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The Toronto Transit Commission operates the subway and RT system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. These services are considered the primary, isolated rapid transit system; the streetcars and buses are the secondary, 'surface' routes.

This system includes three conventional subway lines:

• Yonge-University-Spadina Line
• Bloor-Danforth Line
• Sheppard Line

There is also an intermediate capacity light rail line:

• Scarborough RT

Also called an LRT (light rail transit) line, it is shown on subway route maps, although it is almost entirely above ground. (Even the 'subway' lines are not entirely below-ground and have many open sections.) Motive power on the RT is by linear induction, while the subway operates by conventional electric traction. The two systems are technologically and mechanically incompatible, but are considered together administratively.

For a complete list of stations and their locations, plus information on accessibility, nearby landmarks and other service information, go to the article of one of the lines linked above. A map of the lines and their stations appears below.

1 Interesting subway facts

The streetcar and subway lines, but not the Scarborough RT, use the unique track gauge of 4 feet 10 7/8 inches (1.495 m). 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 1919Events January January 1 Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company January 5 Spartacist uprising Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution with Spartacist League in the forefront January 9 Spartacus, 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 lower levelLower Bay is an abandoned subway station on Toronto's Bloor-Danforth subway line at the intersection of Bay and Bloor Streets just north of downtown Toronto. Upper Bay station is still in use, known simply as Bay Station to its users, with Lower Bay shut of 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 might end up on, causing people to wait on the stairs. Switching trains also didn't add that much more time to a commute, since at your original stop you would have to wait for a train that took you to where you wanted to go, anyway. 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 through Lower Bay are still in existence and are used from time to time to move equipment between lines. The junctions are just north of Museum station northbound and just west of Bloor-Yonge station. A second double-track connection links junctions just east of Spadina (Bloor-Danforth Line) and just north (physically west) of St. George on the Yonge-University-Spadina Line.

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.