Lessons from London: Transport for London’s Post-Pandemic Public Transit Rebound

Richard Joy:                      Welcome folks as you're loading in. We'll just take a second here and let a few more folks into the webinar and I'll get things rolling. [00:00:30] Okay. We got a lot to cover this hour, so I'm going to start speaking. And I know people will be joining as I do. But welcome, everybody. My name is Richard Joy. I'm the executive director of ULI Toronto.

                                           I'm very pleased to welcome you all to today's session Lessons from London: Transport for London's Post-Pandemic Public Transit Rebound. This event is a joint event between ULI Toronto and the Toronto Region [00:01:00] Board of Trade. I'll say more of it in a second. And we're excited to be partnering with them at the Toronto board on this event.

                                           Today we'll be focusing on the valuable lessons that we can learn from London as we plan our return to a new normal of commuting and urban travel. We are lucky to be joined by a panel of truly expert speakers from the Metrolinx and the TPC with a vast collection of knowledge and experience who will help us understand what's been happening in the transportation sector and explore the various [00:01:30] strategies to rebound.

                                           As a Toronto region-based organization, we acknowledge the land we are meeting on virtually is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississauga's of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Metis people.

                                           We acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit. We're all Treaty people. Many of us have come here [00:02:00] as settlers, immigrants and newcomers in this generation or generations past. And we'd like to acknowledge and honor those who came here involuntarily, particularly those who are descended from those brought here through enslavement.

                                           To better understand the meeting behind this land acknowledgement, I recommend a program that ULI hosted with SharedPath last year. That'll be in the chat box. 13,000 years of indigenous and the GTA and why it matters to planning and development, and more recently whose land and whose law. [00:02:30] Again, both of those links will be in the chat box and are on YouTube.

                                           A few housekeeping items before we begin. Everybody will be automatically muted throughout the session to ensure that we have no audio interference. Closed captioning is available. There may be a slight delay and it may not be a hundred percent accurate. So our apologies for that.

                                           If you have any questions, please use, and we encourage you to do so, because we'll have ample time for Q&A or [00:03:00] up vote questions you see put into the Q&A by pressing the thumbs up button. Finally, this session is recorded and the recording will be sent to you after the session.

                                           Today's webcast is supported ULI Toronto's annual diamond sponsors, Brookfield and EllisDon, as well as the boards principal sponsors, the Globe and Mail, and Scotiabank. We thank them and so many other partners for their support to allow events like this to happen.

                                           With so much to cover, it is [00:03:30] my pleasure today to introduce Jan De Silva, president and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. In her role as president and CEO of the board, Jan been spearheading efforts to make Toronto one of the most competitive and sought after business regions in the world.

                                           Jan brings to the role more than 14 years of international CEO experience building ambitious high-growth organizations, having previously served as CEO of Sunlight Financials, Hong Kong, and Mainland China businesses. And as Dean of [00:04:00] Ivey Asia for the Ivey Business School of Western University, as well as co-founded and later sold Retail China Limited.

                                           Jan represents Canada on APEC Business Advisory Council and sits on the boards of Intact Financial Corporation and Blue Umbrella Limited. Let me just go off script for one quick second and thank Jan and your colleagues at the board. You're going to learn a little bit more today and you'll be learning more... And I'll find an article and put it on and post that'll [00:04:30] tell you about the incredible initiative that the Board of Trade has been leading to coordinate the rebound of our economy in all of the major centers of the Toronto region.

                                           It is truly a legacy that Jan is following from moments of crisis past where the Board of Trade has stood to coordinate a rebound that was stronger than the economy going in. And I'm just super proud to be part of that. And this [00:05:00] event is piggybacking on top of what the board has been leading. So Jan, with the greatest gratitude, I hand over the program to you, and I'll see you on the other side for the Q&A. Jan.

Jan De Silva:                     Richard, thank you for your tremendous partnership. As Richard mentioned, we've been doing some work. In fact, a number of us have been doing work since October when Richard and I and our organizations have been working with Mayor Tory and Grant Humes of the Financial [00:05:30] District BIA, engaging more than 70 building owners, large employers, transit operators, health experts, and solution providers.

                                           We've been looking globally and locally at the mitigations needed to reopen safely and sustainably. Because here's the thing: pre pandemic, our central business district attracted 550,000 daytime workers who were the customers of 2,500 small businesses in the downtown core.

                                           [00:06:00] So we've been looking at everything, from an employee's daytime journey to and from home to their access points throughout the day, moving through transit hubs like Union Station, entering office towers and elevators, food courts, and service providers that they need access during the day to do whatever we can to be ready for reopening when the time is right.

                                           In March, our Nanos Research found that 7 out of 10 downtown workers wanted to go back to work [00:06:30] as soon as permitted. But of those who were worried, their top concerns related to commuting, crowding, and transit. Pre pandemic, public transit was the commuting choice of most downtown workers.

                                           Daily the TTC was used by 1.7 million people while GO by more than 270,000. This past year has taught us that public transit is safe when mask wearing [00:07:00] and cleaning policies are followed. But there is not broad public awareness of this. So as we ready for reopening, we need to build that awareness for any shift back towards cars would overburden our already heavily congested roads.

                                           And to have any hope of achieving our congestion and emission reduction targets, we need even more people shifting to public transit. Today's important partnership event with ULI is beginning to share [00:07:30] how public transit is ready for reopen. We'll look globally at transport for London or TfL, a recognized world leader in transit delivery and communications campaigns.

