The decades-old campaign promise of so many Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) presidents has been fulfilled, with yesterday’s announcement that a subsidized TTC Metropass has been approved, for a trial period, by Toronto’s transportation mandarins.

“Now it’s a reality, it’s part of the budget,” said Mike Foderick, co-chair of the Metropass Task Force, a group formed eight months ago to lobby the TTC to give university and college students a discounted monthly transit pass.

“The TTC budget, along with this plan, will take effect in January,” he said. The implementation of the plan will take slightly longer: “TTC staff said by February,” Foderick added.

The details of the plan were approved at a TTC meeting at City Hall yesterday. The plan is not specific to U of T—it will be available to any corporation, union, government agency or post-secondary institution willing to buy more than 50 Metropasses per month, for one year.

The Metropasses will be sold in bulk to participating organizations. The organization—such as U of T’s SAC—would administer the program and sell the Metropasses on to students.

The discounts would amount to a 12 per cent savings per Metropass for an institution the size of U of T. That means a TTC pass would cost $87, instead of the current $98.75. Any fare increases imposed during the year would not be passed on to participating institutions until the one-year contract is up.

“The battle right now is to press the administration for their contribution,” Foderick added.

SAC President Rocco Kusi-Achampong agreed the deal was a victory for U of T.

“It’s been a long time coming. Early in the first month of my administration we put together a good team that I knew would achieve our objective of the Metropass,” he said.

“Having the double cohort savings reflected in this program is certainly reflective of the efforts of both co-chairs [Alexandra Artful-Dodger and Mike Foderick],” Kusi-Achampong said.

Kusi-Achampong and Foderick said the next step is to encourage the administration to contribute money so the Metropass becomes even cheaper.

“The $87 pass is the first step. I’m looking forward to having a sit-down with the administration to maintain the 1/3-1/3-1/3 proposal,” Kusi-Achampong said. The original proposal drawn up by SAC and U of T administration called for the TTC to provide 1/3 of the Metropass discount, with the administration to pay an additional third. The final share of the discount would be contributed by U of T students through a levy.

“I don’t think our job is done yet,” he added.

TTC commissioners were generally enthusiastic about the plan. Bob Hughes, the TTC’s marketing research director, said the city was in favour of a subsidized bulk Metropass purchase plan because it would “increase commitment to transit among organizations.”

But he acknowledged the plan could cost the TTC between $300,000 and $1.9 million per year, if the plan expanded beyond the pilot stage. The TTC is facing a $78-million budget deficit this year.

TTC commissioner Norm Kelly said he was concerned that if the commission approved the plan without cutting costs elsewhere, “we’re adding to the burden that is already crippling us.”

But many commissioners were optimistic the elimination of OAC in high school meant losses would be on the low end of the estimated range. That’s because the TTC sells discounted Metropasses to high school students. Fewer students in the new four-year high school programme means the TTC would save up to $1.5 million per year—a savings students from U of T, Ryerson, and other Toronto-area colleges and universities want re-directed to discounted Metropasses for post-secondary students.

Joe Mihevic, another TTC commissioner, said the plan was a winner.

“You’re going to get people saying, holy smoke, this is a good deal.”

Many of the commissioners thought the financial loss to the TTC resulting from the plan would be made up by increased ridership in the years to come.

“More people are going to use transit than before,” said commissioner David Miller. “If we don’t make sure that our market continues to grow, we will atrophy.”

Photograph by Simon Turnbull