Toronto Transit Commission History Of The TTC Subway Lines

The TTC operates one of the most extensive urban mass transit systems in North America. As of 2003, there are four rapid transit lines (three subways and one light rail line; see Toronto Subway and RT), with a total of 69 stations, as well as 149 connecting "surface" routes ( buses and streetcars). The total daily ridership exceeding 1.3 million passengers. The TTC also provides door-to-door services for persons with disabilities. Colloquially, the subways and streetcars are known as "red rockets."

Fares can be paid in cash, using discount tickets or tokens, or with daily or monthly passes. Senior citizens, Toronto high school students, and children pay lower fares. In 2003, Toronto university students recently won the ability to purchase discounted monthly passes after years of extensive lobbying.

1 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. It abandoned money-losing radial (interurban) railway lines, and amalgamated five private bus lines into Gray Coach Lines, which was immediately profitable.

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 TTC realized that improvements had to be made despite the depression and in 1936 purchased the first of the newly developed "streamliner" or PCC streetcars. 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. Toronto continued their program of purchasing PCC cars, obtaining many second hand from U.S. cities that abandoned street car service.

Public transit was one of the essential services identified by Metro Toronto's founders in 1953. On January 1January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Here a calendar year refers to the order in which the months are displayed, January to December. The first day of the medieval Julian year was usually a day other, 1954Events January events January 14 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation January 14 Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio. January 15 Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya January 20 The Nati, 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.

The Union Station-to-Eglinton section of the Yonge Street subway, Canada's first, was conceived and built with revenues gained during the war, when gas rationing limited the use of automobiles. The subway line opened to the public on March 30March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). There are 276 days remaining. Events 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella sign a decree aimed at expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism. 1533 Thoma, 1954Events January events January 14 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation January 14 Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio. January 15 Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya January 20 The Nati, after five years of work. 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.

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.

The University line opened nine years later, continuing from Union back north to St. George Station. 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.

The 1970s saw Toronto adopting a streetcar abandonment policy; the plan was to have low-volume services be served by buses, and more heavily-used routes to get subway lines. Later in that decade, the rising cost of subway construction and the awareness of the limitations of buses reversed that decision; Toronto is now one of the few North American cities to retain its streetcars through the 20th century, and is now considering expansion of the service.

In 1973, the Yonge subway line was extended north to York Mills Station, and the next year it was as far north as Finch Station. Five years later, the Spadina line 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 RT (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 municipalities. Four years later, the Sheppard Line was opened, the first new subway line in decades. But it was much shorter than originally planned, going from Yonge St. east to Don Mills Station, instead of hooking up with the Scarborough RT. The TTC is running trains 2/3 the size of regular Toronto subways until sufficient traffic develops on the abbreviated Sheppard Line.

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. Connection buses of the Mississauga, Brampton, York Region, and Pickering and Ajax transit systems enter Toronto at various points.

2 Subway Lines

Main article: Toronto Subway and RT

The regular subway trains operate on the Yonge-University-Spadina Line, the Bloor-Danforth Line, and the Sheppard Line. The Scarborough RT is also considered a 'subway-style' service and is included on subway maps and in that level of administration, though it is primarily aboveground, has less capacity and uses highly differing technology.

3 Streetcar Service

The surface routes of the TTC include both diesel buses and streetcars, but the latter are found only downtown, none running further north than St. Clair Avenue, about 5 km from the waterfront.

The TTC operates 11 streetcar routes which are altogether 306 km long. Because the TTC has maintained a large portion of its pre- World War II streetcar system, the streetcar routes operate in prewar style, with almost all of the route mileage in traffic rather than on reserved track. On the Queensway, Spadina Avenue and Queen's Quay, however, the streetcars have a separated right-of-way in the road median, and on Bay Street between Front Street and Queen's Quay cars operate underground. A separated right-of-way has been approved for St. Clair Avenue West, from Yonge Street to just past Keele Street, to be completed by 2007. There are underground connections to the subway at Union Station, Spadina station, and St. Clair West station.

After a long period in which its policy was to eliminate all streetcar routes, in part because subway development was thought to eliminate the need for them, the TTC returned to building new streetcar routes in the 1990s with the Spadina route, which opened in 1997. In 2000 it extended the Harbourfront route, and further extensions of the Harbourfront and St. Clair routes are being considered.

The previous policy of eliminating streetcars accounts for the concentration of streetcar lines within 5 km of the waterfront. As the city developed northward, transit service was provided by extension of bus routes rather than of streetcar routes. Later the subway was extended north with bus routes feeding it. The Oakwood route, which operated north of St. Clair, was eliminated in accordance with this policy and replaced by an extension of a trolley bus line (since converted to diesel).

Two other lines which operated north of St. Clair were abandoned for other reasons: the Rogers Road route to free up streetcars for expanded service on other routes, and the Mount Pleasant route ostensibly because of traffic problems it created.

Retention of streetcars was in large part due to resistance by citizens' groups who succeeded in persuading the TTC of the advantages of streetcars over buses (which carry fewer passengers) on heavily travelled main routes.

4 Trolley Bus Lines

The system once operated trolley buses, mostly on downtown routes and a few in the northern limits of the old City of Toronto. Many of these routes replaced streetcar routes, using the old overhead power lines which were adapted to dipole service. The buses consisted of a standard bus platform with electric motors with two poles connected to electrical lines above. The system was scrapped due to high operating cost and the age of the vehicles used.

5 Wheel Trans

The TTC also runs WheelTrans, a special service for the physically disabled with special buses designed to accomodate wheelchairs. Some Wheel Trans buses run according to a regular route while others are dispatched through pre-arranged appointments.

6 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 the Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC, 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.

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 did not 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.

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. A lesser known station is "Lower Queen".

7 See also

8 External links

Toronto Transportation in Ontario Major intermodal transportation authorities

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