                                           And we'll look locally at our key transit operators, TTC and Metrolinx. I know we've all been watching as London pilots large-scale events. 15,000 people at outside events, 3,000 people inside, [00:08:00] their life is returning to a sense of normal. So how is the transit network evolving and what can we learn so we don't waste a single day on our path to recovery?

                                           To get started, we're joined from London by TfL's managing director of customers, communication, and technology, Vernon Everitt. Working at TfL for more than 13 years, Vernon is responsible for many customer facing initiatives, including fares and payment operations, contact [00:08:30] centers, marketing, and public affairs. Vernon, a very warm Toronto welcome. Over to you.

Vernon Everitt:                Thank you very much, Jan, for those words of introduction. And good afternoon, everybody. It's a privilege to be able to talk to you today and hare what we've learned over this period. I'm sure quite a bit of it will strike a chord with you. I've visited Toronto on several occasions and used your wonderful transport [00:09:00] system.

                                           And it won't be long, I am sure, when the time is right, that people will be back thronging on the network and the buzz will be back in the city. Just before I get into my presentation, that poster that you can see up at the moment is deliberate. And it's a bit of a sign of hope.

                                           We've used it as a sign of hope during the times when we've been locked down. It demonstrates... This is from 1931, a British artist called Ernest Dinkel. And [00:09:30] it's actually a poster, I've got copy behind me as well, imploring people to get back into the center of town. And it strikes many of the same calls today as it did in 1931 about getting our great cities moving and motoring again.

                                           So we're seeing it as an emblem of real hope. So Crystal, if we can have the first slide, please. This is [00:10:00] just by way of introduction of what I'm going to run through. It's a reflection on 14, 15 months of experience here. I'll talk a bit about the outset of the pandemic, our demand profile, what we've done to bring confidence, as Jan was saying, around the cleanliness, safety, and orderliness of the public transport network.

                                           A bit on where we are today, and then round up with a few lessons, again, which I think you'll probably recognize. Next one, please, Crystal. [00:10:30] Don't worry about the words on this page. We can share this deck with you. And don't worry about all the detail. I'll pull out the major points.

                                           So where should I begin? I'll begin at the very beginning. So March 2020 was when we started to lock down here in the UK, and there's a timeline here. We went in into our first of what would come three national lockdowns [00:11:00] on the 23rd of March, 2020. And it had a profound impact, of course, on our city and particularly on transport for London services.

                                           We run The Tube, as you know, the bus network, a lot of rail services. We run all London's main roads, our cycle hire scheme active travel. So we're a genuinely integrated regulator and transport provider. And it's had a profound impact on us. We went [00:11:30] almost overnight from 6 million bus trips a day to a million and Tube trips dropped from 4 million to just 200,000 a day.

                                           And that was because the government message was stay home, save lives, protect our national health service. So we played our role in immediately initiating that and dissuading people actually from using our services. So completely counterintuitive to the way in which we are all [00:12:00] wired, which is actually to get people on our services, not to get people off.

                                           But clearly given the national health emergency, we just had to flip overnight to that messaging. We prioritized essential workers, nurses, doctors, care workers, people that really needed to get around. And we managed the network. Because of course our staff were being affected by the virus, we slimmed the network down so that we could keep major interchanges and those [00:12:30] serving hospitals and so on open.

                                           We safe stopped our major projects. And ever since then, we have rolled with the various changes that have come about in government policy as we've sought to combat the virus. It had a massive impact on our revenues. I'm not going to go into that too much now, but we're relying for 70% of our income on passenger revenue.

                                           So you can only imagine the impact that that's had on us, which has meant that we have needed [00:13:00] government support to help us get through this. Next one, please, Crystal. And just to give you a little bit of context about the order of our unlocking and sort of to position where we now, the government here have a four stage unlocking process.

                                           On the 17th of May, we passed step three, which was the reopening of pubs and restaurants, indoor entertainment starting to reopen, and as Jan said, some [00:13:30] events, some test events to make sure that we can host those safely. And we're heading now towards our next major milestone, which is the 21st of June, which is the earliest date the government have said that the work from home message might change.

                                           Now, we are not out of the woods at all yet. And what we've all come to learn during this period is you need to be agile. And we have variants of COVID and that's creating hotspots of COVID infection [00:14:00] in different parts of the country. Not generally across the country, but in isolated areas. And we're having to be sensitive to that. And the government are keeping all of that under review.

                                           But if government decide near the time that it's okay to go ahead with step four, step four will mean that the work from home message, which has been in place for so long, will be relaxed. Thanks, Crystal. Next one. [00:14:30] Don't worry about all the noise on this chart. This is just purely illustrative.

                                           The red line is demand on our bus network. The blue line is demand on the London underground. I've put in the left hand column here all of the major milestones and things that have affected our ridership. But you can just see since March 2020, so if you look at the left hand side of that chart, you'll see that we were carrying, [00:15:00] as I mentioned, 6 million people on the buses, over 4 million people on the London underground.

                                           And you can see the impact that that has had as we move through the timeline of various lockdowns. And I'll come on a bit later on to where we are now in terms of our ridership. Thank you, Crystal. So how have we started to regain confidence? Because remember, the government message [00:15:30] right at the very beginning of was avoid public transport.

