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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 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 in 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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, as the tunel that goes under the station so that riders can switch 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.