Under Construction

There is a lot of history surrounding TTC and it's predecessors that I have broken it down to a number of sections due to the size of them. A fair amount is based on my life growing up in Toronto and using TTC to get around.

A lot of the information I will be providing is from my personal point of view and knowledge to other sources. I will be highlighting those source as I write my History Pages.

Yonge Street (pronounced "Young") was one of the busy north south roads running from the waterfront to Rainy River, on the border between Ontario and Minnesota. It was the longest street 1,896 kilometers long know as highway 11 up to 1998, formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Some people who say Yonge Street is really a highway with very little to with a street in the first place. Also, it was disjointed at many place to say it was a straiht road at all.

Construction of Yonge Street got underway in 1775 and was name after the British Secretary at War, George Yonge.

Major of Toronto Streets are name after major leaders and statesmen.

From 1849 to 1954, various types of vehicles operated on Yonge Street starting with Williams Omnibus Bus Line.

1861 to 1891, Streetcars were under contract with Toronto Street Railway Company.

1891 to 1921, Toronto Railway Company own and operate the streetcars on Yonge Street.

1892 to 1894, horse drawn streetcars were replace with electric streetcars.

With the exception of a few places, I have taken the various data off the various pages and put it into my own wording. The sections I have noted in this colour are a copy and paste as there is no way around it as since they are actual quotes, court ruling, company incorporation, or comments.

• 1909
  • April 29, 1909, the Evening Telegram News Paper printed an article about a subway to be built in Toronto. It reported a meeting between City Engineer Rust and the Kearney High-Speed Railway Company of London, England took place that would see Kearney High-Speed Railway Company willing to build and operate 2 underground lines at a cost of $1 million dollars per mile to build. The first Line would run up Yonge Street to Eglinton Avenue in the Town of North Toronto from Front Street. The 2nd line would run east from East Toronto along Queen Street to Dufferin Street then to Dundas and then to West Toronto. Once it was explained to Kearney High-Speed Railway Company that any franchise issued for these lines would end in 1921 when the City would take over all the franchise and run their own transit system, Kearney High-Speed Railway Company disappeared and was never heard again about from on their plan.
  • 1909, The idea was put forth about build subways in Toronto. One subway would run north on Bay Street that ran from Front Street to Queen Street, Teraulay Street that ran from Queen Street to Greenville Street, now known as Bay Street after been change in 1922, angle north easterly to Yonge St and then to St Clair underground using streetcars that would continue north on Yonge Street. Stations would be at Front Street, City Hall, Dundas Street, Bloor Street, south of Davenport, north of Davenport, south of St. Clair Avenue and St. Clair Avenue.
  • The 2nd line would run along Queen Street underground from University Avenue in the west and Church Street in the east on the north side of Queen St. It would travel further west in an open cut to Niagara Street and then north to Bloor Street West, for the west end. The east end would travel east along Queen Street East to Carlaw in an open cut and embankments. It would then go north to Danforth Avenue at (). Rest of Queen Street for both sides of these cuts and embankments would be at grade level. Station would be at Roncesvalles Avenue, Lansdowne Avenue, Dufferin Street, Dundas Street, Bathurst Street, Yonge Street, Sherbourne Avenue, Broadview Avenue, Pape Avenue, Coxwell Avenue.
  • Given the fact that Toronto Street Railways was providing poor service to the City of Toronto as well refusing to expanded beyond its 1891 franchise, the City thought this was one way to punish Toronto Street Railways for its failures. In November 1909, a report was submitted to council stating that it would cost $5 million dollars to build these subway. After a 4 hour debate, council approved the referendums that would go to the voters on January 1st, 1910. Major of council including the Mayor supported the subway plan.

• 1910
  • On January 1st, 1910, the residents of the City of Toronto were asked to vote on this Subway referendums "Are you in favor of the City of Toronto applying to the legislature for power to construct and operate a municipal system of subway and surface street railway, subject to the approval of qualified ratepayer's?"
  • George R. Geary who did not support the subway plan was elected as mayor over the incumbent Horatio C. Hocken who did. Even thought the voters approved the voted for the subway plan by 19,268 to 10,697, Mayor George R. Geary refused to allow the building of the subway system.
  • 1910, Another plan and report was prepared by the firm Jacobs & Davies company of New York City who recommended 3 lines be built from Front Street and Yonge Street. The first line would run up Bay Street and then Yonge Street to St Clair Avenue. The 2nd line would run northeasterly to Broadview Avenue and Danforth Avenue East. The 3rd line would run northwesterly to Keele Street and Bloor Street West. This 11.6 mile subway would cost $23 Million Dollars. The report and recommendation went to Council September 1st, 1910.

• 1911
  • 1911, Saw the voters turning down the idea of building subways on Queen Street and Yonge Street by 11,645 to 8,223 that was going to cost them $5,386,870 to build. Conflicting information
  • Horatio C. Hocken who was elected to the Board of Control in 1911 and became Chief magistrate in 1912,continue to push for subway until the 1912 referendum. After the defeat of referendum, Horatio C. Hocken did not raised the question again as there was very little support for it after the 1912 referendum.
  • In the fall, council press forward with the subway development by issuing an tender for the construction tube structure made of concrete for a 3 mile long tunnel running from Bay and Front Street to Yonge Street and St Clair Avenue. The tender came in at $2.6 Million and allowing for track, equipment and the electrical system, it would be about $5.2 Million.
  • November 20 saw a follow up report prepared by E.L. Cousins, the Assistant City Engineer submitted to council stating that the diagonal lines would not be built without the corresponding roads. Since these roads could not be feasible, he recommended an alternate plan similar to James Forgie of the Jacobs & Davies Company of New York. E.L. Cousins would see 2 east-west lines running along Queen Street and Bloor-Danforth from High Park in the west end to Broadview Avenue in the east where the lines would connect to each other forming a large loop. The Bloor line would see stations at Roncesvalles Avenue, Dovercourt, Bathurst Street, Yonge Street, Sherbourne Avenue, Broadview Avenue.

Based on E.L. Cousins idea for a subway on Bloor Street, Roland Caldwell Harris who became Commissioner of Public Works for Toronto in 1912 when Pubic works was created, cease that idea by incorporating that requirement in the design of the bridge over the Don Valley connecting Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue. There was great opposition to have this lower deck built when the bridge was built between 1913 to 1918. In the end, both Edmund W. Burke the designer of the Prince Edward Viaduct and Commissioner Harris were able to get their way with the building of the lower deck at the time of building the bridge. This foresight would come into play with the building of the Bloor-Danforth Subway in 1960's.

• 1912
  • January 1st, the voters were again asked to vote for this subway plan. Based on the strong opposition of major of the newspapers and the unwillingness of the votes to deal with the extra taxes to build the subway, it was voted down by a 11,291 to 8,486 margin. Conflicting votes counts as one sources saids this number while another said 11,130 (no) to 7,697 (yes).
  • Bion J. Arnold who was a traction expert for Chicago reported in 1912 that the City of Toronto suffer from a number of issue that could be solved very easy and subway be looked upon as the last resorted. He stated that there were 3 main reason why transit was not working and how the City could deal with them.
    • 1. If trailers were removed and tracks were upgraded, streetcars would be able to travel a lot faster.
    • 2. If Toronto Railways Company built more routes to allow less cars on the busy lines especially the Yonge line, there would be less congestion, better service and better use of equipment. Bion J. Arnold stated that if Avenue Road and Carlton cars were rerouted down Bay Street which was known as Teraulay in 1912 and allow other cars to used Church and Victoria Streets, it would improve the operation of the Yonge Line.
    • 3. Poor track maintenance as Toronto Street Railways was putting very little money to do the work since its franchises was nearing its end and wanted to save as much money as it could.
  • Bion J. Arnold suggested that if the City of Toronto could not come to some kind of agreement with Toronto Street Railways on these issues, that a underground streetcar line be built under Yonge Street. A loop would be built beneath Queen, Bay and Temperance Streets and run to St Clair Avenue. There would be a branch off the Yonge line at Bloor Street allowing for service to go east to Broadview. in 1915, a report was prepared on this plan and it was determent that there was no need for this subway.

