How did TTC service fare during Toronto's World Cup match days? Here's what the data shows

TTC CEO says high customer satisfaction during World Cup offers lessons for everyday service

Transit corridors on Dufferin, Bathurst reduced commute times by 12-18% on match days, TTC says

In the aftermath of Toronto's stint as World Cup host, the city's transit agency says all six match days saw high customer satisfaction and safety scores along with faster, more reliable service on its contested priority transit lanes.

The findings, shared by the TTC with CBC News ahead of its board meeting Wednesday morning, initially showed that World Cup match days had a 92 per cent customer satisfaction score and a 91 per cent safety score across the transit system. However, at Wednesday's board meeting, the TTC corrected that to a 91 per cent customer satisfaction and 92 per cent safety score.

Overall customer satisfaction for regular TTC service was last recorded at 69 per cent, according to the latest TTC CEO report.

TTC CEO Mandeep Lali says city investments made service more reliable and easier to navigate. That included adding transit signal priority, traffic agents and more priority lanes to keep things moving, and installing e-screens to provide real-time updates on transit routes, with transit ambassadors guiding people at stations, he said.

To capitalize on that success, the city may want to spend more to make some of those temporary changes permanent, like having traffic agents at key intersections at peak rush hour times, or adding more transit signal priority, Lali said.

"We look at it [as] a return on investment," Lali told CBC Radio's Metro Morning. "There's a cost to do that jointly with the city. But the benefits of [it] are faster travel times, making sure our customers get from A to B within a defined schedule.”

Gridlock 'never showed up': TTC chair

In a news conference Wednesday, TTC chair Jamaal Myers thanked Torontonians who left their cars at home throughout the six match days.

"The gridlock that so many people worried about, it never showed up. That wasn't luck. That was years of planning," he told reporters. "Everyone's collective effort led to our collective success as a city."

"Sustainable and predictable" funding were also part of the reason the TTC was able to provide proper service for residents and visitors, Myers said.

"We've shown what we can do with money and not just money, but also priority," he said. "The FIFA games are a transit-priority [event]. And it showed in the city's planning. It showed in the efforts that we made to prioritize transit over private vehicles."

But Myers said in order to be able to keep that going, all levels of government will need to come together to help fund the under-resourced public transit agency.

"The day-to-day cost of actually running the system has increasingly landed on the backs of Toronto property taxpayers," he said. "Without a matching, sustained commitment to operating funding from other orders of government, operations are becoming increasingly unsustainable," he said.

According to the TTC, during the six match days, commute times were cut from 17 minutes to 14 minutes on the Dufferin priority transit corridor, and from 25 minutes to 22 minutes on the Bathurst corridor. That translates to an 18 per cent and 12 per cent decrease on those commutes, respectively.

Bus-only lanes were installed in May on the Dufferin and Bathurst corridors. The Dufferin transit corridor runs from Dufferin Station to Dufferin Gate and the Bathurst corridor runs from Bathurst Station to Lake Shore Boulevard. During Wednesday's board meeting, the TTC said bus-only lanes on the two routes is a permanent measure.

The transit agency also noted that traffic support at key city intersections "was imperative" to keeping transit like streetcars moving.

How did people get around Toronto during the World Cup? Here's what the data shows

Toronto could see bus-only lanes on Dufferin and Bathurst streets ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup

A total of 1.1 million trips were taken on routes servicing FIFA Fan Fest and Toronto Stadium on match days, with a 61 per cent increase in foreign credit card fare payments, according to the findings.

In a board meeting Wednesday, chief operations and infrastructure officer Fortunato Monaco said no major incidents or delays were reported on the TTC during match days. There were, however, 33 logged incidents on the six match days, with an average response time of 4.25 minutes in priority zones near the stadium.