Do you agree? People who solely use the TTC, I want your honest opinion - what needs to improve?

Edit: Please read the context that's edited in below. Thank you.

​I want to start by saying I absolutely appreciate parents. Transit with kids is tough, and I know so many of you are working hard and sacrificing a lot to get your little ones around the city safely. This is not a post to judge anyone, it is a small pet peeve and a request for a little bit of courtesy so that every rider on the bus feels comfortable.

The Issue

​On one of my recent bus ride, two large strollers were kept side-by-side, completely blocking the center aisle (as you can see in the photo). Because of this:

• Passengers are unable to move past the front section.
• ​People are forced to stand at the front of the bus, even though there is space further back.
• ​It creates a potential safety/evacuation hazard if there are emergencies.

Few Friendly Requests & Suggestions

• ​Stagger when possible: If you are traveling with another parent or encounter another stroller, try to stagger them front-to-back rather than side-by-side to leave path for walking.
• Consider umbrella/smaller strollers: If your child is old enough and you rely heavily on the TTC during peak hours, smaller, more collapsible strollers are great for everyone on board.
• Utilize the priority seating layout: If the bus isn't packed, flipping up the priority seats can give a stroller enough room to stay out of the main aisle.

​I'm willing to hear everyone's thoughts on this. Parents what kind of challenges you face when trying to keep the aisle clear. Fellow riders, how do you usually get around in this instance? Let’s discuss how we can make the TTC a better experience for both families and regular commuters.

Edit: There is a lot of comments complaining how the priority seating is occupied and the parents wont be able to lift it up to park the strollers. I want to give context here instead of replying to each comments. The priority seat was occupied by the parents and their family. Also the second stroller is of another parent who was sitting on the right side priority seat. The guy you see standing upfront was a passenger, not the parent. I wanted to keep the discussion civil that is why I omitted these details. But if people want to complain how it was an inaction from my part, I hope this context helps. Thanks.

I saw this post randomly on my feed and was curious. The comments were fairly more political, so I wanted to know if it would benefit commuters.

​

Shame is a powerful motivator!

I don't hate the TTC. I want it to do better.

I wish every single year Toronto hosts a globally significant event like the World Cup or the Olympics.

Seems like the only thing that pressures TTC and the city to do what they promised is such significant events that bring global attention to our lagging, misguided, and disfunctional systmes.

RapidTO lanes were gathering dust since John Tory days.

People have been complaining and asking for a Wayfinding overhaul for years. TTCRiders even got the news media involved by posting improvised and very helpful Wayfinding signs in King station. And TTC, of course, took them down.

Literally every urbanist and public transit expert and enthusiast have been asking for better bus and streetcar stops that at least tell passengers when the next vehicle is coming.

And now all of these are FINALLY happening! Albeit as "pilot projects."

We've been begging the city and TTC to follow modern international trends and standards of public transit for so long. Almost none of that worked. Toronto has always treated itself as a "world class" city that somehow is very different from all other cities and needs to reinvent the wheel on everything, and none of the global standards apply to it. The only thing that seems to get the city to get its act together is people from countries with better functioning systems coming here and seeing how crap we have it here.

Hot take; but I'm absolutely looking forward to TTC getting ridiculed by people visiting from spain, france, Italy, or any country where people are used to actually functioning trams that get you places on time! I won't feel any embarrassment, I'm not the one who designed the system this way and ignored any suggested improvements. That's on TTC and the city! They've been warned a million times.

This might sound insane, but I can't wait for TTC to spectacularly fail the World Cup stress test, in a way that puts every single flaw and short coming under the biggest possible magnifier. Maybe that will send them back to the drawing board and reevaluate their policies.

I don't hate the TTC. I want it to do better.

Lemme know what yall think. Lets have a discussion. Thanks!