                                           So that had natural connotations and associations with the disease. And although I don't think it was intended to be a comment on public transport in particular, clearly people's confidence has been affected. And as Jan says, we need to win that back so that we can get our urban centers motoring again.

                                           We've really organized ourselves around three [00:16:00] major themes: clean, safe, orderly. And there are various elements to that that I'll run through quickly now. So we've been permanently and proactively promoting our enhanced cleaning regime. Over three quarters of our travelers say that cleanliness is more important to them than ever and 75% say it's going to be continually important to them even post the pandemic.

                                           So we've promoted [00:16:30] that enhanced cleaning regime with cleaning staff visible on the network. We've got our cleaning staff out there. So even when people are commuting, they can see people wiping down poles, wiping down the public areas of our network to show it in practice. We're using hospital grade cleaning substances, all of the touch points are wiped down, including our bus shelters and stations and so on and so forth.

                                           We've used new technologies and innovations like ultraviolet [00:17:00] light sanitizing devices to sanitize the grab rails on escalators. And we have over 1100 hand sanitizing points around our public transport network, generally filled with Dettol. We entered into a partnership with Dettol and using their hand sanitizing products.

                                           And we've used lots of imagery to get it out there because, of course, it's not people actually using the public transport system [00:17:30] we need to reach here. It's people who have not been using the public transport network. And we've been using radio and other communications media to reach into their homes with these messages. Next one, please, Crystal.

                                           Ventilation is another key concern of our customers, and therefore we've created films and other collateral to explain to people how well ventilated our buses are and our [00:18:00] tube trains and our heavy rail trains. So bus windows are fitted with devices to ensure that the windows stay open to allow fresh air in. There are stickers around the place to help that happen as well.

                                           And we've promoted the fact that almost counterintuitively when you are deep underground on a tube train, air is actually completely changed on average every two to three minutes on the London underground because of the opening and closing of the doors and the sort of piston movement of [00:18:30] the tubes through the tunnels, sucking fresh air through our ventilation shafts and ticket holes.

                                           So we've had to of course communicate all of that as well to give people confidence that the network is well ventilated. Because of course, that is a key mitigant to the transmission of the virus. Next one, please, Crystal. And it's been really important, I think, that people don't just take our word for it as transport for London.

                                           Actually people do [00:19:00] trust us in London. They trust our messaging and they trust what we say to them. But nevertheless, it was really important, I think, to get some independent verification on the effectiveness of our approach. So we commissioned Imperial College London to undertake some research for us.

                                           And every month they are taking swab touchpoint samples and they're taking air samples from across our transport network and analyzing them for any traces [00:19:30] of the virus. And that's been another key element in our communication strategy to actually articulate the fact that Imperial College have found zero traces of the virus on the public transport network. Thanks, Crystal.

                                           In terms of the message about orderliness, people want to see other commuters playing by the rules. So face coverings are mandatory [00:20:00] on public transport. And we've continued to enforce this and the overwhelming majority of people are following those requirements.

                                           But it only takes a small minority for word of mouth and for the perception to be that people aren't abiding by that and therefore diminishing confidence on the network. So we've also been pushing really hard, one, what the requirements actually are, and two, we've been enforcing it.

                                           So the British Transport [00:20:30] Police with whom we work very closely have been in heavy evidence around the public transport network. Over 200,000 people now have been challenged and stopped. Some people, of course, don't wear face covering for a legitimate reason. And we issue those people with badges or cards, which explain that they are exempt.

                                           But for everybody else, we want them to put their face covering on. So we'll continue to do that. And it's really, really important [00:21:00] for everybody that everyone else is seen to be playing by the rules of the game. And we've stressed the fact that this is to protect individuals and their families and for people to take personal responsibility of abiding by the rules. Thanks, Crystal.

                                           The other really core element is to communicate about the level of services that are running. Many people have not used public transport in a long while. [00:21:30] And even if you've got back to full service levels, many people won't know it. So that really needs to be communicated very, very powerfully.

                                           So we've been running a campaign that says since July 2020 we've been running a near full service. Certain of our services have not been back to full work, but the overwhelming majority have. And we've been able to articulate that our staff are there. They're on hand. [00:22:00] We've kept our staff safe.

                                           That's been another thing that's been really important to the public in London that we demonstrate we are keeping our own staff safe. We have lost many bus colleagues to the coronavirus and have had to adapt the bus network to better protect bus drivers. It's really, really important that we're shown to protect our staff and our colleagues, as well as our customers.

                                           So we provided reassurance about that and provided reassurance about station management [00:22:30] and about the limits on bus use. So we put limits on the number of people that could get on a bus. And we explained to the public that we have queuing systems and station management systems in place to mitigate any chance of crowding.

                                           Even if there wasn't any crowding at all on the network, some people's perception is that there is crowding around there. So we've literally flipped on our head our customer communications to explain to people where the crowding is and where the crowding [00:23:00] isn't. And it's a really, really important part of getting confidence back. Thanks, Crystal.

                                           In addition to public transport, active travel has been a central part in our recovery story as well. So we've ensured that Londoners can walk and cycle safely and frequently. And to Jan's point earlier on, none of us want a car-led recovery. That would set our great cities like Toronto and London back many years [00:23:30] if we saw that.

                                           So we've taken action to temporarily extend our central London congestion charging scheme to broaden the hours of operation and the price. We've worked with our local 31 boroughs in London to introduce 22,500 square meters of extra pavement space so people can walk easier and social distance easier on the streets.

