gradually emerges from lockdown, Metrolinx expects to start announcing increases to service as early as next week, but it will feel the effects of the pandemic for much longer, Aikins said.

“We believe that ridership will take a year or two, or more, to recover,” she said.

“Ontario stepped up to provide additional funding to the agency to ensure trains and buses could keep running so that essential workers could get to work and home.”

KRISTINE BUNKER ONTARIO MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION SPOKESPERSON