One can only wonder what the City of Toronto would look like if any of these subway plans were every built. It is very likely that the open cuts and embankments would have seen a tunnel built over them for the Queen Street Line to allow more development to take place. At the same time, the suburbs surrounding the city of Toronto would have grown a lot faster, leaving the city core a business district only like a large number of cities in North America would do.

• 1915
  • The city would again looked at a subway on Yonge Street using Streetcars, but nothing comes out of it.

• 1920
  • On January 1st, the citizens of Toronto voted on an referendums that asked them if the City of Toronto should merge the existing various streetcars companies into an one municipally owned system and it was approved by the voters. At that time, Riders could have to pay 9 fares to get across the City of Toronto.
  • On June 4th, 1920, by the Act of the Province of Ontario, Toronto Transportation Commission known as the TTC came into existent to look after the merger of 9 transit system into one system in 1921. It would order 250 new streetcars before the expiree of the existing franchises in 1921 to allow a smooth transition that would not interfere with the operation of the system for the riders.
  • On August 23, saw Toronto Railways Company build an inter and outer loop for its CNE loop that was odd for operation and would remain in service until 1931.
  • TTC and the City of Toronto would place an order for 250 new streetcars to allow a smooth tranison in 1921 when they take control of TRS, TRC and TCR on September 1st. Car would be built in Montreal under a $50 dollar licence fee to Peter Witt who held the rights to the cars in the first place.

1921, TTC starts rebuilding existing tracks system wide and introduce Peter Witt streetcars.

During the 1930's depression, the government of Canada was looking for ways to employee the unemployment populations, that an idea was floated that would see the Yonge Streets streetcar subway built using the unemployed men. Nothing every came of this idea.

• 1937
  • Over the years ideas would be talked about building a subway with no real plans until this year where it was said that if the subway was built on Victoria Street, it would save close to $1.5 million as there were less underground uitilies to be moved. Given the fact that Victoria Street stop at Gerrard Street, it would be less costly to continue north of Gerrard Street than Yonge Street. Today Victoria Street stops at Gould Street due to the fact Ryerson University occupies that area now.

• 1938
  • In the late 1930's, Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) revisited the subway again as the service on Yonge Street was poor with streetcars that had trailer would be found bunching up one after another with the car traffic interfering with the service. Simple put, the City was choking on traffic. It is still today.

• 1941
  • October 1941, TTC came up with a plan for building 2 new underground streetcar routes. One would be based on 1910, 1912 subway plan as well the Bion J. Arnold Yonge Street Streetcar plan. The plan put forth by TTC at this time would see streetcars traveling underground from a loop at Wellington, York and Front Street, up Bay Street to Bloor where it northeasterly to Yonge Street and then north to St Clair Avenue. It would pass under Ramsdem Park also. Once the Streetcars surface at St Clair Avenue, it would continue north to the Belt Railway Line Right-of-Way and then travel westerly along it through Forest Hill to the Township of York. The 2nd line would be an east-west line running under Adelaide, Richmond and Queen Streets from Logan Avenue in the east to Trinity Bellwoods Park in the west allowing suburban streetcars to used these tunnel and offer riders a fast single seat ride.

• 1942
  • January 22, the plans for building a subway was submitted to council for approval and was turn down. TTC was requested to come up with another plan. The plan that came up with call for a subway running underground from Union Station on Front Street and then north on Yonge Street to the City limits at Eglinton Avenue. It would also see streetcars running underground along Queen Street from McCaul Street in the west to Mutual Street where both ends would run along the north side of Queen Street in an open cut.
  • The plan to build the subway was put on hold again, cause by World War II.

• 1943
  • The City of Toronto adopted the Master Plan for Toronto that saw the vastly vacant lands outside the current limits playing a large roll for the future of Toronto. Future planning would have to take in the metropolitan area. This would have effect on transit in the coming years.

• 1944
  • TTC would formed the Rapid Transit Department this year as it was serious on building a subway as it knew that once the war was over, Yonge Street would be mayhem with the return of men that were oversea. W.H.Paterson would assumed control of the department and plans for an north-south and east-west subway got underway.
  • Saw TTC produce a report "Rapid Transit for Toronto" that calls for a full fledge subway on Yonge Street running from Union station on Front Street to Eglinton Avenue up Yonge Street. The report also call for a streetcar subway line that would travel underground from University Avenue in the west to Church Street in the east with the remainder of the line in an open cut. The Queen Subway Line was also the intently plan put forth in 1911. The plan went to the Board of Controllers who approved the plan with the Yonge Line having first priority that would see the Queen line to follow after it.

• 1946
  • January 1st, 1946, the voters would once again vote on a subway referendum plan for Yonge Street. The voters were asked: "Are you in favour of the Toronto Transportation Commission proceeding with the proposed rapid transit system provided the Dominion government assumes one-fifth of the cost and provided that the cost to the ratepayer's is limited to such amounts as the City Council may agree are necessary for the replacement and improvement of city services.".
  • The Federal Government was prepared to pickup 20% of the total cost to build this subway with TTC picking up the remaining cost. Considering the voters of Toronto would not be responsible for the cost to built the subway and only have to pay for the relocation of pipes including new ones and rebuild the roads, the voted over welling 69,935 to 8,630 in favour of this subway. Again conflicting vote count with another source saying 79,935 to 8,630.
  • It should be noted that the Federal Government never put a cent into this subway as promises. The cost to build the 2 subways was now $42 million dollars, the Yonge line would cost $19 Million while the Queen Line was going to cost $23 Million.
  • On April 26, Toronto Council approved the building of the Subway from Front Street to Eglinton Avenue that was the City Limits at that time. The line was schedule to open in 1953 and replace the streetcars on Yonge Street at that time. At this time, the $19 million for the Yonge Line had climb to $28.9 million plus another $3.5 million for rolling stock and this held back the Queen Line been built at the time.

• 1949
  • September 8, 1949, after waiting over 3 1/2 years for construction to start on building the Yonge Subway, due to material shortage caused by the War II, construction got under way. There was a grand event that took place that day with the first pile to be driven into the ground. Steel beams were pile driven next to the foundation of the existing business on Yonge street from Front Street to Wellesley Ave. Steel beams were attach to these piles to support a temporary wood deck for TTC streetcars and traffic while excavation took place underneath it. Building of the tunnels and station took place without interfering of traffic and pedestrian.
  • During the construction of the subway, sections of the Yonge Streetcar route were taken out of service until a temporary wooden deck road over the construction was built. At various times, service on the Yonge Streetcar Line would come to a halted for the section between Front Street and Wellesley Street when basting using dynamite took place at 1:30 and 4:30 pm to help to breakup up the shell rock ground. This cut and cover was to only go north as far as College/Carlton, and then run in an open cut. It was decided to continue doing a cut and cover to Davenport to cut down on the backlash and the number of homes that would be next to the open cut. The land from the cut and cover was used for land fill at the east end of Toronto Bay.