                                           A hundred kilometers of newer upgraded cycle routes. [00:24:00] And our cycle hire scheme has gone from strength. We've got record ridership. In fact, we've got record cycling at the moment in London. So active travel also plays a very, very big part in the recovery story. Not only now, but in the longer run because it's so important to people in terms of air quality and decarbonization. Next slide, please, Crystal.

                                           And as we've moved through those various stages of unlocking that I described earlier [00:24:30] in my presentation, our customer communications campaign has evolved. So we've adapted. So when things started to reopen, we have gently started to promote what people can actually do in London again, whilst making sure that they remain safe and while promoting, for example, the off peak hours to travel rather than traveling in the peak.

                                           Because even in the depths of lockdown, we did get some peaks at certain times and certain places around [00:25:00] the network, mainly construction workers actually coming in to work. So we've used an extensive multi-channel marketing campaign, which is reaching 8 million Londoners. We have a 4.5 million strong email database. And I write to people. We have a 50% open rate on those emails.

                                           We've used radio. We will use television when the time is right after the 21st of June, if all goes well. And it's all those messages about safety, cleanliness, and orderliness. And they will run [00:25:30] continuously. And between April and May, we said, "Hey London, we are ready when you are." So no pressure, but when you are ready to come back, we are ready when you are.

                                           And that supported the phase reopening of non-essential retail and test events. And as I mentioned, from the 21st of June, we will switch if the government decide that it's permissible to rediscover all the good things you've missed about London. Next one, please, Crystal. [00:26:00] And we're fully integrated with the promotional campaigns to reinvigorate London that are being run by the mayor of London.

                                           Of course, he's our chairman. He's TfL's chairman. And we are working really, really closely with businesses, retailers, and the hospitality sector to support their recovery. And that includes promotion of our flexible fares and ticketing system that enable you to pay as you go, just tap your oyster card, tap your contacts payment card [00:26:30] and go.

                                           We'll calculate the best fare for you. We'll cap you every day. You'll never pay more than the cost of a one day travel card, however much you tap. And we can also cap you during the week as well so you never need to buy an annual or weekly season ticket again.

                                           You see some of the imagery which we've used. Actually, the Piccadilly Circus imagery you see here is the tourism campaign that's being run by our colleagues at London & [00:27:00] Partners, our tourism agency. And that's a David Hockney Piccadilly Circus round-on, an adaptation of that to promote the arts reopening.

                                           I've mentioned the Ernest Dinkel campaign poster, and we are promoting the movies again now that cinemas are open and we're promoting active travel as a way of getting people around and reminding them that that's a cleaner choice for the city. Thanks, Crystal. And [00:27:30] we'll keep working with business...

                                           Our relationship with the business community is absolutely symbiotic. Transport for London does not exist for its own purpose. We exist for the citizens of London and for the businesses of London and for all Londoners. So we produced lots of collateral that employers can actually use to communicate to their own staff about everything that I've just been talking about.

                                           So we've tried to simplify the messages. [00:28:00] These are examples of the fact sheets we've produced about keeping you safe, about traveling at the quieter times, about finding our TfL Go app, which tells you when the quieter times are to travel and how we've been independently testing all that cleanliness stuff.

                                           And while it's clear that working practices will change and there may well be more hybrid working, more from home, more in the office, and [00:28:30] some combination thereof, I think the jury's still out about how that will settle down. That remains unclear and we'll keep in very close touch with the business community.

                                           We are budgeting on between 80% and 90% of our pre pandemic ridership being back within the 12 to 18 months. And all of our finances and everything are predicated on that assumption. Next one, please, Crystal. I'm nearly at the end now. Confidence is rising. So the vaccination program has had a [00:29:00] profound impact on people's confidence, as, I hope, have our reassurance messages around the cleanliness, safetyness, and orderliness of the public transport network.

                                           And we're continuously monitoring demand and external factors. 60 million doses of the vaccine now have been administered. Three quarters of UK adults have had a single dose and about 6 out of 10 Londoners are now fully vaccinated. We're seeing bus ridership [00:29:30] at between 60% and 65% of normal demand, tube ridership 40% to 45%. Actually, we had the biggest weekend last weekend, where we had nearly 60% of normal tube ridership.

                                           And well over 50% of people that would normally travel with us have in fact traveled now. And that's about 2.1 million individual people traveling a day. I've mentioned step four, and we're working towards that. And I think that will start a period [00:30:00] of testing and trialing by employers to see what models fit their ways of working.

                                           We're continuously monitoring that and we have a range of scenarios that we update in the light of experience. Nearly there now. So next one, please, Crystal. We measure the outcomes. Two thirds of people think we're communicating well; two thirds think we are helping them. I'd like to turn a few and more [00:30:30] of those reds to green, of course.

                                           But we're proud of those results and we're proud that we've been able to maintain our reputation. There's a whole range of reputational metrics, including trust and everything. And we've actually seen those increase during this period. And the final slide, I think, please, Crystal. So just some reflections on the lessons that we've taken out of this period.

                                           The things that make great [00:31:00] transport and great customer service in normal times are just heightened during a crisis. So all of the things that our customers valued prior to the pandemic, they value now, but they value them even more. So the eternal verities have remained solid and been accentuated.

