For thousands of York Region residents, public transportation is more than just a way to get around. It is essential for getting to work, attending school, accessing healthcare, and staying connected to our communities. Everyone who relies on York Region Transit (YRT) deserves a service that is affordable, reliable, and respectful.

However, personal experiences and concerns shared by other passengers have raised important questions about fairness, affordability, and accountability within the YRT system. These concerns deserve to be heard, taken seriously, and addressed.

Fair and Equal Treatment for Every Passenger

No one should feel singled out, intimidated, or treated differently because of their race, ethnicity, appearance, or the language they speak.

Concerns about possible discrimination, racial profiling, and inconsistent enforcement of transit rules deserve careful and impartial examination. Every passenger should have confidence that YRT’s policies are applied fairly and consistently, regardless of their background.

Professionalism and Respect from Transit Staff

Many YRT employees work hard every day to serve our communities, and their efforts deserve recognition. At the same time, passengers have the right to expect professionalism, courtesy, and respectful communication from everyone representing a public transit service.

Concerns about interactions perceived as rude, dismissive, or unnecessarily confrontational should be taken seriously. When passengers raise complaints, they deserve a fair review, clear communication, and appropriate follow-up.

Respect must be a standard across the entire transit system, not something passengers have to hope for.

Affordable Public Transportation

For students, low-income residents, workers, and daily commuters, transit fares can represent a significant financial burden.

Although YRT already offers certain discounted fare programs, affordability remains an important concern. Public transportation should help people access opportunities, not become another financial barrier to education, employment, and essential services.

We believe York Region should review current fare structures and explore additional ways to make transit more affordable for those who depend on it most.

What We Are Asking For

We call on York Regional Council and YRT management to take the following actions:

Strengthen protections against discrimination and profiling. Establish clear, impartial, and independently reviewable procedures for addressing serious concerns about discriminatory treatment and inconsistent enforcement.
Improve professionalism and employee accountability. Review existing staff training and customer service standards, strengthen conflict-resolution practices, and ensure recurring complaints about employee conduct are fairly and consistently examined.
Review transit affordability. Conduct a transparent review of YRT fares and consider expanding affordable options for students, low-income residents, and frequent commuters.
Make the complaint process more transparent. Ensure passengers receive clear information about how complaints are handled, expected response times, available review options, and the outcomes of their complaints, where appropriate.
Increase public accountability. Publish regular, anonymized reports on passenger complaints, concerns about discrimination, investigation outcomes, and measures taken to improve service quality, while respecting privacy and procedural fairness.
Give passengers a meaningful voice. Create more opportunities for riders, students, community organizations, and residents to participate in discussions about fare policies, service quality, passenger treatment, and accountability.
Our Request to York Regional Council

We respectfully call on York Regional Council and YRT management to formally review these concerns, engage with passengers and community representatives, and provide a public response outlining the steps they will consider and the timelines for action.

This petition is not about attacking individual employees or overlooking the positive work being done within YRT. It is about ensuring that a publicly funded transit system lives up to the standards of fairness, professionalism, accessibility, and accountability that its passengers deserve.

Public transportation should bring communities together, not leave people feeling excluded, disrespected, or financially burdened.

Every passenger deserves to be treated with dignity. Every concern deserves to be heard. And every public service should be willing to listen, improve, and be accountable to the people it serves.

Sign this petition to support a fairer, more respectful, affordable, and accountable York Region Transit system for everyone.