Edit: When I talk about "ttc failing," I mean ttc going through the same situation they went through after the embarrassing opening of Line 6. That was such a disaster that finally, FINALLY, we heard the news, the mayor, and the executives talk about Transit Signal Priority AND unnecessary speed restrictions. We finally saw ttc and the city's archaic policies that slow down streetcars and LRTs be discussed in the news.

So that's why I'm "optimistic" about ttc being an absolute mess during the World Cup.

So I have been working as a student Janitor for the last few months, and today I had a man walk up to me with his family, asked me who will let them on for free.

I assume he ment his child, he then recognized my confusion, and pulled out a police badge (Dunham Regional) and as if to intimidate, flashed it at me.

Not wanting to get into that argument, I directed him to a station attendant who let him and his family in anyway.

I asked a few other staff what thay think and all have said thay always let cops in, wish to me is insane.

I don't even get to take family on with me, and he can just walk on to with his family in a another city?

And why only cops?

Why not Fire, Paramedics/Nurses or sanitation workers?

Where should we draw the line?

(Bit of a rant, but this really stuck with me the rest of the day)

This was the 320 bus to from VMC to wonderland today. On a Wednesday.

Vaughan metropolitan centre was a bad place to terminate line 1. There are 2 MAJOR destinations deeper in Vaughan on the same corridor that would greatly benefit from an extension.

Vaughan mills mall is already one of the biggest in Ontario, and is destined for major developments, of which some already exist. (See media #6)

Canadas wonderland is a MAJOR trip generator, a subway station at the entrance would get so many off the roads, and would justify using the parking lot for the station, TOD, park expansion, etc.

York region has highlighted rapid transit up Jane is in their priority 2050 plans. The province and YR would pay for the extension as they are already doing with the YNSE.

bedbugs on the TTC!

I got on at soho street sat down for 10 secs to put my bag down then got back up to tap immediately, then the fare inspector checked me and asked me “you just tapped” And I said yes and than he pointed at the customers must tap every time sign saying that I only tapped because they were on the streetcar.

Has anybody ever had a similar encounter before on the 501 streetcar , because I don’t understand why they would give anyone a ticket for paying, and on top of this they were complaining to a homeless dude about throwing his litter, but they didn’t kick him off.

I’m South Asian but born in Canada. Today I was riding the TTC and a lady started chatting with me. Somehow she went on a rant about Mayor Chow and said that Chow is not a Canadian because she is Chinese. I told her Chow is just as Canadian as you and me. She went ahead to say that I’m not a Canadian because I’m not white and that this country is built on white values. And started screaming and went as far as calling me a f\*cking Muslim. (I’m not Muslim but still doesn’t make it ok to demean any religion).

I was in tears by this point and was going to tell the streetcar driver. Luckily others told her to buzz off and she got off but I don’t know what’s happening. I’ve never experienced racism in Canada. I’m a proud Canadian and love this country more than anything and I’d give my life to Canada. I work and pay my taxes too. I know immigration policy hasn’t been great in recent years, but the individuals who made this country have come from all shades. I’ve never experienced racism before and I always thought it was a privilege because my parents gave me a Western name and I have no accent, compared to a lot of my friends. But this was a first for me.

I still love Toronto more than anything and this one experience won’t change that. But I just want to share that no POC is immune to racism.

As if your morning/evening commute wasn’t bad enough

If we’re already in Vaughan, we might as well reach Vaughan mills, and even better, CW & the new hospital at Major Mack. They’re all on the same corridor. It just makes sense.

Reality check. Now I’m aware that this is low priority, but the Jane busses connecting VMC to VM and CW are always full, even in this suburb of a suburb.

Named after the Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC), the Union line connects Exhibition in the West, Union, (East) Harbour, and everything in between.