                                           So safe and reliable services, number one, be open in communications, have welcoming [00:31:30] staff on the ground, and just do the right thing. Just be human. Help people. The second thing is to remain agile and continuously scenario plan, analyze data, touch the tiller of your strategy and the light of what you're seeing on the ground.

                                           I'm sure you're doing all of these things. Running a full service, as I mentioned, to restore confidence is absolutely keen. You must promote, promote, promote your service levels. Review your customer information strategy, especially [00:32:00] given people's attitudes to crowding has fundamentally changed as a result of the pandemic.

                                           Clear and consistent messaging is absolutely vital. Clearly aligned with whatever the national guidance is. Clean, safe, and orderly is working well for us. And finally, we're finding that thanking everyone for their help in helping us build up. Thanking them for bearing with us, particularly when our own staff were being affected by the pandemic.

                                           [00:32:30] It is a really important thing to go back to Londoners and say thank you for your forbearance. We are here from you and that we are focused on your wellbeing. Jan, that concludes my presentation. I hope that's just given a feel for what we've been doing in London and some of the things that we learned. I'm pretty certain that a lot of that is common sense and a lot of stuff is already happening in Toronto. So thanks. And back to you, Jan.

Jan De Silva:                     [00:33:00] Thanks, Vernon. Excellent insights. Yes. A lot of similarities to what we've been talking about around the table. If I can share one thing with you, Vernon, when that work from home order gets lifted, we've got some insights. Some of our banking groups have operations in Manhattan.

                                           And as you know, New York has lifted their work from home. They've lifted work from home with a requirement that no more than 50% occupancy back in their offices. And one of the bankers I was speaking [00:33:30] with said they've actually had to have staff stay home.

                                           There's been so much pent up demand to get back to the office. In fact, they could be 80% full, they said, if they were allowed to. So I don't think it's going to take you a year to get back to that 90% ridership level. The other thing that I think is quite similar to what we've been in discussions with TTC and Metrolinx about, our public has tremendous confidence in these agencies and in their operations.

                                           The worry is, what do you do about riders who aren't following [00:34:00] the rules? So as we move into our audience Q&A, it'd be really interesting to think about, how do we reflect on that? And a goal of our event was both to share learnings from London, but also to help acclimatize our population on all the good work and the amazing work that's been done for months and months and months by TTC and Metrolinx.

                                           Joining us for the panel is president CEO of Metrolinx, Phil Verster. Phil is no stranger to the [00:34:30] UK transport industry. He's trying to perfect his Canadian accent, but there's still a lot of UK in his voice. Phil joined Metrolinx having managed train operations, infrastructure bills, and passenger rail systems across England, Scotland, and Ireland.

                                           Today he's transforming transit in the GTHA at the helm of our regional transit agency and at a point of historic investment in building out this network. We're also delighted to welcome Toronto Transit Commission's head of research [00:35:00] and analytics, Wendy Reuter.

                                           Wendy is a strategic development executive with national experience building thought leadership, delivering projects, incredibly strong market knowledge of the passenger transportation industry, both locally, domestically, and internationally.

                                           And she's helping the TTC build capacity and customer experience, research, and best practices in data science. She's been a key player at the table in our reopening effort. So Wendy and Phil, welcome.

                                           [00:35:30] Before we get into questions, I'm hoping each of you could take a moment to set the stage for the audience about, Phil, first with you on Metrolinx, and then Wendy, over to you on what you've been doing to prepare and to be ready for you when we're ready to reopen. Phil, let's start with you.

Phil Verster:                     One of the key things, similar to Vernon's experience in London, is customers focus on health. And I call it visible health. Our teams, yes, we have great [00:36:00] cleaning regimes, but having your cleaning teams out there visibly making the trains, the touch surfaces in stations, cleaning it is crucial.

                                           We've done something different to what many other agencies have done and we've put this perspex dividers between seats in order to recover the capacity of people that have to sit close to each other. And we are anticipating that there'll be [00:36:30] sort of behavioral changes about being in close proximity to others, which we are making part of our strategy.

                                           But the big focus is courtesy towards your customers. This is a time to reintroduce customers to a practice of travel, which they've not been at for 15 to 18 months, and to be courteous. I love the way that Vernon says it, [00:37:00] thank Londoners for their patience.

                                           We've got a similar approach. And in that approach, we build in the fact that people are going to travel differently. They're going to make different choices. Workplaces will change somewhat. We're not sure how much, but it'll change. And be adaptive.

                                           Our train schedules for the regional railway GO that comes into the city and out, are they going to be 12 car trains in the future? I doubt [00:37:30] it. Are they going to be more six car trains and four car trains in multiple directions? I believe that. And so a whole world is changing and the idea that we are responsive and flexible and courteous, that's the key.

Jan De Silva:                     Thanks, Phil. Wendy, over to you.

Wendy Reuter:                Thanks, Jan. Transit systems have notoriously been great at sharing [00:38:00] knowledge with each other. There's a great network across the country. There's a great network internationally. So sessions like this, where we can hear from each other, what we're doing, these are so valuable to hear what practices are working and what's not.

                                           Like London, we're doing a lot at TTC around understanding our customers in this environment. Understanding who's traveling now, who's not traveling now, what their preferences are, what their concerns are as they're taking transit [00:38:30] right now and as they're inactive using transit right now.

