Transit Security Funds Offensive

"Spit in the eye ... A slap in the face ... Like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"

True to his iconoclastic form, TTC chairman Howard Moscoe used these unrepentant words, and more, to describe how he felt after getting just $1.46 million in security funding from the federal government yesterday.

Transit agencies in six cities nationwide received a total of $37 million to help beef up security. That money included $5.3 million to GO Transit and $4.3 million to Union Station.
"Based on our ridership, we should be getting one-third of the money. The TTC carries 85 per cent of all of the passengers in the GTA on its transit system. It's spit in the eye," he said. "It shows utter and complete disrespect for the citizens of Toronto. It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"

Moscoe, re-elected Monday in Ward 15 (Eglinton-Lawrence), said the agency wanted $17 million to pay the cost of installing 2,500 security cameras in subways. Already the TTC is paying that amount to install cameras on buses and streetcars by the end of 2007.

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