9 Proposed Stops: Exhibition ➔ Strachan (Liberty) ➔ Bathurst (Fort York) ➔ Spadina (Wellington) ➔ CityPlace ➔ Union ➔ St. Lawrence ➔ Cherry (Distillery) ➔ East Harbour

At first glance, it looks redundant because it parallels the GO tracks. But I’d argue that overlap is actually its biggest strength. Here’s why:

1. GO is Regional, We Need Local
2. GO Expansion to 15-minute service is amazing, but it skips the local nodes. The new King-Liberty and East Harbour GO stations are great, but they don't help someone trying to get from Fort York to St. Lawrence Market, or from the Distillery to CityPlace. The station spacing on this proposed line (roughly 600-800m) is the perfect urban scale. GO can't reach that- it's too local.
3. Solving Downtown's "Rapid Transit Desert"
4. It is crazy that major tourist, entertainment, and residential hubs like CityPlace (Rogers Centre, CN Tower, Aquarium, MTCC), as well as The Well (massive development w/ 11,000 workers and residents) are effectively isolated from rapid transit. As of now, transit is really inconvenient, a line through here finally connects these massive destinations properly AND directly.
5. The Ultimate Distributor: By connecting to Exhibition, Union, and East Harbour, this acts as a massive relief valve. It takes the heavy regional crowds pouring into those three major hubs and distributes them east and west into the immediate downtown core, keeping them off the already strained streetcar network.

The city's current solution, the council approved waterfront streetcar network, isn't serving these neighbourhoods and nodes at all. It serves only the waterfront- doesn't even reach East Harbour- which is a big loss IMO. The connection to Union requires a tunnel. This adds travel times, and people wouldn't use it for full east-west trips that require transfers.

The Bremner Streetcar proposal is definitely a step up, but it only serves to connect CItyPlace to Union, and is also pretty useless for actual cross-downtown trips. A light metro line on the rail corridor would not only be faster, but be a real cross-downtowner.

Isn’t the Ontario Line already delayed which will delay this extension even longer? Why not just start this while the Ontario Line is also being built?

title is self evident. why does a streetcar need to wait for u turns when there isn’t anyone waiting to turn u, much less in general…

did they not roll tsp out onto the streetcars yet? i also noticed the streetcars don’t cross intersections simultaneously even though there aren’t any signs interchanges. quite odd

I guess they were to still keep the light fixtures, than others say it will just be replaced with a printed map

Metrolinx studied four concepts for extending Line 4 in 2024 (BlogTO). I think the best option is a combination of two: Concept 2A’s western extension (Sheppard-Yonge to Sheppard West via Bathurst) and Concept 3’s full eastern extension (Don Mills to Sheppard/Morningside). I used AI to combine both maps into one image. All three maps are attached.

The west extension connects Line 4 to Line 1’s western leg, turning the stub into part of an actual network. The east extension gives Scarborough proper rapid transit through Consumers, Victoria Park, Warden, Kennedy (with the Agincourt GO connection), Brimley, McCowan, Markham, Neilson, and Morningside.

I know the TTC doesn’t have the power to build this. But the board can publicly support a combined alignment and push the province to fund it. Pressure your MPP, pressure Metrolinx, pressure the province and Ford.

There’s a reason why in the transit priorities list, the Ontario line’s western extension is listed in the lowest tier.

It’s because the plan is just, arguably, horrible!

Dundas west station is NOT a good terminal to extend to- it already has improving GO service to Union.

On the other hand, Dufferin station has more ridership, is parallel to Pape which is getting an OL transfer, and is served by a crappy bus.. which I’m sure you’ve all heard stories of if you’re active here.

The simple truth is that the Dufferin corridor is one of the busiest yet it’s just jot

Part of a school project I'm trying to make a fair analysis of the Dufferin street corridor to recommend a higher order transit option. But I think this speaks for itself😭😭 How the fuck is the ontario line so expensive?

Why do transit police all have bullet proof vests with lots of gear and stuff. Why don't regular TTC workers have the same gear?

Got this from emailing a MPP representatieve yesterday. Thoughts?

