Toronto Transit Commission
A TTC streetcar in Toronto
The Toronto Transit Commission, or TTC, is a public body that operates buses, streetcar and subway lines in Toronto, Ontario.
Fares can be paid in cash; using discount tickets or tokens; or with daily or monthly passes. Students, senior citizens, and children pay lower fares.
Colloquially, its streetcars are known as "red rockets", and the subway as the "steel eel".
The TTC provides door-to-door service for wheelchair users at the same fares as for its other services.
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2 Subway Lines 3 Interesting Facts |
History of the TTC
Toronto's first public transportation company was the Williams Omnibus Bus Line, which carried passengers in horse-drawn stagecoaches along Yonge Street between the St. Lawrence Market and the Village of Yorkville for sixpence in 1849. The city granted the first franchise for a street railway in 1861.
In 1920, a Provincial Act created the Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) and, in 1921, the Commission took over and amalgamated nine existing fare systems within the city limits. Between 1921 and 1953, the TTC added 35 new routes in the city and extended 20 more. It also operated 23 suburban routes on a service-for-cost basis.
The Great Depression and the Second World War both placed heavy burdens on the ability of municipalities to finance themselves. During most of the 1930s, municipal governments had to cope with general welfare costs and assistance to the unemployed. The war put an end to the depression and increased migration from rural to urban areas. After the war, municipalities faced the problem of extending services to accommodate the increased population. Ironically, the one municipal service that prospered during the war years was public transit. The Union Station-to-Eglinton section of the Yonge Street subway—Canada's first—opened on 30 March 1954 and was conceived and built with revenues gained during the war, when gas rationing limited the use of automobiles. It was the first subway line to replace surface routes completely. It also was the site of an experiment with aluminum subway cars which led to their adoption throughout the system and by other transit systems. Several expansions since 1954 have more than quadrupled the area served, adding two new connected lines and a shorter intermediate capacity transit system.
A subway car pulls into St. Andrew Station on the University Line.
Public transit was one of the essential services identified by Metro Toronto's founders in 1953. On January 1, 1954, the Toronto Transportation Commission was renamed the Toronto Transit Commission and public transit was placed under the jurisdiction of the new Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The assets and liabilities of the TTC and four independent bus lines operating in the suburbs were acquired by the Commission. In 1954, the TTC became the sole provider of public transportation services in Metro Toronto.
On March 30, 1954, after five years of work, the first subway in Canada opened to the public. The original Yonge St. subway line went from Union Station north to Eglinton Station. Premier of Ontario Leslie Frost and Mayor of Toronto Allan Lamport, among other important persons, rode the first ride that morning, going north from the yards at Davisville Station, and then from Eglinton, south along the entire line. That day, at 2:30pm, the last streetcar to travel Yonge St. south of Eglinton made its final ride.
Following nine years later was the University line opening, continuing from Union back north to St. George Station, and another three years past that, the original Bloor/Danforth line was built, going under Bloor St. and Danforth Ave. from Keele Station in the west to Woodbine Station in the east. Within two years, the Bloor/Danforth line had been extended in both directions, to Islington Station in the west and Warden Station in the east.
In 1973, the Yonge line was extended north to York Mills Station, and the next year it was as far north as Finch Station. Five years after that, the Spadina line was opened, going from the north terminus of the University line to Wilson Station. And in 1980, the Bloor/Danforth line was extended once again, to the current termini of Kipling Station on the west end and Kennedy Station on the east.
But after that, subway building came to a standstill. For the next 16 years, there would be no more subway extensions, and for eight years past that, any new subways. Instead, a proposed extension on the Danforth end of the Bloor/Danforth line was built in 1985 as the Scarborough LRT (light rail transit) line, which went from Kennedy to McCowan Station. Two years later, a new station was added south of Finch on the Yonge line, at the North York Centre.
Even so, plans were developed to build new subway lines along Eglinton and Sheppard Avenues, as well as an extension to the Spadina line. However, with the incoming Conservative provincial government in 1995, work on the Eglinton line was stopped and the partially dug tunnels filled in. In 1996 the Spadina expansion opened, adding one new station, Downsview Station.
In 1998, Metropolitan Toronto ceased to exist and was replaced by a new City of Toronto formed from the amalgamation of its six former cities. Four years later, the Sheppard subway line was opened, the first new subway line in decades. But it was much shorter than originally planned, going from Yonge St. (at Sheppard Station) east to Don Mills Station.