• 1953
  • The plan opening of the Yonge Subway that was plan to open this year is pusheed into 1954 due to material shortage in getting the line built.
  • TTC opens a new streetcar yard between York Street and Bay Street and south of Harbour Street that would hold 38 Peter Witt's trains which was made up of Peter Witt cars and trailers. The yard was built to replace the yard and carhouse at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue West that would be closed in 1954 with the opening of the new Yonge Street Subway.
  • Saw introduction of tokens as fare for adults that will be used for the new turnstiles in the new subway station schedule to open in 1954.
  • Would see a 19 day strike by TTC employees that would be the 2nd longest one in its history.
  • April 2, 1953 saw the Ontario Provincial Government create the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto that included the City of Toronto, the towns of New Toronto, Mimico, Weston, and Leaside; the villages of Long Branch, Swansea, and Forest Hill; and the townships of Etobicoke, York, North York, East York, and Scarborough. The Metropolitan Toronto Act, 1953 went into effect April 15, 1953 with legislative powers and taxation taking place January 1st, 1954.
  • TTC would be a department of its own and see its name change in 1954.
  • June 3, saw a report call "Study of Future Surface Car Requirements and Recommendation to Purchase Additional Used P.C.C. Cars" written by W.E.P. Duncan, Operations Manager for TTC recommending the purchased of 75 PCC cars from Cleveland Transit System that were only 5-6 years old at a cost of $20,000 each FOB and 48 PCC from Birmingham Transit Company that were offer to TTC in 1951 at a cost of $18,500 each FOB. This purchased would cost TTC $3,665,250.00 less the scrap value of 123 large Peter Witt cars. TTC was planning on scraping 105 trailer and 50 Brills (2 man Peter Witt) cars when the Yonge Subway open. 50 of the 75 cars from Cleveland were equipped for multiple unit (MU) operation (2 car train acting as one car) and were to be used on the Bloor line since it already had 100 PCC the could be MU since it was carrying 9,000 riders at peak time while Queen-Kingston line was carrying 7,900 riders at peak time.
  • The ridership on the City and Suburban systems were expected to grown to 330,000,000 by 1960 and then decline in the 1970's, but still remain about the current ridership at that time.
  • TTC had a fleet of 1,044 at the time of the report that saw 591, PCC, 105 trailers, 100 small Peter Witt's, 75 large Peter Witt's and 175 2 man Peter Witt's.
  • The ridership for the lines that would not be removed at this time for peak time and (cars) were: Bathurst 6,100 (70); Bloor-9,000 (174); Carlton 4,200 (101); Dundas 4,200 (53); Harbord (east end) 3,900 (25); King 5,400 (88); Queen–Kingston Rd. 7,900 (152); St. Clair 6,200 (70). This would required TTC to have a fleet of 733 plus 6% spare ratio of 45 cars for a total of 773 required after 1963. This would leave TTC 187 cars short for a full PCC fleet.
  • The ridership and car for the lines been looked at been removed by 1963: Church 1,000 (5); Coxwell 1,600 (5); Dupont 2,000 (20); Harbord (west end) 2,700 (37); Lake Shore 1,700 (21); Parliament 2,200 (6); Queen (east of Woodbine) 1,900 (15); St. Clair (east of Yonge) 1,300 (9) York Township Lines 2,000 (11).
  • When on reads this report, it was saying streetcars would still be needed after the plan to retire them that was adopted in the 1940's. Even the ridership numbers show that buses could not handle the loads then, let alone today.

• 1954
  • This year would see major changes for TTC as well a number of problems related to the opening of the Yonge Subway and operating under Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto.
  • January 1st, Metropolitan Toronto officially takes control of the City of Toronto as well the surrounding areas that were amalgamated into it in 1953 by the Province of Ontario. TTC would see its name change from Toronto Transportation Commission to Toronto Transit Commission allowing it to kept the abbreviated name of TTC.
  • With TTC been place under the jurisdiction of the new Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. At the same time, TTC required the assets and liabilities of 4 bus companies that were operating independently and servicing the suburbs that were now part of Metropolitan Toronto. The bus company's were Danforth Bus Lines, Hollinger Bus Lines, Roseland Bus Lines, and West York Coach Lines.
  • With the amalgamation, TTC operation service area went from 35 square miles to 240 square miles.
  • TTC who was over seen by a 3 man board up to 1953 saw a new commission formed that was appointed by the new council from time to time.
  • February TTC remove's the Yonge Street Streetcars north of Eglinton Avenue that ran to the Glen Echo Loop and replace them with Route 97 trolley buses in advance of the opening of the Yonge Subway south of Eglinton Avenue. TTC did look at the option of maintaining this streetcar line and used it as a suburb line that could be expanded over time, but ended up rejecting that option.
  • March 30, 1954 after a year delay due to the material shortage caused by the Koran War and great fanfare, the Yonge Subway was open.
  • Premier Leslie Frost, Mayor Allan A. Lamport in control, along with a number of other important people, took the first train north from Davisville Station to Eglinton Avenue Station just one station north. They then took the train down to Union Station located on Front Street.
  • With the long awaited subway for Toronto opening March 30, 1954 on Yonge Street, it would put an end to the Yonge Streetcar Line that first saw streetcar service back in 1861. It also brought the end on a number of Downtown Trippers that operated on it off the Danforth line. These trippers would now be turn at Bedford Loop. At the same time, the Bloor-Danforth cars would discharge riders at one end of the platform that was built in the centre of Bloor Street just east of Yonge so the riders could easy transfer to the new subway. The Streetcars would then proceed to the other haft of the platform to pickup riders. Riders off the street had to used stairwells on the 4 corners of Yonge and Bloor Street to gain access to/from the streetcars.
  • At 2:30 pm on the same day of the opening of the subway, the last Yonge Street streetcar Peter Witt #2574 and trailer #2897 roll off the line into the sunset for the last time when these car enter the Harbour Yard on the Waterfront. The next stop for these cars was the scrap yard as that was stated in the 1953 report regarding trailers on the Yone Line. The Eglinton Avenue streetcar carhouse would close their doors for them and reopen as a bus garage that would service the various routes that ran both in and outside the city limits.
  • During the construction of the subway, the underground Queen Street station for streetcars was built, but that is a far it got for the Queen Street subway. That station still exist today an closed to the public eyes.
  • Riders who would used this new subway Line would see their travel time almost in haft traveling from Eglinton Avenue to the City Core. The trip that took about 30 minutes by streetcar was now 15 minutes by subway.
  • With the opening of the Subway and seeing more subways being built, TTC started to look at removing the Streetcar system. It also looked at retiring a fair number of them.
  • After the subway open, 1954 would become the year of the brown out that was caused by the newly open subway as it was using more power than the City Hydro System could produce as well from the outside. There would be rolling brown out for various areas of Toronto until more power from outside the city could be supply to it. This would require more transmission lines as well power plants to be built. Transit riders would see disruption of service cased by these rolling brown outs. Because of the Brown out, TTC removed a number of routes to cut down on the use of Hydro and those lines would not return to service after the Brown out was over.
  • Over the coming years, various options were looked as if TTC would remain a separate department or not would lead to some opposition between it and the Metropolitan Planning Board as to where subway would since the Municipality Act did not state who had final decision making powers would see council making the final decision. One reason we have an University Line today as TTC rejected the plan in the first place. Another decision that took place over the object of TTC was the elimination of Zone fare in 1974 as TTC saw this having an financial bearing on the short distance travelers who would have to pay more at the farebox to support the cost of building and maintaining service for the long distance traveler.
  • The final cost to build the Yonge Line came in at $58 Million up from the original $29 million at the start and $8 million under TTC final esitements.
  • Only a few months after the Yonge Line open an article appeared in the press about building a Bloor-Danforth subway along with a superhighway running from between Victoria Park Avenue in the east to the Kingsway in the west. The expressway would continue further at each end than the subway

Station were to be built at King Street, Queen Street, Dundas Street, College Street, Wellesley Ave, Bloor Street, Rosedale Ave, Summerhill, St Clair Ave, Davisville Ave, and Eglinton Ave.

Concourse single fare areas were built for most stations except Rosedale, Wellesley, Dundas and Summerhill. Wellesley, Rosedale and Davisville had a grade level entrance connected to a bus loop. St Clair had an entrance at the streetcar loop off St Clair and another at bus loop off Pleasant Ave.

King, Queen, Dundas, College and Eglinton station had a stair well entrance at each corner of the intersection. The stair wells are open with a pole holding a TTC logo sign at one end. Most of these stairs have been replace by stairs inside of new development that have replace existing buildings around these stations.

Davisville had an entrance at street level with stairs to a walkway over the trains to get to the southbound platform. That entrance was replace when TTC built their new headquarter building call The McBrien Building there in 1956.

Dundas for some reason had no concourse with a fare collector on each side of the tracks. It has been said the due to the hardeners of the ground around Dundas station and to cut down on the disruption from dynamiting, the station was built as deep as the others.

The walkway under the Dundas station was not built until the 1970's when the Toronto Eaton Centre was been built. The same for the north exit for Queen Street Station at the old (?) location that was close off for the new Eaton Centre.

A 2nd unman entrance was put in place for the southbound platform for King just south of Melinda Street.

There is a underground passage under Queen that was part of the 2nd plan Queen Street underground subway, but it never got built. The station still exist today, but part of it is used for the walkway under the station.

