TTC recalls 132 more unionized employees to plan for potential ridership increase

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is recalling 132 additional unionized employees who were laid off in April, making good on its promise to continue matching service with demand.

The employees will return to work on Oct. 4. The 132 employees will be in roles that support the increasing demand for service.

"We have kept the TTC going throughout the pandemic so that essential workers can get where they need to go safely. The TTC moved to increase service to 90 percent of pre-pandemic service ahead of back to school and I am pleased to see the TTC is bringing back even more transit operators now ahead of anticipated demand later this month," said Toronto Mayor John Tory. "The TTC will continue to make sure they are putting extra buses on the busiest routes across the system and making sure our transit system remains safe and reliable."

The temporary layoff of 450 employees was announced in April after ridership plummeted due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The 132 employees are in addition to the 150 operators that returned to work to provide a demand-responsive service as ridership rebounds and students go back to school.

The layoffs are a temporary measure with all operators to be recalled when the TTC reaches 50 percent of pre-pandemic ridership levels on all vehicle modes (before the pandemic, the TTC was carrying 1.7 million riders on a typical weekday day). At the lowest point of the lockdown, the TTC was moving roughly 15-20 percent of pre-pandemic ridership. Currently, the TTC is seeing daily ridership in the 35-40 percent range (or more than 630,000 customers each weekday).

"The TTC plans service to stay ahead of the ridership curve," said TTC CEO Rick Leary. "We'll continue to focus demand-responsive service on the busiest routes across the network in order to deploy the capacity to meet the demand where it's needed most."