The TTC continues to be the sole provider of public transit within the City of Toronto, as well as operating contracted services into the neighbouring York Region. Regional commuter service (both bus and rail) is operated by GO Transit, the vast majority of which goes to downtown Toronto's Union Station.
Subway Lines
Yonge-University-Spadina
The oldest subway line runs along a large length of Yonge Street from its northern terminus at Finch, sixteen kilometres to Front Street where it enters Union Station, Toronto's main rail hub. Just west on Front it turns north along University Avenue, running that street's full length before its turn at Bloor, then sharing the Bloor line's St. George and Spadina stations, before continuing north on Spadina a stretch. Moving northwest through a creek valley, it then reaches W.R. Allen Road, a small expressway. Its final six kilometres end at Downsview Station, at Sheppard Avenue. This line is scheduled for the next phase of expansion, which will bring the line to York University, 4 km northwest of Downsview station.
Bloor-Danforth
The main east/west line has its western terminus near Kipling and Bloor at a GO Transit commuter rail station. Going east for twelve kilometers, it meets the Y/U/S line at Spadina, St. George, and Yonge stations. Two kilometres further east, crossing the Bloor Street Viaduct, it continues along Danforth Avenue for six more kilometres before turning northeast for the final five kilometres, ending at Kennedy station (near Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue) which is also the southern terminus of the Scarborough RT.
Scarborough RT
The linear motor-powered, mainly elevated Scarborough RT runs north from Kennedy station for four kilometres between Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue, to Ellesmere Road. After that station it makes a short underground run to cross a rail line, then goes east for three kilometeres, past the Scarborough Town Centre and its terminus at McCowan station, into the line's yard.
Sheppard
The newest line meets the Yonge line at Sheppard station, and continues east for over five kilometres along Sheppard Avenue to Don Mills station at the Fairview Mall. This line will be eventually expanded west at least as far as Downsview station, and eventually east and likely also south to Scarborough Town Centre.
See List of subway and RT stations in Toronto for a full list of stations.
The tracks of the streetcars and subways, but not the Scarborough RT, are of a unique gauge. There are arguments over the reason why this is (one popular belief is that the TTC didn't want the Canadian Pacific Railway to operate steam locomotives through city streets). The more practical reason is that early tracks were used to pull wagons smoothly, and that they fit a different gauge. Due to the cost of converting all the tracks and vehicles, the unique gauge has remained to this day.
The very existence of the Danforth line, opened in 1966, is thanks to a decision made nearly 50 years earlier. When the Bloor Street Viaduct was built in 1919, its designer insisted on building a deck below the roadway to allow for future rail traffic. Thanks to that decision, the subway is able to cross the Don River ravine to Danforth Avenue on the east side.
One of the best known secrets of the TTC is the second Lower Bay subway station. This subway station was briefly used in interlining between two of Toronto's lines in 1966. Interlining worked in that one would not have to switch trains to go from one line to another. The experiment, which lasted 6 months, proved to be impractical. A problem could hold up much of the system. Also, chaos ensued as passengers at Bay didn't know which platform their next train may end up on, causing people to wait on the stairs. Switching trains also didn't add that much more time to a commute, of which the margin is further shrunk by the fact that at your original stop you would have to wait for a train that took you to where you wanted to go, anyways. Much infrastructure for interlining is still present on the system. Most older stations still have signs informing passengers of the subway's next destination. Today, Lower Bay is used for movie shoots and special events. The station has been modified several times to make it look like a "common" American subway station.
The tracks connecting Lower Bay are still in existence and in use from time to time. They can be accessed northbound from Museum, turning right at the junction where the train veers to the left toward St. George. An alternate, albeit more unconventional route in terms of travelling by foot, is westbound from Bloor.
A lesser known station is "Lower Queen". Early subway expansion plans called for a subway to go along Queen Street instead of Bloor, these plans later changed to an underground streetcar system. These plans too were dropped. Many people unknowingly pass through this second station every day; the tunnel that goes under the station so that riders can move between northbound and southbound platforms is a portion of this underground station, with most of the excess infrastructure walled off.Interesting Facts
The two models of streetcars the TTC uses for revenue service are unique to the city. The CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) and the ALRV (Articulated Light Rail Vehicle) were designed by an Ontario Crown corporation and a Swiss private company and built in Thunder Bay. This was because most North American cities were phasing out its streetcar fleets, while Toronto (as well a few notable American cities, such as Boston and Philadelphia) stubbornly clung on.