Union and Eglinton stations were the only stations with a centre platform since they were the end of the line at that time. This allow for faster turn around at the end of the line by having one train ready to go after the other train clear the crossover.

Since there was a ravine on the east side of Yonge St north of Wellesley, it was decided it would be cheaper to use this ravine than continue doing a cut and cover up Yonge Street. It was also faster to do.

Since the ravine was near some houses, those houses were remove with a cut and cover for the section between Wellesley and Church Street as well Pleasant Street and Yonge Street. This allow for redevelopment of those areas. In a few places around Bloor and St Clair, existing building were underpin to allow tunneling under the buildings.

Since Eglinton was the City Limits at this time, a bus terminal was built to feed riders into the subway from surrounding towns and cities. Since TTC had a streetcar house next to the new subway, it was converted to a bus garage since there would be no streetcars on Yonge and the radial line on Yonge was cut back to Glen Echo Loop.

In 1954, Metropolitan Toronto was created to cover the current area of Toronto known as 416 after the area code to phone it. At this time, TTC started to provide service to all of the areas under the zone system 1 and 2 system. The existing area would remain the core area. With the zone systems, riders were allow to transfer from one route to another in each zone without having to pay an extra fare. The 2 zones became zone one in 1956 and it was phased out in 1973. Even though the subway travel in zone 1, it was treated as a regular fare zone requiring riders to pay the extra fare when boarding a bus at that station.

Davisville was the yard area as it connected to the Toronto Belt Line that delivery the rolling stock for the line. The southbound platform is also a centre platform as it allow train to go out of service or start service there.

There are 12 tracks with a tailback at south end to feed the yard. There is another tailback at the north end to service the maintenance building.

TTC could not find rolling stock in North America to meet it's needs and went to England to purchase Gloucester cars from Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company as they ended up being cheaper than PCC's vehicles being used for New York and Chicago systems. TTC had obtain 8 tenders from various parts of the world before choosing Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. The cars were 57 feet long and would operate in a 8 car unit at peak time. Rest of the time, they would operate as a 4-6 car unit.

TTC order 105 number in series 5000-5004 painted red. TTC revised the last six car from Steel to aluminum-bodied and saw a vas different in operation. Series number were 5100-5105 and known as G2

Since Rosedale and Summerhill stations were in an open cut, no roof was required for the centre section.

Steel columns were used for the other station that saw advertisement frames attach to them.

The open section between St Clair and Church Street saw light post in between the tracks. The open section between St Clair to south of Summerhill has been built over and you can see the steel framing and new bridge as you travel this section now. TTC makes money on the air rights over it's tacks. It also allows TTC to not worry about snow or other weather condition that it has to deal with for the current open sections.

At the time of opening of the Yonge line, new platforms had to be built on Bloor Street to service the streetcars on that route that ran in pairs at peak time. The platforms were design to have streetcars to stop at one end to drop off riders and then proceed to the other end to pickup riders. There was a pair of stairs to take rider to or from the subway for each platform.

• 1955
  • Saw ridership exceeding capacity of 6 car train that TTC started to use 8 car unites at peak time.
  • Due to shortage of equipment and increase of ridership, TTC place a tender for 34 more cars. Canadian Car & Foundry Co got the order for these cars since TTC was not sure if Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company would delivery on the weight reduction considering the first 30 cars were well over the weight as promises. These cars were in series 5200-5223 known as G3. They had no controls and were mated a cab cars at each end and operated as a 4 car unite.

• 1957
  • In the late 1950's, TTC looked at where the next subway line would be built and again the Queen Street subway was at the top of the list. At this point, the ridership on Queen Street was not as great as the Bloor-Danforth streetcars since that route offer a faster way to connect to the Yonge subway to get to the City Core. It was decided that the Yonge Subway would be extended north from Union Station under University Avenue to the new Bloor-Danforth (BD) line that was to be built in phases. The idea was to run every other train south on the new University line by the way of a WYE at St George Station in the west and Lower Bay Station in the east. Once again, the Queen Street Subway fail to make it to the construction stage.
  • Like other cities world wide, Toronto was looking at replacing the streetcar system and replace them with buses.
  • TTC builts their new headquarter on top of the existing Davisville station entrance and bus loop and moved from the north-east corner of Front Street and Yonge Street that would be torn down for an office tower.

• 1960
  • January would see a report prepared by the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board as a draft copy call "Draft Official Plan of the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Area" that a subway on Queen Street be looked again. The line would run the Humber to Greenwood and then go north on Greenwood to O'Connor Drive and would connect with the Bloor-Danforth Subway line that was under construction at the time either at Donlands or Greenwood station. This would be close to the call for the Downtown Relife Line that is being call for these days.

• 1963
  • Would see the last Peter Witt removed from service with the opening of the University Subway Line.
  • February 28, with the opening of the University Subway spill the end of the line for the Bay line since it was in between 2 subway lines as well continuing the policy of TTC for removing streetcars lines off the street of Toronto. At this time, the Bay line was running from Dupont and Christie loop to the Queens Quay York Street Loop (formerly Ferry Loop). TTC would replace the Dupont line with a trolley bus line that ran from the St George loop to Jane Street and be known as the Annette Line. Some variation of streetcar service would operate over a small section of Bay Street servicing the ferry docks until August 1965 and to the City Hall loop until January 6th, 1975 when it was removed for the building of the Eaton's Centre. The removable of the Bay Line would come back to haunt them years later as well today with the building of the office and condo towers along it. TTC has said that between the diesel buses trapping the fumes of the buses and not having streetcars on Bay Street to help to deal with the overcrowding at peak time was one of their great mistakes for removing streetcars off Bay Street. Today, the Bay 6 Bus travels a large section of the original Bay Streetcar Line. One can find either the Dundas or the Carlton Cars using the last remaining operatively tracks on Bay Street between College Street West and Dundas Street West. TTC has had consider reinstating service on Bay Street to the point it was seriously looked at in the 1980's during the planning of the Harbourfront Line were the tracks would be partly underground as well on the surface, but nothing has happen to date.
  • Saw the first aluminum-bodied subway cars enter service made by Montreal Locomotive Works. They were the first Canadian design built cars and known as M1. These cars weight less than the Gloucester cars as well require less control equipment. TTC order 36 of these cars as series 5001-5035. These cars were 75 feet long compare to the 56 feet for the other cars.

• 1964
  • Saw the plan to finally build the Queen Street Streetcar Subway surface that would run from the Humber Loop in the west where it would travel easterly to Greenwood Avenue and then turn north to meet the Bloor-Danforth Subway. It was recommend by the Vice-Chairman Walton of TTC that Queen line be place underground between McCaul Street to the west and Sherbourne Street in the east.
  • The City Commissioner for Public Works made the sudgustion that a combinded inferstructure be looked at that would allowed streetcars and traffic to used it and it raised the question which should have priority, the Queen Street plan or the extenstion to the north for the Yonge Line. In the end, the Yonge extension got first choice.
  • By year end, another report prepared by the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board surface called "Metropolitan Toronto Transportation Plan" raised question or findings of the 1959 "Draft Official Plan for Metropolitan Toronto" that 45% of the existing riders on the Danforth line would fall west of Donlands station using the Queen Street line (DRL) to the point that as much as 20,000 plus per peak hours for both direction. With this increase of ridership on the Queen Street Line, surfaces transit would be slow, congestion and would required more service. It was sudgested that the Queen Line have its own Right-of-Way underground between Jarivis Street and Spadina Avenue to improved the quality and reliblity of service along this section with the remaining section on the surface.
  • The Metropolitan Toronto and Region Transportation Study (MTARTS) report stated that that it was unclear at the time if such need was required for this Queen Subway and it should be reviewed at a later date on the need of such line.
  • The plan for the Queen Line never made it to the construction stage as it was recommended to build the Yonge Line extension. Again one can only think what transit would look like to day as well the City of Toronto.