                                           2020 was a difficult year for transit. We saw massive, massive reductions. And at TTC, we're probably about 30% ridership of what we were prior to the pandemic. So that 1.7 million customers a day that you mentioned, Jan, that's what we were transporting before.

                                           We're now about half a million, but we're still transporting [00:39:00] half a million customers a day. This is just the experience that they have right now. And it's not been equal across the board. The practices around work from home and closing schools, the reductions in ridership have affected transit in incremental ways along road. And not evenly across all of our modes either.

                                           So we see buses [00:39:30] being the workhorse for our service right now, and really servicing the suburban areas and ridership in those areas being about 50%. Whereas the downtown core, which is serviced by our subways and our street cars currently being about 20%. So like London, it's proportional, and we can learn from watching their experiences as customers come back, because there's a good comparison there.

                                           And I'll look forward to seeing what happens as [00:40:00] the work from home restrictions in London's raise later this month. In terms of what we're doing to help customers now and as they return, I'd say this is our focus: it's all about, how do we help our customers and our employees in this environment? How do we keep everybody safe?

                                           How do we keep them informed about what we're doing and what we plan to be doing so that they're aware and we're leveraging all the best practices that we can to support them. [00:40:30] I'm going to try to boil it down to four things. First, I'm really pleased to say that when we see customer satisfaction on TTC, it continues to be high.

                                           It's as high now as it was prior to the pandemic and pride in the TTC has actually reached an all time high. So there's always work to do. We always want to be improving on that. But these are good indications [00:41:00] of the customers that are using our service right now, having that confidence in what we're able to provide.

                                           So those four things. Safety's number one. It's been all about safety. The endless hours of all of our teams focused on how to keep our employees safe, how to keep customers safe throughout this. Barriers installed between operating staff and customers, whether it's on vehicles or in stations, sanitizers in stations, [00:41:30] masks being mandatory, monitoring daily, weekly.

                                           We do 50,000 observations of customers, whether they're wearing masks and to what degree, and then reporting on that. And that's public. And supporting customers when masks aren't being more properly over mouth, nose, and chin by providing masks. We have provided over 2.1 million masks to customers during this period. And we've got another 1.5 million waiting for them as they return if [00:42:00] they still need support in this area.

                                           The cleaning of buses. Buses are cleaned twice a day. Vehicles are cleaned at terminals. So in recent weeks we've been supporting our employees with popup clinics to assist them getting their vaccines even easier than they may otherwise be. So a lot of focus on safety. The second one I'd [00:42:30] say is around service.

                                           Vernon mentioned it, keeping high levels of service so that our customers are confident that service is there for them. Throughout the pandemic, we've shifted service at TTC from where it's needed least to where it's needed most as we've seen our customers move around our system.

                                           We've adopted a demand responsive system throughout this period so it's adaptable as customers come back or [00:43:00] retract in different places and at different times. And that's been a real shift from our traditional scheduling system, but it's allowed us to be adaptive as customers return.

                                           That being said, we're currently at almost a hundred percent service levels on our buses. It's responding to the current needs now, right? Bus services there for customers that are currently traveling with us and those that will be returning. Subway and street car [00:43:30] service is about 85% of what it was pre pandemic levels.

                                           And when we see ridership up at 50% return, then that service is going to raise to a hundred percent service. So we want to be ahead of what those needs are. We want to be to bringing that service back so it's there and reliable for those customers. We've also rolled out real-time bus occupancy information for our customers as well last month.

                                           So it's available before customers plan their journey or while they're on their journey to observe the next [00:44:00] number of buses that are coming and understand what occupancy levels are so that they can take choices about which are the right buses for them to take.

                                           Third item I'd say is around state of good repair and expansion, really. We've taken the opportunity while there's been lower ridership to really invest in state of good repair, investing in longer closures now to avoid many [00:44:30] closures later on our subways and our street cars so that we're in a good operating order as customers return. And we can avoid closures once they're back.

                                           Certainly working with Metrolinx on expansion projects to serve Toronto as well. And while cycling and walking is not part of our core mandate, working with the city to support active transportation and access points [00:45:00] that they're designing to align with railway transit.

                                           In fact, we have a project expanding our bike shelters and parking that's being installed this summer to support that. And you may have also heard recent investment in street car expansion this month as well. So we're really pleased with the support of the provincial and federal governments to support our street car expansion [00:45:30] and enable us to be acquiring the 60 new street cars that will be needed to support growth in the downtown core.

                                           So we're readying our resources for customers to be returning. And lastly, I'd say really working with Toronto Region Board of Trade and others that can help deliver these messages about how we're preparing help be that communication stream [00:46:00] and working with those employers that are so critical in the downtown core to reenergize our city.

Jan De Silva:                     That's great, Wendy. Thanks so much. I know there's a lot of questions. A number of us have been going back and forth in the chat. So Richard, I'm going to turn things over to you to lead us into the Q&A part with our audience today. But Wendy and Phil, congrats.

                                           I know all this work you've been doing. I hope this will be an effective event for helping to amplify that. [00:46:30] And Vernon, looking forward to having you for this next part of the Q&A. Richard, the mic is yours.

Richard Joy:                      Sure. Okay. Thanks very much. That's super fascinating presentation and panel. So thank you all. There are a lot of questions coming in and please do vote up your questions. I'll try to take some of the top ones. One of the top ones is around question, I guess, to the Toronto panelists around whether there's any consideration to have [00:47:00] off peak fare discounts or other incentives to balance the load as the vaccination rate gets higher and the COVID conditions allow to offset I guess that rush hour crunch. And maybe, Vernon, you might offer in on this. I know already TfL does do peak fare. So that's perhaps a baked in answer. But to the Toronto panelists, Metrolinx [00:47:30] and TDC, any consideration of that on the horizon?

Phil Verster:                     I can give a sense of where we are. Very similar to the great comments Wendy has made, we've kept very close to our customers. We've done focus group sessions with existing current customers and we've done sessions with future customers and trying to test the latent demand and what makes customers tick and what are their preferences [00:48:00] and what's important.

                                           And how should we approach choices like that? And you know what's interesting, Richard? Differential pricing doesn't really enter into the requirements for customers. Customers have uniformly said the top three or four things, and they are sort of health. And I can probably say the top five things would all be health and cleanliness related.

                                           But after that category of concerns are things such as what [00:48:30] Vernon referred to, and which the TTC and ourselves have similar to transport for London implemented. Things like, can you please ensure that the other person sitting next to me is wearing their mask? And so that's an important criteria.

                                           And the third one was, can you be available and help us? And can you have more presence and just support us in our choices and where we go? So we can move through this sort of uncertain time, uncertain [00:49:00] environment in an optimal way. Variable pricing is always an option, but in terms of customers intent and how they're experiencing the pandemic and the return, it's interesting, price is just not up there. It's just not on the top items on the list.

Wendy Reuter:                I think it's a fascinating question. TTCs transit service is very picky. Huge peaks in the morning, huge peaks in the [00:49:30] afternoon. So idea of using fares to help influence adjustments and when people would travel is a fantastic question. We don't have those same insights that Metrolinx does about whether that will have an impact on TTC customers.

                                           And in fact, we're in the process of a fare policy review right now. And so TTC currently operates with what we call [00:50:00] a free body system. Pay one fare, travel anywhere, any of the modes. There's no time of day and there's no distance elements to it as well. So it will be a major change for us to consider it. But as we do go through our fair policy review over this year, it will be a part that we'll be looking at in the mix of the fare considerations.

Richard Joy:                      Okay. Thank you for that. [00:50:30] Vernon, I might get you to weigh in on that as well, but I'm going to throw another question at you, a curious one, but one that's a lot on the minds of Torontonians. It's outside of conventional transit, but it's around the e-scooter issue that's seeing a lot of activity south of the border, for better or for worse, I'll add.

                                           But is the e-scooter idea administered or supported or how does it work with respect [00:51:00] to TfL, if at all? And if you want to comment on the earlier question around peak, please feel free to throw a comment in on that one as well.

Vernon Everitt:                Well, just to deal with that one, Richard, I agree with Phil. It isn't on top of the list. However, the heavy rail network in the UK, people usually tend to buy season tickets. And now with more flexible working, they're saying they want more flexible season [00:51:30] tickets. So actually we've needed to recommunicate the fact that we are already flexible with those daily caps, weekly caps.

                                           We automatically calculate the cheapest fare for everybody. So it's been a question of reeducating people about our fairs and ticketing, rather than introducing anything new. But pricing people out of the peak, particularly when the actual level of fare isn't that huge, you'd have to whack the fare up so high and that then leads to all sorts of unintended consequences, people that can't afford [00:52:00] it, not get into their jobs, all of that sort of stuff.

                                           Anyway, I agree with Phil that it's not top of the list at the moment, but flexibility is in ticketing. E-scooters, we are just about to launch trial, actually, in London. Trials have been happening in other UK cities, Birmingham and Manchester, for example, very successfully where the transport agency has actually entered into arrangements with private scooter firms.

                                           [00:52:30] They've limited the speed and all of that sort of stuff. So we here have unlicensed... You're not allowed at the moment. It is illegal to use these things at the moment. But with the trial scheme, there'll be limited to 12.5 miles per hour. There are certain rules and regulations around them, and we're going to see how it goes. And this is happening all around the UK at the moment. That trial will last for a year. And then we will look at what the outcome is and decide what to do from then.

Richard Joy:                      [00:53:00] Super. Thank you. Next question is also to Vernon, but Jan, I might bring you into this as well. And it's around working models with employers. It was one of your slides, I guess your second last slide at the time this person Brian from Brampton put it in. Working with employees. Are you working to do things hand in glove with major employers [00:53:30] to align the TfL strategy? And then maybe I'll get Jan to comment on the work that the board's leading on that front as well.

Vernon Everitt:                Richard, absolutely. As I mentioned, it's a symbiotic relationship between us and major employers and smaller, medium-sized enterprises. So all the business representative groups, we have very close relations with them. I regularly appear in their fora and so on. And [00:54:00] we'll continue to work very, very closely.

                                           One of the really interesting challenges that we have or opportunities that we have is maybe, maybe we can actually reduce the peak once and for all. We did it during the Olympic games for a certain period of time where people could see a clear reason for it.

                                           And now with slightly more flexible working, why can't we at least smooth the shoulders of the peak out and [00:54:30] optimize some of the spare capacity that we have during the course of the day? So it's a really, really close relationship and it works really well both ways. It's two-way street.

Jan De Silva:                     Yeah. And I'll just echo that. We've got a part of the group we've convened with the financial district is large employers, and that's absolutely something we've been talking about as we're trying to sort through what the new hybrid may well look like. We know in markets like Sydney, you really haven't [00:55:00] seen two days a week work in office, three days work from home.

