Toronto has one of the world’s most unaffordable transit systems

Complaining about the TTC is a rite of passage as old as, well, the TTC.

I’m not going to get into all of the grievancves here and, honestly, riding the rocket really ain’t all that bad. But it is expensive, and that’s a problem.

According to the bargain-hunting website Picodi, Toronto is home to one of the most unaffordable transit systems in the world. The city ranks 5th-worst based on monthly ticket to net wage ratio. Twenty-four major cities were surveyed.

Check it out:

“With the average net pay of C$3,532 (Numbeo data as of March 2020), [Torontonians] would have to spend almost 4.5 per cent of their hard-earned money on public transport pass,” reads the report.

The TTC’s biggest problem, of course, is lack of funding. Despite the Greater Toronto Area being home to a quarter of the country’s population, financial support from the federal and provincial governments is wildly insufficient. That means the TTC is one of the few major transit systems primarily funded by rider fares.

Here’s how Toronto compares to other Canadian cities: