Akari Okubo Contributor

Toronto transportation is undoubtedly a never-ending sequence of unfortunate events. Whether it be the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT, suspicious fires on subways, or closed highways, it covers Toronto’s history of disruptions, mismanagement, construction delays, and safety incidents. Is the city doing enough to restore reliability? Can Toronto manage to fix its reputation? Sometimes being timeless isn’t always a compliment.

I’m sure that most, if not all, readers have been on transit in Toronto at some point in their lives, whether you are an international student taking the Union Pearson Express to and from the airport, or a commuter taking the TTC to class every day. And of course, many of you have experienced the many struggles that come along with transit in this city, whether it be the stretches of the subway that always seem to be shut down, slow zones that test your patience, or streetcars that crawl slower than walking speed.

So how did we get here?

The history of the TTC stretches back more than a century. In 1921, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was formed as a consolidation of private streetcar lines, the Toronto Railway Company, and the public Toronto Civic Railways. In 1954, the TTC opened their first subway line, the Union Station-to-Eglinton section of the Yonge Street subway, currently the TTC line 1. To increase capacity, the University line opened nine years later, continuing from the original Southern terminus of Union north to St. George station. Three years later, the Bloor-Danforth line (Line 2) opened between Keele station in the west to Woodbine station in the east.

Along Queen Street, there were plans for a full subway back in the ‘50s. However, in classic Toronto fashion, these plans never materialized. Anticipation for this plan led to an interchange platform built directly underneath Queen station when it was constructed in the early ‘50s that still exists unused to this day, in anticipation of a subway that was never built, never having seen a train.

As subway expansion continued through the 70s, so too came a policy of abandoning streetcars, with plans for buses to serve lower volume regions. Streetcars were thought to be a remnant of a previous era, but a rise in costs of subway construction, as well as a change in public sentiment, convinced the TTC to reverse this decision. The removal of the Rogers Road streetcar in 1974 was the last to fall under this policy.

Since then, the TTC built Line 3 Scarborough in 1985 (now permanently closed after a derailment in 2023), and Line 4 Sheppard, the lowest ridership of all lines. Three new lines are currently in progress: the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT, which began construction all the way back in 2011 (yet the opening date remains one of Toronto’s great mysteries), Line 6 Finch West (opening date also a mystery), and the Ontario Line, a downtown relief line planned to run between Don Valley station, where it will connect with the Eglinton-Crosstown LRT to the existing Exhibition GO station. The Ontario Line interestingly holds some similarities to a 1973 proposal for the Queen Street subway, but will not be using the lower portion of Queen station.

To me, the history of transit in Toronto is a story of what-ifs. What if Line 3 Scarborough never shut down? (Line 4 had plans of an extension to meet with Line 3 at Scarborough Centre). What if the Queen Street subway had been built back in the ‘50s? What if historic streetcar lines had never been abandoned? Although there has always been so much ambition in shaping transit in the city, it has been restrained by underfunding, missed deadlines, spiraling costs, and endless more issues.

Next year marks the 105th anniversary of the TTC, yet its story is still unfinished. The subway, bus, and streetcar systems it has built has not only shaped the city we live in today, but also the not so pleasant relationship we have with them. Whether or not the TTC can finally deliver on promises of the past, restore reliability, and fix its reputation will depend on whether it can learn from its own history.