                                           It's been almost full time back to office. But can they stagger the hour? And if you've got staff that are connected to international activities, they don't need to be 9:00 to 5:00 in the core. Maybe it's a different model groups like Google have staff that have globally leading jobs that maybe they need to be working 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

                                           So I agree with Vernon, the discussions we're having in Toronto with the large employers is, how do we use this as an opportunity [00:55:30] to rethink working hours to better smooth transit demand, but also be more effective for those workers that have those global roles.

Richard Joy:                      Thank you. Now, I was appalled to see that TfL had stolen the ready when you are slogan from the Board of Trade. Obvious plagiarism, Vernon, there.

Jan De Silva:                     Let me jump in on there. Vernon, we're not ready when you are. We know they're ready. So we're just ready for you.

Richard Joy:                      Ready for you is the evolution. That's true. That's true. [00:56:00] But anyways, great minds think alike. Okay. Next question, we couldn't have someone from TfL on our panel in Toronto and not have this question surface, and it's around congestion charging. We all know...

                                           And this is obviously well before the pandemic, but maybe Vernon, could you speak a bit? I mean, congestion currently isn't our greatest issue at this moment, but hopefully in due course it's a good problem to have, but it's a problem. [00:56:30] Could you maybe us a little bit about where that sits and what the future, even evolution of, if any, beyond the current state?

Vernon Everitt:                Yeah. Sure, Richard. And those of you that know London will know that we've had since the mid 2000s a small central London congestion charge. It's a relatively small area in terms of land mass, but it sends a big signal and sort of encourages [00:57:00] alongside better transport provision to get people onto more sustainable modes.

                                           So we've still got that. As I mentioned in my presentation, we've extended the hours of operation of the congestion charge. And it's seven days a week because we've seen traffic bounce back up much stronger than public transport. So in out of London, traffic levels are probably about 90% of pre pandemic levels.

                                           They will be lower. They'll be about [00:57:30] 60 odd percent in central London of pre pandemic levels. And quite simply, we don't want to see a car-based recovery. Now, there's putting these steps in for congestion purposes, but there's also the air quality and decarbonization benefits alongside it as well.

                                           So in addition to the central London congestion charge, we have our ultra low emission zone, which charges polluting vehicles premium for actually entering into [00:58:00] the zone. Road users charging is something reserved for the mayor to decide. And the mayor has asked us to look at the feasibility of a greater London boundary charge whereby people would be charged for entering the outer London boundary, as well as a why of reducing congestion.

                                           But also prioritizing the road [00:58:30] network for freight vehicles, servicing vehicles, and actually to make the bus network flow. I mean, if you're going to get a sustainable city, you need a reliable bus network and bus speeds need to be reliable. So a plus, of course.

                                           You've got the eternal challenge that we as public transport operators have to persuade people to get out of their vehicle, where there's an emotional tie very often to the motor vehicle, as well as practically.

                                           So [00:59:00] we're still using all those levers, Richard, to keep a lid on traffic and to think about what the next step is. And the next step is that wider, greater London boundary charge. And we're looking at the feasibility of that for the mayor at the moment.

Richard Joy:                      Thank you. Now, all the rest of the questions are pretty meaty, so I'm not going to have time to ask another one. But I wanted to maybe just give Phil and Wendy 30 seconds each, if you want to comment on anything we've talked about this last hour as maybe a closing remark, and then I'll close out the program. [00:59:30] We're just about at time. 20 seconds. Oh, you're on mute.

Phil Verster:                     Yeah. So congestion for us is an interesting topic because it's different. There aren't alternative modes as much as there is in a built up environment such as London. But here are a few thoughts. I've got a lot of parking garages at stations and nearly [01:00:00] one in five people that travel to those live within the kilometer of the station. More active travel, please, everyone. Then there's less congestion.

Richard Joy:                      Perfect. Thank you. Sorry to cut you off. Wendy, last couple seconds.

Wendy Reuter:                I'm not going to go near the congestion question. I think in terms of takeaways, listening to Vernon's presentation from London and thanking him for sharing that with us, there's [01:00:30] a lot of things our systems have in common. There's a lot of things that our cities have in common.

                                           We're going to be looking closely at how things unfold there over the next few months. We're right behind you. And we're going to continue to learn and observe what's happening there. But in particular, I recognize the communications plan and strategy they have.

                                           Not only implementing [01:01:00] these initiatives, but also the efforts that are being demonstrated by London to showcase what is being done. To be able to speak to not only the customers that are using the service right now, but really in new ways needing to reach back and reach those customers that currently aren't. So thank you for that.

Richard Joy:                      Well, thank you. And I apologize to the panelists. I apologize also to the audience, we didn't get to all the questions. That's usually a sign of a good topic. But on [01:01:30] behalf of ULI Toronto and the Toronto Region Board of Trade, I want to thank our speakers, Vernon, Phil, Wendy, and Jan, of course, for joining us today's program.

                                           Thank you for tuning in. I hope you're all well. Vernon, please hello to Andy Byford for us all. And we'll look forward to seeing the rest of you in future webinars, many ahead on both the Board of Trade and the ULI channels. So enjoy the rest of the day. Goodbye.

Vernon Everitt:                [01:02:00] Thanks all.

Wendy Reuter:                Bye.