TTC losing money again?

TTC is on the news again. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/699522. I love the first line "The TTC's success has helped create a $17.4 million deficit". I can be very successful at spending/losing money too. If only I can find a job where success is measured by ones ability to lose money. However, consider TTC has $1.2B operating budget, missing the mark by less than 1.5% is not that bad. The chronic budget shortfall is the bigger issue. Perhaps management should pad their budget with more contingency :)

The whole article or the shenanigan around budget shortfall because of metro pass is really not that interesting. Just some political/media verbiage to justify a fare hike. With the complexity of balancing a $1.2B operation, I am sure the shortfall is a lot more complicated than "because of our success with the metro pass". It is kind of like answering the "what is your weakness" job interview question with "I sometimes work too hard" or the like. Just plain silly.

What is far more interesting are the comments and unverified facts in the readers' comments section of the article:

• Over paid Union, fire them all, privatize it, 100K ticket collector, blah, blah blah ...
• TTC's ~70% cost recover from users is better than most cities in North America
• TTC's drivers' contract has a "GTA clause" which TTC drivers are guaranteed the best paid job in the GTA area.
• TTC claims the the rider defraud rate is low, approximately 5%. Anyone who has use the system will question how on earth did they come up with that number with their stone age equipment? Survey?