TTC deal puts brakes on cross-border bus plan

Union opposes letting suburban agencies serve city routes

- BEN SPURR

The tentative deal the TTC reached with its largest union last week may have spared the city a transit strike, but it also dealt a serious blow to plans the agency says could improve service for long-suffering suburban bus riders.

As part of the eleventh-hour agreement it struck Thursday with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, the union says the TTC has agreed to limit a program that would allow 905-area agencies to provide local bus service in Toronto.

The TTC has been pursuing the policy, called cross-boundary service integration, for years, arguing it would lower costs, allow TTC vehicles to be reallocated to high-demand parts of the network, and deliver relief to frustrated Toronto customers who are often forced to wait as half-empty MiWay or York Region Transit vehicles blow by their stops with their doors closed.

But the issue became a major sticking point for the union during contract negotiations that, had they failed, could have led to the first TTC strike since 2008.

Local 113 argued that letting outside agencies operate in Toronto would lead to reduced service, and amount to contracting out its members’ jobs. It also charged that agencies from outside the city wouldn’t be accountable to Toronto riders.