The TTC promises improved service, but the regular transit user is frustrated by the fare increase and barely any sight of the promises’ fruition.

Not everyone in Scarborough has the option of an alternative mode of transportation such as a car, motorcycle, or moped if you will.

April Fool’s Day jokes are not OK to run when you’re talking about transit in the city, especially when it’s not even April. Such as the one the TTC ran by announcing a number of service cuts including closing down the Sheppard line.

Turned out to be false.

Gabrielle Thompson, a resident of east Scarborough, says she is “dismayed” by the TTC’s overall service. “Where I live, the bus is often so late it’s early.”

The TTC is now planning on shutting down the Scarborough RT on Sundays for signal maintenance. It is understandable that the commission needs to do this work, so it can keep running. But the constant scaling back of already unreliable service is frustrating.

It has got to the point where any bit of service disruption seems like a bad cosmic joke, one the riders are destined to be the butt off. What we need is more service, not less.

Thompson went on to say, “I would pay the extra money for better service, for better transit service. There have already been so many [fare] increases that it wouldn’t bother me as long as it came with better service.”

Marc Kilchling’s article of this issue introduces us to Jenna Hossack, a regular transit user, who questions the Nov. 1 fare increase because it will drive TTC users into their cars.

TTC chair, Adam Giambrone, however, says it will cost the commission more to continue with its poor service and not increase fares than to increase fares and improve what people get for their money.

Giambrone may be right. As Gabrielle Thompson says, “People rely on it every single day. That’s why the TTC strike was so awful. Do you think people are going to stop taking transit for a 15 cent increase? No!”