• 1966
  • Would see a major change this year for TTC system when the Bloor-Danforth Subway open. A fair numbers of lines would cease to exist as well be modify. Some of these changes would be for the well over times some would not.
  • February 26, the Bloor-Danforth Subway opens it first of 3 phases for it that it saw the line running from the Woodbine Station in the east to the Keele Station in the west.
  • Lines that were removed from service on February 26 with the opening of the Bloor-Danforth Line:
    • Dupont Line that ran from Christie Street Loop to Queens Quay West York Street Loop was removed replace by bus. Tracks would be removed for most of the line except for a section between Dundas Street and College Street be used for short turning today..
    • Spadina Line that ran from the Bloor Street West Loop to Queens Quay West. It would return in 1997 with great debate that stills exist today about it. Bus Route 77 would service the Spadina Avenue.
    • Bathurst Line is cut back from St Clair Avenue West to Bloor Street West Loop with rest of the line been service by the Wychwood Car House. Tracks still in place to the point they were rebuilt in 2008 to allow cars to get to Hillcrest yard as well up to St Clair Avenue 512 route.
    • The first section of the Bloor-Danforth subway line open, bring an end to most of the Bloor-Danforth Streetcar lines. The western section of the line would operate from the Jane Street Loop to a temporary Loop at the Keele Street Subway Station. This loop was a block east of Keele Street, north of Bloor Street at Indian Grove / Indian Road. Riders would used a moving ramp to get to one of the platform. The Keele Station would be a stub end terminal as well a yard until the line was extended to Islington Avenue on May 11, 1968. A retirement home occupies the land that house the Keele Loop.
    • Harbord Line that ran from to was removed and replace with a bus route and the tracks removed over time.
    • Parliament that ran from Broadview Loop to King Street Loop was removed and would see the tracks north of Carlton Street to Bloor Street removed over time.
    • Coxwell Line is removed that saw the route running from McCaul Street eastward along Queen Street, north on Coxwell to Danforth Avenue Loop.
  • Once the Bloor-Danforth Subway line open, TTC still ran streetcar service from Jane loop to Luttrell Loop as night time service until May 11, 1968.
  • Mean while in the east, Streetcars ran easterly from the Luttrell Loop to the Woodbine Subway Station until the phase between it and McCowan Station open on May 11, 1968.
  • With the closure of a large section of the Bloor-Danforth Streetcar line, TTC had more than enough streetcar than it needed and with no expansion horizon for the existing streetcar system, TTC had to do something with the excess cars. This would mean retiring cars and trying to find a buyer for them before they would go to the scrap yard.
  • April 25th, the Main Street loop is removed from service to allowing the building of the new Main Street Subway Station. On June 13 1966, the Main Street loop return to service for both the Danforth Line and the Carlton Line. That loop stills exist today for the 506 Carlton Line
  • With the opening of the Bloor-Danforth Subway, it saw TTC continue its streetcar abandonment to see all streetcars route gone by 1980.
  • The Dundas Line is split that would see the northern section operating from the new Dundas Subway Station to the Runnymede Loop. Rest of the line would follow the original route to the new Broadview Subway Loop in the east. (?)
  • TTC Commissioners approved the undertaking of a $30,000 study on the "Transit Facility in the Downtown 1 section of Queen Street" that would be released in 1968.

• 1967
  • Saw another merger of 7 small municipalities into 6 major municipalities call Toronto, Etobicoke, East York, North York, Scarborough and York.
  • May 23, saw the creation of "Government of Ontario Transit" known as GO Transit System start on the CN rail corridor along the waterfront known as the Lakeshore line. The line would run from The Town Oakville in the west to the Town of Pickering in the east as a 3 year pilot project. Only Long Branch Station would have connection to TTC streetcar system.
  • TTC would see an operation ratio of 104% and it would be the last year it would retain 100% recovery from the farebox. In the coming years, the ratio would fall for a number of reason like: elimination of the zone fare, not raising fare to meet the rising inflation rate as well operating cost, recession and funding from the Provincial Government as an easy source of revenue for subsidies.

• 1968
  • Saw the last ship to depart the Toronto Harbour carrying the last load of PCC's bound for Alexandria, Egypt.
  • The March, the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board issued the report call "Report on Rapid Transit Priorities in Metropolitan Toronto." that contain serveral option to the Queen Subway:
    • 1. A Queen Street subway following Queen Street from the Humber River to Victoria Park Avenue.
    • 2. From an eastern terminal at Greenwood and O'Connor south to Queen Street, west on Queen to Dufferin, then north-west along the Weston Road railway corridor to a western terminal at about Islington Avenue.
    • 3. As 2. but at Weston Road and Eglinton turning due west along the Richview Side Road to Martin Grove Road.
    • 4. A shortened version of 2. from Greenwood and Danforth to Weston Road and Eglinton.
    • Based on the numbere for this report, it was shown in 1980 that the numbers were underflated to the point that the Bloor-Danforth Line was to see 29,000 for peak period, yet by 1973, the ridership was over 30,000.If the Queen line was built, The Yonge-University-Spadina Line would had lost 25% t0 32% of its ridership well the Bloor Danforth Line would has saw 8% to 20% reduction also. In the end, the report did say there was a need for a subway along Queen Street and the footnote in the 1966 report be removed.
  • May 11, brought the end to the long trouble Bloor-Danforth with the opening of the last 2 phases of the Bloor-Danforth Subway line at either end of the line that were still in operation at the time.
  • May 11, saw TTC doing away with the night-time streetcar service between Jane and Luttrell loops and replace them with buses. Based on 2010 ridership and service level, one could say streetcar should be used on the line in place of buses.
  • June 4th saw the report "Transit Facility in the Downtown 1 section of Queen Street" that was preparded by TTC's Subway Construction Branch released that call for a subway running from Sherbourne Street in the east to Spadina Aveune in the west at a cost of $37 million dallors. During disccision with the general manager of TTC and the Commission surround this report that the Streetcar subway be upgraded to a full blown system to meet the futher needs.
    • The study then looked at 4 options with the main option running from Roncesvalle area in the west and Donlands Station on the Danforth section of the Bloor-Danforth Line. An option was looked of a route south of Queen Street required a major underpinning and distruction and was unfeasible.
    • A second option was under Queen Street where the soil was not good for tunneling and a cut and cover would be very disruption to both traffic, but most of all streetcar services.
    • The third option would see Queen Street widen that would advoide option 2, but would requide a massa undertaking of acquisition and demolition the various buildings and land to build this tunnel as well trying to redevloped that area after construction was completed.
    • The forth options was building the line north of Queen Street similar as was done for the Bloor-Danforth subway line that would required acquisition and demolition of the various building and lands to do this cut and cover tunnel.
    • The cost was peg between $150 to $200 million dallars to build this 13km (8mi) line at the time.
    • The report diid said that land would have to be obtaian in Etobicke somewhere around the Islington Station to build a new yard to handle the equipment to be used for this Queen Subway.
  • Based on current ridership numbers and service level, one can say streetcars should return to where they used to roam from Jane Steet to Victoria Park.

• 1969
  • February 1969, TTC produce a report call "A Concept for Integrated Rapid Transit and Commuter Rail Systems in Metropolitan Toronto". The report call for a number of transit expansion using various types of technology. The Subway expansion would see the University line been expanded northward from the St George Station to a Wilson station located just east of Dufferin Street and servicing the new Yorkdale Mall, extend the Bloor-Danforth line to Islington Avenue in the west end and Warden Avenue in the east; the Yonge Line would be extended northward from Eglinton Avenue to the Finch Hydro Corridor that was a block north of Finch Avenue; build the Queen Street Streetcar Subway from Humber Bay to Greenwood Avenue where it would turn north where it would travel to the Don Mills Centre. An LRT system would be built along the Finch Hydro Corridor from Malvern in the east end to the airport in the west with branch lines going to the Warden subway station from Malvern, a line to the Islington subway station using the north-south Etobicoke Hydro Corridor and a line that would connect to the Wilson subway station. A Go Transit line would run from Malvern into in the east using the Canadian Pacific Railway Crosstown Line to the Town of Milton in the west end; a line from Union station using the Canadian National Railway line to the Town of Richmond Hill as well another line using North Toronto Corridor to the airport.

