Solana is one of the many students who will be affected by the TTC cuts. The bus she relies on to get home from her bar tending job late at night is threatened by the cuts.

Elli Stuhler / Ryersonian Staff

For some Ryerson students, the recent TTC bus route cuts are a step in the wrong direction.

Forty-one bus routes will be cut after a vote by the TTC on Feb. 2.

That number is scaled back from the 47 that were originally proposed.

The decision of which routes to cut was based on the number of passengers per hour.

Any of those falling short of 10 riders per hour with an alternative service within 600 metres was re-evaluated.

Some routes will scale back to night service at 10 p.m., others will simply stop on certain days.

Michael Binetti, a fourth-year urban planning student, hosted a meeting last month to strategize against the proposed route changes.

“I think we won a small victory,” said Binetti, despite his group’s effort not “being as loud as I expected it to be.” The credit, he said, lies with the general public flooding town hall meetings in protest.

Rodney Diverlus, RSU vice-president equity, said the cuts will have a devastating effect on Ryerson’s large commuter population.

“We know that life doesn’t stop after 10 p.m.,” he said. “It means that students will no longer be able to stay at school and contribute to extra-curricular activities, group projects and volunteer work.”

Despite Diverlus’s concern for commuting students, Ward 16 councillor and new TTC chair, Karen Stinz, said she thinks she made the right decision.

She said the cuts are the result of a growing population and limited resources.

“We chose not to have a fare increase and we’re not getting any additional funding from the city.” Routes with increased demand for buses and operators have received an increase in service.