Thursday, February 10, 2005

Pitty poor Mr. Perks

It's only Thursday, but already the award for whining hypocrite of the week can be awarded - to Gordon Perks of the Toronto Environmental Alliance.

Toronto Sun: NEWS - TTC fare hikes set to roll

Perks is complaining about the TTC decision to raise some of its fares. The adult cash fare will rise from $2.25 to $2.50, while the price of a token or ticket will rise 10 cents to $2.00. The price for a Metropass is not going up.

Per Perks, his family are heavy users of the TTC. Per his statements as reported in The Sun, his family currently pays $4,300 in TTC fares a year - a figure he claims will rise will rise by $300 - $400 with the impending fare increases.

Perhaps Mr. Perks should acquaint his family with tickets and tokens - which are hardly going up that much - the math simply doesn't work. Indeed, if his family members are such regulars on the TTC, they would certainly be better off getting Metropasses - or better yet, using the Metropass discount plan. The price for the Metropass isn't going up at all.

Then again, Mr. Perks is obviously not that good with math. He and his TEA lobby pushed hard to get the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way approved. At $65 million to reduce the average riders trip time by one minute, the math doesn't work on that either.

Without the St. Clair project, the TTC could easliy have avoided this year fare increase. Mr. Perks is reaping what he helped sew. Let's not shed a solitary tear.

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