• 1970
  • 1970 would see a number of things take place for TTC. TTC would see a 12 day strike with all service cancel, it would introduce the Senior citizen fare and be the last time the fare revenue would meet operation cost. TTC would contract out its Grey Coach Line to provide service for the new GO Transit bus routes.

• 1971
  • June 3rd, Premier Bill Davis who over for the retired Premier John Robarts on () 1971, stood up in the Provincial Legislature and made the following statement, "Cities were built for people and not cars. If we are building a transportation system to serve the automobile, the Spadina Expressway would be a good place to start. But if we are building a transportation system to serve people, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to stop." Upon this statement, the focuses of building expressways for cars turn toward building a transit system for the people. Premier Bill Davis and this party would go onto to be very strong supporter of transit for the Province of Ontario where it would fund 75% of transit operation cost as well capital cost.

• 1972
  • At a TTC commissioners meeting and convinced by the group called "Street Cars For Toronto Committee", it was decided to reversed the direction of removing streetcar and lines off the streets of Toronto by not only keeping what still exist, but to look at where they could expand too. By making TTC make this decision, Toronto became one of 5 cities in North America to retain streetcars system and help to forge a new direction for transit.
  • With the saving of the existing system, it meant that something had to be done to replace the existing PCC fleet (President's Conference Car) and that was ordering a new fleet.
  • TTC along with Hawker Siddeley Canada stated to look at replacing the existing PCC's with a new car and came up with a concept of one call Municipal Service Car, but only concept drawings were done on it that looked like a lowfloor vehicle with a bus-like chassis.
  • According to a 1997 report call "Track Ahead", a politically decision was made that would become an unofficial policy that Ontario Unions and industries would have preferential treatment when it came to purchasing material, equipment and items that were required to run TTC. It is noted that Hawker Siddeley Canada was not the low bidder on the new streetcar but a Quebec manufacturer (Bombardier) was. This procurement of these vehicles and new technology dictated by the Provincial Government would show up only a few years later to see TTC still trying to deal with these decision in 2010. These decisions went against TTC ability to maintain and service its system financially.
  • The design was purchased by the Swiss company Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG), to build the first 10 cars before the remaining order been built by Hawker Siddeley's factory in Thunder Bay. That order was reduce to 6 allowing the remaining 4 to be converted to an articulated design known as the Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV).
  • Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) 4006 to 4009 were never built as their frames would be used to build the Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV). The decision to do this was done by UTDC as they saw there could be market for these longer car similar to the ones in Europe for North America. SIG was to produce 2 ALRV prototype, but UTDC ended up producing only one.

• 1973
  • March 31, 1973 saw the Yonge line extension to York Mills station open along with Lawrence Ave station. That station entrance would be replace between 1985 to 1992 with the building of the York Mills Centre that house a new underground bus terminal for both TTC and GO Transit. Today, GO Transit has their own terminal just north of York Mills Road.

• 1974
  • March 29, saw the final section of the Yonge line extended from Eglinton to Finch for a distance of 8.7 km (5.4 mi) open. Stations were at Lawrence Ave, York Mills, Sheppard and Finch. No North York station was plan for this section at this time.
  • The area around the York Mills Station was known as Hoggs Hollow with the station running a small portion of the West Branch of the Don River. The station is at the bottom of the valley and one reason for the steep incline at both ends of the station to match the higher elevation of the line. TTC wanted to build a higher above ground level station, but the local residence opposed this idea.
  • between 1974-75, TTC took delivery of 88 H4 cars number 5576-5563. Today there are only 44 cars remaining and they will be phase out in 2010-11 when the new Rocket Trains (TR) start arriving sometime in 2010.

• 1976
  • Between 1976-79, TTC took delivery of 138 H5 cars number 5670-5807 and these cars will be phase out upon the arrival of the new Rocket Train, but maybe held as spares for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

• 1979
  • The last of 138 H5 cars are delivery to TTC Greenwood Yard.

• 1985
  • 1985, TTC unveil Network 2011 of various lines to be built by 2011. A number of these lines were talked about before the release of this report, but there was very little of streetcar expansion in the report as well no mention of the Queen Street Line. The only streetcar line been talked about was the Eglinton LRT that would run westerly from Black Creek Drive where the Eglinton Avenue would stop to Mississauga where it would connect with that city Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line. At the same time, the Conservatives Government who had been in power for 42 years as well a pro transit party, lost the election that year to the Liberals. The Liberals had concerns related to the $5 Billion price tag to build this 2011 Network that they did not take a close look at until near end of their 1987-90 term. The Highway 407 received Provincial funding at this time.
  • The Conservatives Government is defeated by the Liberals Party and it would start the decline of support from the Government to fund transit for the whole Province.

• 1986
  • Between 1986-1989, TTC took delivery of 126 H6 cars number 5810-5939. The same thing will happen to the H6 as the H5.

• 1988
  • Would see obtaining the highest ridership in it history up to this time when it carry 464 million riders. It would until 2008(?) before TTC would see that many riders again due to the coming recession.

• 1989
  • Saw the start of the recession that would have a major impact for transit both for the City of Toronto and the areas outside of it over the coming years.
  • Would see the longest strike in TTC history when their employees were out for 41 day.
  • The last of 126 H6 cars are delivery to TTC Greenwood Yard.

• 1990
  • By the 1990's, there was a growing concise that there was no need for Metropolitan Toronto since it comprised less than 50% of the Greater Toronto Area.
  • TTC introduce the day pass that only can be used after 9:30 am for Monday to Saturday for one person and the Family of 4 or group for Sunday and Holidays.
  • The liberal Party lost the election to the NDP who only looked at the Network 2011 near the end of it terms and offer $2 Billion dollars for its "Lets Move" projects with no streetcar funding in it.

• 1991
  • Would see TTC dealing with another 8 days of service disruption when their employees go on strike.
  • August 19, TTC halts the rebuilding of the PCC's after 19 cars.

• 1995
  • Saw the NDP Government replaced by Mike Harris Ontario Progressive Conservative Party who campaign on a platform of Common sense, reducing the level of government and looking at Metropolitan Toronto. With the election of Mike Harris, transit was in for a rough ride along with a number of things.

• 1996
  • Between 1996-2002, TTC took delivery of 372 T1 cars number 5000-5371 that saw a lot of upgrades over the H cars with wider doors. They will be removed from the Yonge line once all the Rocket Trains are here and will be use on the Bloor-Danforth Line as well the Sheppard line.