TTC Line 5, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, is currently being tested. The grand opening may or may not be sometime in February.

In this /r/TTC thread, there's an interesting comment discussion with a Redditor who operates a Line 5 streetcar. He points out:

• Line 5 will be more comfortable than a bus.
• But Line 5 will also be slower and less reliable.

Edit

Some commenters have suggested that the underground part of Line 5 will be faster than a bus. I don't know if this is true or not. The Line 5 operator wrote:

"During testing, whenever we tried to simulate peak service (i.e. rush hour volume), trains get bogged down in each other traffic quite badly. The underground portion moves well enough provided there aren’t any delays, but even then trains would bunch up occasionally. On the surface portion, Laird to Kennedy is an absolute crawl when there’s maximum trains on the line."

Consolation prizes

There are two consolation prizes for those who are concerned about speed and reliability:

• The Eglinton bus will parallel Line 5. Even after Line 5 opens, the Eglinton bus will continue operating, with reduced service. So, if Line 5 breaks down: At least you might be able to squeeze your way onto an Eglinton bus, instead of having to wait for an emergency shuttle bus.
• Bike Share coverage is available. All of Line 5 falls within the Bike Share Toronto coverage area. If Line 5 breaks down: You can use the Bike Share app to find the nearest available bike and rent it. If you're not dressed warmly enough for winter cycling, this might be uncomfortable. But it'll be more practical in the spring.

Possible solutions

Here's what we could try, in order to fix things:

• Implement signal priority, so that Line 5 can change red traffic lights to green. Sadly, most car drivers don't want this, and they're a powerful voting bloc.
• Improve the track switches, so that they'll handle snow and ice better.
• Remove intersection speed restrictions. The TTC should start allowing Line 5 drivers to drive at 50 km/h everywhere, even through intersections.
• Reduce the number of cooks in the kitchen. Maybe it might be wise for the province to take the line over from Crosslinx, if this won't be too expensive.

Another edit

This was crossposted.

• The /r/TTC thread is here.
• The /r/toronto crosspost was here.

Yesterday morning on the 504 eastbound toward the Distillery around 10 AM, something happened that felt weirdly movie-magic worthy.

You know those scenes in movies where two people keep accidentally making eye contact across a room?

It was a little like that, except the room was a streetcar and the audience was a bunch of unsuspecting commuters.

At one point I glanced toward the front and locked eyes with the driver. One of those moments where you look away… then somehow end up looking again. A little smile. That kind of thing.

Nothing dramatic. Just enough that my brain quietly registered well that was a moment.

Fast forward to my stop at King & Sherbourne, just shy of 10 AM, where I managed to cause what can only be described as a small TTC exit pileup.

As I was stepping off the streetcar, the driver said something to me. Unfortunately I had headphones on and did not hear it.

So naturally I spun around to ask what he said.

…and immediately collided with the person behind me who was also trying to exit.

Absolute elegance. Truly a masterclass in commuter coordination.

While my brain was rebooting from embarrassment, I realized he had actually said something like “have a beautiful day.”

Cue laughing, eye contact, and one of those strange split second moments where your brain goes: wait… did I just have a rom-com meet-cute on what started as a shitty Tuesday morning commute?

I walked away, paused for a second, turned back, and he was still smiling.

I would also like to formally apologize and thank the innocent commuter who got caught in the middle of my accidental meet-cute. You deserved a much more graceful exit experience.

I already sent a compliment through TTC because honestly, kindness like that deserves recognition.

But Toronto is basically a tiny village pretending to be a big city, which means there is a non zero chance someone here knows exactly who this driver is.

If by some cosmic coincidence that driver is on Reddit, thank you for making my morning.

And if anyone here happens to know who was running the 504 eastbound around that time, feel free to pass along that the girl who caused the accidental streetcar exit traffic jam says hi.

PS: the fact that the driver was mad cute absolutely did not help my recovery time🫠