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Saxe offered a good argument. The Kingston high school bus program, which includes a component where representatives from the transit agency visit schools and speak to Grade 9 students about how to use transit and basic ridership etiquette, is credited for increasing student trips on transit from 30,000 annually in the 2012-2013 school year to 600,000 in 2016-2017.

With that kind of success, the . But since dropping fares for all students comes with some definite logistical challenges 鈥� and an estimated price tag of up to $43.5 million annually 鈥� free field trip fares seem like a fair place to start. There are a lot of educational experiences accessible via the TTC. And there are a lot of schools that can鈥檛 afford the cost of chartering a school bus.

An idea worth exploring, in other words.

But today鈥檚 TTC often seems like a place where new ideas go to die.

A , on the agenda of this Thursday鈥檚 TTC board meeting, is negative about the notion.

The report cites the cost, which is estimated at between $1.1 million and $1.9 million per year to cover the foregone fare revenue and extra vehicle service hours needed to cover 200,000 field trip fares annually.

That鈥檚 not nothing, of course, but relative to the scope of overall TTC and city hall spending it鈥檚 barely a blip. It鈥檚 significantly less than the $4.1 million Mayor Olivia Chow and city council voted to spend last week to preserve suburban snow windrow clearing, for example. And it鈥檚 way less than the extra $12.6 million given to the police by Chow and council, after much lobbying.

More concerning, though, is another explanation offered by the TTC as for why they can鈥檛 cover field trip fares: there鈥檚 no room.

鈥淭here is limited excess capacity on bus services to accommodate new groups of 20-40+ students, teachers, and parents travelling together,鈥� the report says.

Since field trips happen in the middle of the day and we鈥檝e heard a lot about TTC ridership struggles since the pandemic, this might seem surprising, but data in the report confirms it. Of 145 bus routes, 28 鈥� about one in five 鈥� are running at above 100 per cent capacity on the average weekday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

This is the kind of stat that you think would have the TTC making a loud request to increase their service budget for midday bus routes, but instead they鈥檙e using it as a reason to say no to a new idea like making TTC field trips more affordable. The logic, I guess: service is already lousy and we don鈥檛 want to subject more riders to it.

This aversion to change is rampant at the TTC. Reports responding to requests are often long lists of reasons to say no, instead of strategies for how to get to yes. In recent years, the TTC has dithered for too long on obvious customer service improvements like implementing two-hour timed transfers, speeding up busy streetcar routes, offering free rides for kids 12-and-under, and integrating fare payments with other GTA transit agencies.

It’s fair to argue that this TTC鈥檚 cautionary culture came about by necessity, after decades where the transit agency was asked to operate on a relative shoestring budget. But now, with Chow signalling a willingness to invest in transit service again and a post-pandemic economy where ridership patterns are changing, there鈥檚 a real danger in not having a culture 鈥� and the right leadership 鈥� at the TTC ready to meet the moment.

This goes way beyond field trips. There may well be better ideas for the same money. Maybe bigger. Maybe bolder. But whatever the proposal, the TTC needs to be a place where those ideas are encouraged 鈥� and not just a place where any move afield of the status quo gets thrown under the bus.