• 1997
  • January 21 saw TTC table a report call Opportunities for New Streetcar Routes. This report call for a new Belt Line that would run King St to Spadina Avenue, north to College/Carlton Street, south on Parliament Street. This provided better for riders for waiting time as well less transferring as long there is no reduction of service on the existing lines. Another option that had the lowest cost to operate as well as benefits like the Belt Line was a route that ran in both direction by King Street, Spadina Avenue, Queen Street, Victoria Street, as well Church/Richmond Street. 160 existing riders would benefit from this route if service was every 10 minutes using 4 streetcars midday on a daily base. The cost to operate this route would be over the threshold of $1.25 of 1996 allowances at $10.29 it does not meet economic sense and not recommended. Another Belt Line that maybe interested to tourist and not capture by the 1970's Belt Lines would be similar liar to the one found in Calgary and Winnipeg among other using PCC's is to travel between the Entertainment District and shopping attraction in a circular route. Giving the out come of the 1970, this route would not attract enough riders in the first place. It is possible a such line could be done by the private sector. A direct route between Spadina and Dundas Belt Line operating as a south-east, west-north could see up to 3,400 daily riders using this line. It was recommended to look at this Spadina Avenue and Dundas west routing in the 1998 Service plan in detail.
  • Service report prepared by TTC staff call for the St Clair West Streetcar Route 512 to be extended to a new loop either at Runnymede Avenue or Jane Street, west of the current Gunns Road Loop. The report also stated that the existing tracks on the St Clair 512 line be converted to a Right-of-Way (ROW) like it first built in 1914 when the track were rebuilt schedule for 2005. It also stated that since there was no real ridership west of the Gunns Loop to justify building the extension, maybe the developers who were redeveloping the old slaughterhouse lands on the south side of St Clair Avenue west of Keele Street could pay for this extension.
  • March () 1997, a referendum took place for all the Municipalities that comprised Metropolitan Toronto and by a 3 to 1 vote, the idea of amalgamated all the Municipalities proposed by Mike Harris and his Government was rejected.
  • March 6, the Council of Metropolitan Toronto unanimously endorsed the continuation of the TTC as a special purpose body with the powers, rights and authorities that currently exist under Part VII of the Metropolitan Toronto Act.
  • April, against the opposition of the NDP and the Liberals parties as well the voters, Mike Harris passed the Common Sense Revolution #Bill 103 known as City of Toronto Act at would caused more problems for transit in the coming years. Under Bill 103, the Greater Toronto Area Services Board was to be created to deal with transit outside of the New City of Toronto as well the disappearance of TTC itself starting in 1998 that would go under various changes itself in the coming year to the point it became the current Metrolinx that is responsible for transit in the Greater Toronto Area as of 2010.
  • June 26, would see the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing amend Bill 103 call "Bill Would Ensure Uninterrupted Services in New City of Toronto". This amendment would allow TTC to exist after January 1st, 1998 "important services like the TTC ..... continue to operate as usual .... under the same authority which Metro Council has under the Metro Toronto Act" rather than be part of the Greater Toronto Service Board.
  • September saw a report by Richard M. Soberman, Professor of Civil Engineering for the University of Toronto call "Track Ahead" Organization of the TTC under the new amalgamated City of Toronto been presented to TTC commissioners meeting.
  • It should be noted that the report "Track Ahead" noted that buses carry the largest percentage of transit riders, they carry only 15 Passengers per Vehicle mile while streetcars car 17 Passengers per Vehicle mile. It was also shown that the SRT carry more Passengers per Vehicle mile all day long with the exception between 9 am to 3 pm.
  • TTC operates 3 types of service on the Spadina line known as 510. TTC short turn the cars at Adelaide Street going east to Charlotte Street, south on Charlotte Street to King Street West, west back to Spadina and this is call the Charlotte loop. Every 2nd or 3rd is sent south of the Charlotte loop to the Spadina-Queens Quay Loop that is off the Harbourfront Line and on the east side of Spadina Avenue. The last route sees usually the every 3rd car going east along the Harbourfront 509 route to Union Station. Up to the late 1990's there was not much south of the rail corridor that saw a few Condos streaking along the Queens Quay along with some business as well the Skydome that was a block east of Spadina Avenue as well the CN Tower and the old CPR Roundhouse.
  • TTC carry's only 381 million riders, down from 486 in 1988. TTC would employ a feet of 2,082 various types of vehicles in service including only 162 of the 248 streetcars in the fleet. TTC had 144 routes in service at this time that saw the 507 Long Branch Line merge into the 501 Queen Street line. TTC operating cost recovery had fallen to 79% from 85% that it had before the recession.

• 1998
  • January 1st sees the New City of Toronto taking over the operation of all of Metropolitan Toronto.
  • January 1st sees TTC being an department of the new City of Toronto with 9 City Councilors over seeing it as a Commissioners. These councilors would pick the Chair persons, though the Mayor would really have a said who they would be.

• 1999
  • Saw a 2 day strike against TTC once again.

• 2001
  • Saw a report call "REDUCING CAR DEPENDENCE Transportation Options for the City of Toronto" that called for new subway extension and new LRT lines as well busways (BRT).

• 2002
  • TTC took the last delivery of 372 T1 cars number 5000-5371 that saw a lot of upgrades over the H cars with wider doors. They will be removed from the Yonge line once all the Rocket Trains are here and will be use on the Bloor-Danforth Line as well the Sheppard line.

• 2006
  • On January 26th, the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) rules that even thought the "Official Plan" for the city of Toronto was still not approved at this time, it was valid in urban planning theory. That ruling would removed the ground of argument that was being used by SOS to stop the construction of the St Clair ROW.
  • Brought a new out look as what TTC future fleet was to look like with Bombardier pushing a 100% articulate train with gangway between the cars to allow riders to walk from one end to the other through the cars that cannot be done with the existing fleet. There would be a cab control car only at the ends that eliminated the unused car control area found on each car as well reduce the cost of the train. The front end would be 100% cab control with an access door and ramp in the nose that has a speeding nose. This would see the elimination of the rail fan seat and preventing the public from looking the front window. It has been said it was to prevent the public from seeing someone trying to comment suicide.
  • Both TTC and Bombardier would hold meetings with the public to get feed back on what was been presented to them about the new subway train as well other feature that could be added to the it. This train would allow riders to walk from one end of the train to the other end without changing cars like they do today as there would a gangway openning between the cars. The seat arrangement would be the same as the T1's, but would have flip up seats were the accessiblity public would sit, LED screen maps showning where the train was on the line as well telling the riders what side of the train the doors were going to open at the next station. All the cab controls would be remove from the cars with each end of the tain having a full width cab compartment that would be used by the driver as well the guard. One would sit at each end of the train. Each of these car compartment had a fold out ramp from the the nose to allow fast exit from the train incase it had to be evacyed for what every reasons, but it would not support heavey duty motor scooters. It would have the state of the art technoligy built into it. Devilery would start in 2012 with the first one arriving in 2009 for testing. Note: due to problems beyond the control of TTC and Bombardier, the first one arrived in October 3, 2010.
  • May 29, sees a one day wildcat strike by TTC employees and the Ontario Labour Relations Board ruling it was illegal. TTC general Manger Rick Ducharme tenders his officially resignation a week later due to the interfering of Chair of TTC to deal with the labour issue at the time.
  • Day Pass would be allowed to be used during weekday AM peak time.
  • Between June 6 and July 2006, TTC display a mockup of a T1 as what the T35A08 Train would look like at various stations throughout the system. Cars 5344 and 5345 were used for the mockups.
  • On October 13, after going through over 3,000 submission for naming the T35A08, the name Toronto Rocket was chosen.
  • November saw TTC introducing new tokens to deal with the counterfeiting of them that had been taking place and the last day to exchange the existing ones was January 27th, 2007.

• 2007
  • January 31st, was the last day to exchange existing tokens for the new design to off set the counterfeiting that was taking place for the old ones.
  • February 1 and March 8 saw Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) holding public meetings surrounding the plan for "Rapid Transit for Toronto's Inner Suburbs" that saw more lines being added.
  • March 16, Mayor David Miller unveil plans for Transit City that would see the building of 7 new routes on 120 km (74.6 mi) at a cost of . You can read what I wrote on Transit City here.
  • Both TTC and Bombardier have claim that the new TR will carry 10% more rider, more reliable, less noise and better operation. This has to be see first hand to see if these claims are true at this time.
  • The guards will operate from the opposite end of the train from the driver for the TR and not the usually point since there will be no open windows anymore other than the Cab unit.
  • TTC is talking about adding a 7th car to the TR after the Yonge line is upgraded to ATO by 2017. The trains will take up the full 500 feet at the stations.
  • At a TTC meeting in 2007, TTC place an other for 39 new Toronto Rocket Train (T35A08) comprise of 6 cars with walkway between all the cars number 5381-5766. The rail fan window will be lost as this area will be the cab control compartment. The RT will only have 2 control cars with each been at the ends of the train. Delivery is schedule to start in 2010.
  • Since late 2007, TTC has been closing the subway down north of Eglinton station at midnight to help in speed up the time to repair the liners as they are compressing at the top and could cause the tunnel to cave in.

• 2008
  • February 14, Mayor David Miller along TTC Chair TTC Chair, Adam Giambrone announced the The Better Way Gets Better-TTC Announces New Service Improvements that would see major increase of service across the system.
  • April 30th, sees TTC dealing with a haft day walkout by the employees and having the Province pass back-to-work legislation forcing them back to work.
  • September 28, is the last day for Adults tickets as they were to be eliminated that day, but would return for a short period in 2009.
  • August-September 2008 saw another mockup of the Toronto Rocket on display during the CNE at Exhibition Place.
  • December 15, TTC launches next vehicle arrival notification pilot project that will allow riders to find out in real time when their vehicle would show up at their stop.
  • Service levels are increase right across the board for types of services, as well every day.

