More than half a decade after the COVID-19 pandemic emptied Toronto’s buses, subways and streetcars, the city’s transit agency is still struggling to recover and hit its ridership targets.
The Toronto Transit Commission has frozen fares for three years, slowly ramped up service and opened a new rapid transit line, but ridership is still lower than in 2019 and falling below expectations.
According to the agency’s 2026 budget document, hopes that more mandatory return-to-work orders would result in more passengers were misguided.
“Despite employer policy changes in Fall 2025 requiring more in-office workdays, no significant ridership increase has been observed,” the document found. “In fact, Fall 2025 ridership slightly declined versus expectations.”
The agency said any ridership growth from office returns had been damaged by layoffs, non-compliance and plummeting numbers of international students.
Instead of increasing this year, ridership on the TTC has fallen well short of its budget expectations, even dropping below the numbers for 2024.
It means the agency is still struggling to recover from work-from-home, habit changes and new commuter patterns caused by the pandemic. That’s a ghost the GTA-905 cities of Brampton and Mississauga shook years ago.
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A recent report from the TTC’s CEO found that, as of October, rides were six per cent lower than the budget had predicted and 2.4 per cent lower than the year before. They stood at 78 per cent of pre-pandemic figures.
That update included a slew of poor performance measures for the system. While subways were 91 per cent on time, streetcars performed at just 61 per cent on time and buses at 74 per cent.
Boardings were down six per cent for buses, up four per cent for subways and steady for streetcars.
Customer satisfaction sat at 66 per cent overall, a five per cent drop on the year before. It dropped 10 per cent for streetcars in 2025 compared with 2024.
“It concerns me greatly that ridership isn’t meeting projections — it also doesn’t surprise me, given the reality of how more people since the pandemic have been working from home,” Coun. Josh Matlow said.
“People also want a system that is safe and reliable, and the number of delays and interruptions … has a direct impact on the experience that riders have and then people make choices that are better for their lives.”
To maintain its service levels as ridership stutters, the TTC will withdraw $35 million from its rainy day fund to “help offset reduced passenger revenues and maintain fare affordability.”
In 2026, ridership is expected to grow fractionally from 16 million boardings each week to 16.2 million by the end of the year. Through the course of the whole year, rides are expected to increase from 414 million to 426 million.
The recently opened Finch West LRT is predicted to add 700,000 rides next year. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which sources have suggested will open in February, would add 2.4 million journeys.
In the face of lower ridership, the TTC and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow are doubling down on rider support.
Chow has announced she plans to introduce fare capping for riders midway through 2026, while fares will be frozen again next year.
“To attract riders back to the TTC, the Mayor will continue to invest in much-needed maintenance and repairs to make the system more reliable, service increases so vehicles arrive faster, and affordability initiatives like fare capping,” a spokesperson for her office said.
The TTC says it will increase service hours by two per cent.
— with files from Global News’ Matthew Bingley
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