Toronto councillor blasts TTC ads

A Toronto city councillor says he wants to know why the TTC is spending thousands of dollars to blow its own horn.

Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong says the Toronto Transit Commission's decision to spend $27,000 telling subway riders about the new subway train that's now in service is "a complete waste of money."

"In the era of core service review when we're looking at have-to-haves versus like-to-haves, this falls into the category of a complete and total waste of taxpayers' money," said Minnan-Wong.

Toronto is in the midst of a review of all of its services, as the city tries to grapple with an expected $774-million budget shortfall. 

"This is the type of spending that drives the public crazy. When we're looking at cutting service routes and closing libraries — $27,000 is a lot of money in the grand scheme of things and it all ads up," he said.

At issue is a poster telling riders about the new subway train — nicknamed the Toronto Rocket — that is running on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

The TTC says it is money well spent.

"We feel it's very important at the TTC to communicate with our riders to let them know what is going on. The new subway trains are one of our biggest events to happen to the TTC in many, many years," said TTC spokesman Danny Nicholson.

On average the TTC has about 80 subway trains in service each weekday. Right now only one of the five new Rockets is in service.