• 2009
  • January 2nd, TTC raise their fares and would go on to experience a shortage of tokens that force TTC to reintroduce Adults tickets. Cash fare went from $2.75 to $3.
  • June 10th, TTC signs a contract with Bombardier for $1.2 Billion Dollars for 204 Low Floor Streetcars call Flexity Outlook that will be built in Thunder Bay, Ontario with delivery starting 2013. They will be single ended with poles until TTC upgrades their overhead system to support pantograph's. The first 3 prototypes are supposed to arrived in 2011 for testing on the legacy system to make sure they can handle the existing system.
  • August sees TTC Commissioners approving The Transit City Bus Plan that calls for express buses on the heavily travel route that have none then as well improve service. Also better connection between Streetcar and Subways.
  • November 18th,sees TTC commissioner approved a fare hike that would see cash fare go from $2.75 to $3, Metro pass goes to $109 from $109, Weekly passes go to $36 from $32.50, tokens go to $2.50 from $2.25, Day Passes go to $10 from $9. TTC is supposed to generate an extra $62 Million Dollars for revenue.
  • November 22nd, find TTC announcing the return of Adults Tickets on November 4th, 2009 and the removable of tokens from service until January 3rd, 2010 to deal with the so call token shortage after the announcement of the fares hike on November 14th, 2009 TTC meeting and schedule to be raised on January 3, 2010.

• 2010
  • When one looks at 2010 ridership for TTC night-time service as well looking into the future, there is a strong case that streetcars should be put back on Yonge Street. That same argument can be made for daytime service as it would help with the overcrowding on the line that takes place daily, but you would get strong opposition from the car drivers who used this road to get to/from the City Core.
  • January 20th saw TTC staff present a report to TTC commissioners called "TRANSIT CITY IMPLEMENTATION THE ST. CLAIR PROJECT EXPERIENCE" dealing with the out come to the mess that took place for building the ROW on St Clair. Read the report for more detail information.
  • January 27th, it was announced at TTC monthly meeting that a committee would be form to draft customer charter or "bill of rights" with a report on it to be presented in June this year.
  • March saw the creation of the TTC The Customer Service Advisory Panel (CSAP)
  • On August 11, 2010, announcement is made telling riders using the Bloor-Danforth subway Line that the trains will be operating on the old 1966 wye route for the weekend of August 14-15 to do track work at St George Station Riders would haft to transfer from one side of the platform to the other side to catch a that will carry them pass this point that is further down the line at the Museum Station. Every other train or 3rd will go in the direction you want to go. Riders going to or from the east got to travel through the lower Bay Station that has not seen any real train travel through it since 1966 when TTC abandon the practices of running every other train to the city core by the University line that wye the Bloor-Danforth line, north of the Museum Station. This was the 2nd time in the past few years. Rest of the time, Lower Bay is closed to the public excepted at a couple open doors event. Rest of the time, this station is used to train drivers but most of all is rented out to movie studios and add company's that will pay for the use of it.
  • On May 4, TTC announced they plan to build a new Green Headquarters at 4050 Yonge St located at York Mills Road on the current parking lot on the north-west corner of the intersection due to the fact that the existing building needed $30 Million of repairs and expansion over the next 5 years. The new Headquarters would house 400,000 Sq feet compare to the current 80,000 Sq feet at a cost of $200 million dollars and house 1,000 employees that are spread out around the city at this time.
  • On May 6, at the monthly meeting of TTC Commissioners, TTC exercise the option to purchase another 31 trains that will cover the replacement of the T1's as well have trains to service the Spadina extension as well the Yonge Extension.
  • May 6 saw the commissioners for TTC approved the recommendation to purchased another 31 TR subway trains for the Young-University-Spadina line from Bombardier Thunder Bay plant at a cost of $400 million dollars and be delivery by 2014.
  • In May, TTC announced they had found a buyer for the H5 and H6 when they are retire. The buyer is unknown at this time.
  • August 23rd saw the report from The Customer Service Advisory Panel with recommendation being presented to the TTC commissioners.
  • At TTC August 27 Commissions meeting and based on a 5 to 4 vote, the plan to build a new TTC Headquarters at 4050 Yonge Street was approved. It would be built under Built Toronto that is now responsible for all the buildings for the City of Toronto and schedule to open in 2013. There are plans to house a new TTC museum in this build. Rest of the building not been used by TTC will be lease out.
  • September 10th, TTC Commissioners approved the plan that would see station managers being responsible for all aspects from keeping it clean, repairs, talk to riders about any concerns, hold meeting with land owner on how the station can fit into the community better than it does, produce report as to what where and why things that need to done to bring it up to an 80% rating. The report would go to the commissioner with cost to do these items for approval.
  • On October 14, TTC unveil the new Toronto Rocket train to the media and the public at the Downsview Station. The train was pushed into the station from the north trail tracks by 2 T1 cars since no one is qualify to operate these new trains at this time. TTC only took delivery of this train during the week of October 1st, 2010 with 5392 being the first car. They were late in arriving due to the fact that Curtis Doors went bankrupt 2009, forcing Bombardier to find a new supplier for the doors of the new TR. The first train is to go into operation on the YUS line either before the year is over or earlier in 2011 once testing has been completed on the line as well training operators and staff.

The first subway line came into existent for the City of Toronto on March 30, 1954 with the opening of the Yonge line running from Union Station on Front St to Eglinton Station at the s-w corner Eglinton Ave and Yonge Street for a distance of 7.4 kilometer (4.6 mile).

The Union Station was built under front street between York Street and Yonge Street between Royal York Hotel and the new railroad Union Station.

At the time of building this line, streetcars service a large portion of Toronto including Front Street and Yonge Street.

In the late 30's, Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) revisited the subway again as the service on Yonge Street was poor with streetcars that had trailer would be found bunching up one after another with the car traffic interfering with the service. Simple put, the City was choking on traffic. It is still today.

There was an Environmental Analysis (EA) underway for the extension of the Yonge line from Finch to Richmond Hill Centre in York Region. The EA was completed in 2009 and it is up to Metrolix as to when it may get build or not. The decision to build it or not will be known on November 16, 2010 at the next Metrolinx Board meeting. The business case for it is not very strong. Under Ontario Move2020 list, the government is picking up 2/3 of the full cost with the balance to come from the Federal government and there no sign they are prepared to pickup that 1/3 cost. At the same time, Metrolinx has to do a business case to see if this extension should go ahead as well if it will be a subway or an LRT and that schedule in 2009.

If this extension gets built to Richmond Hill Centre as plan, it will be the 2nd subway line to go into the 905 area.

From a personal point, there is no need for the subway to go any further than Steeles Ave as the ridership is not there to support the extension in the first place. Once the GO Richmond Hill line gets upgrade to all day service with 15 minute headway, ridership will below the threshold for a subway for decades to come. Better off as an LRT line than a subway, but then you are dealing with the car folks who do not want to see surface transit in the first place.

Anyone south of Sheppard Ave will never get a seat during peak time if the extension goes north. Getting one south of Eglinton is very rare these days.

There is talks that it will cost $500 Million to $1 Billion to fix the Bloor station problem that has existed for years for moving riders between the 2 subway lines as well the surface. One idea is building a new southbound tunnel under Yonge St that will split off the existing line south of Rosedale station and connect to the existing line somewhere around the Wellesley Station. The other idea is to remove all the centre columns at the Bloor station and build a centre platform for both tracks. This would require relocating the existing tracks into parts of the existing platform and reducing the platform space area. The existing platforms would be used for off loading only. Regardless what is done for the Yonge line, the same thing has to happen for the Bloor line at the same time.

Another way to help to deal with the overcrowding of the station is to build the long over due DRL (Down Town Relief Line) starting somewhere in the east around Pape or Coxwell running to the city core like was plan back 100 years ago. In fact this DRL could become part of the Don Mills LRT plan for Transit City Plan. From my point of view, the DRL should run all the way up Don Mills to Sheppard Ave as it will take the pressure off the Yonge line by 20,000 riders at peak time. The DRL is another story and look for more info under DRL.

  

© All Rights Reserved and Copyrighted by David Fisher  2010      Sunday, 17-Apr-2011 21:50:51 MST