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Toronto Subway and RT

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TTC Subway
TTC Subway
Reporting marks Toronto Transit Commission
Locale Toronto
Years of operation 1954 – present
Track gauge 4 ft 10 7/8 in (1.495 m)
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario

''This article is about the subway system in Toronto. For the organization that operates the system along with the city's buses and streetcars, see Toronto Transit Commission.
A subway train pulls into St. Andrew station on the University Line.
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A subway train pulls into St. Andrew station on the University Line.

The Toronto subway and RT is the main rapid transit railway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since the original line following Yonge Street opened in 1954, the network has expanded to encompass four lines and 69 stations on 61.9 kilometres (38.5 miles) of track. Run by the Toronto Transit Commission, the subway system is a very popular mode of public transport in Toronto, with an average of 878,800 passenger trips each day (as of 2004). The RT has 6 stations with 6.4 kilometres (4 miles) of track.

The TTC sometimes uses the term "rapid transit" internally to describe all four lines, but in general public usage there is no collective term. They are called the three "subway" lines and "the (Scarborough) RT".

A current focus for the TTC's rapid-transit expansion is an extension bringing the western branch of the Yonge-University-Spadina Line north to York University, Steeles Avenue and Vaughan Corporate Centre in York Region. The Government of Ontario announced on March 23, 2006 that it will provide $670 million for this extension, about one-third of the expected cost. If built, the extension would be approximately 6.2 km long and would likely be built with six new stations: Sheppard West, Finch West, York University, Steeles West, Highway 407 Transitway and Vaughan Corporate Centre. It is expected to cost approximately $2 billion. An environmental assessment has been completed to Steeles Avenue.

Contents

Train network

A map of the Toronto Subway/RT network.

Yonge-University-Spadina
Between Finch and Downsview via Union 		Bloor-Danforth
Between Kipling and Kennedy
Scarborough RT
Between Kennedy and McCowan 		Sheppard
Between Sheppard-Yonge and Don Mills

History

Subway excavations on Front Street in 1950
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Subway excavations on Front Street in 1950

Yonge-University line (1954-1963)

The first segment of the subway, which replaced a heavily-used streetcar route, ran under and next to Yonge Street from Eglinton Avenue to King Street. The route then turned west, to the southernmost station, at Front and Bay, underneath to the city's main railway terminus, Union Station. This line was completed in 1954. It was 6.5 km long.

In 1963, an extension was added, north from Union Station, below University Avenue, to just south of Bloor Street, where it turned west to terminate at St George and Bloor.

Bloor-Danforth line (1966-1968)

The very existence of the Danforth line, opened in 1966, is thanks to a decision made more than forty years earlier. When the Prince Edward Viaduct was built in 1919, its designer insisted on building twin decks below the roadway to allow for future rail traffic. Thanks to that decision, the subway is able to cross the Don River ravine to Danforth Avenue on the east side.

Yonge line extension (1973-1974)

The Yonge-University line was extended north 8 km from Eglinton and Yonge to Finch Avenue and Yonge in 1973 and 1974.

Spadina extension (1978)

A further 12 km was added to the Yonge-University Line at St George and Bloor, running north-west to Eglinton and William R. Allen Road, where it turned north to run down the centre of the Allen Road, to Wilson Avenue and the Allen Road.

Bloor-Danforth extension (1980)

Extensions were added at the west and east end of the Bloor-Danforth Line. These extensions each added a single station, and much needed bus bays to connect to surface routes, and, on the eastern end, room to connect to the Scarborough RT.

Scarborough RT (1985)

The Scarborough RT is an intermediate-capacity line built almost entirely above ground, which has no direct track connections to the other lines and uses a separate fleet of ICTS trains based on dramatically different technology (similar to those of the Vancouver SkyTrain). Nevertheless, its operating practices are the same as those of the other three lines. The route is fully isolated from road traffic and pedestrians, the stations are fully covered, and the trains are boarded through many doors from high platforms within a fare-paid zone set off by a barrier. The TTC therefore includes it with the other rapid transit lines for mapping and administrative purposes.

Spadina extension (1996)

An additional kilometre was added to the north end of the Spadina arm of the Yonge-University-Spadina line, adding a station with bus-bays for connections to surface routes. At the time, a newly elected provincial Progressive Conservative government cancelled their share of funding that would have extended this route northward to York University and Steeles Avenue. This extension is again under serious consideration (see Future expansion).

Sheppard line (2002)

The Sheppard line, opened in 2002, runs 5.5 km east, from Sheppard Station on the Yonge line (now renamed Sheppard-Yonge), near the north end of the Yonge-University-Spadina Line.

Future expansion

The TTC has placed a lower priority on rapid-transit expansion, contingent upon additional funding: maintenance of the present system, increasing the present system's capacity, and fare initiatives are currently considered higher funding priorities.
The TTC subway/RT network as it may appear in 2015; the two major proposed extensions, Spadina North and Sheppard East, appear grey.
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The TTC subway/RT network as it may appear in 2015; the two major proposed extensions, Spadina North and Sheppard East, appear grey.

Through its Rapid Transit Expansion Strategy (RTES), the TTC has identified two major subway expansion projects until 2015. One is the eventual eastward extension of the Sheppard line from Don Mills station to Scarborough Centre station (see the Sheppard line article for more details).

Another is the extension of the Yonge-University-Spadina line from Downsview station through York University to Steeles Avenue and up to the proposed Vaughan Corporate Centre in the city's northern neighbour, the City of Vaughan, which is part of the Regional Municipality of York. Receiving increased attention recently, this extension to Steeles Avenue has passed the third phase of Environmental Assessment and an alignment has been established. The proposed stations, north of Downsview station, are likely to be named Sheppard West, Finch West, York University, Steeles West and Vaughan Corporate Centre.

The current provincial Liberal government will provide $670 million to a trust fund earmarked for the Spadina subway extension. With no obstacles and full funding commitments from senior government, the $2 billion expansion would be operational by 2013 at the earliest.

In addition, the TTC is currently considering options for revitalizing the Scarborough RT line, since its fleet of trains are approaching the end of their lifespan and the line is already overcrowded. Replacing the trains is complicated by the fact that the original ICTS vehicles used by the line are no longer produced, and their newer counterparts are longer and so would require expensive upgrades to the existing track. As a result, the TTC is also considering other options including an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway along a different alignment, converting the Scarborough RT to a dedicated right-of-way for streetcars (as was originally planned), and replacing it with a bus rapid transit line. The Government of Ontario has provided $1 million for an environmental assessment relating to the future of "the Scarborough subway".

Subway facts

Inside a subway car, at the east end of the tracks.
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Inside a subway car, at the east end of the tracks.

Like most metros, the Toronto subway/RT trains collect their electric power from a third rail mounted alongside the tracks. 'Paddles' mounted on the bogeys are located on both sides of each coach for the required contact. Power is supplied at 600 V DC.

Scarborough RT trains cannot switch directions except at the ends of the line as there are no turnback switches between the two termini.

In August 1995, the TTC suffered its worst subway accident in what it refers to as the Russell Hill accident on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. Three women died and 100 people were injured, a few seriously. This led to a major reorganization at the TTC, since contributing to maintaining a "state of good repair" (i.e., an increased emphasis on safety and maintenance of existing TTC capital/services) and less so on expansion.

GO Transit commuter trains stop at or near the Kipling, Dundas West (GO's Bloor station), Main Street (GO's Danforth station), Leslie (GO's Oriole station), and Kennedy subway stations. The TTC's Union subway station connects with Union Station, Toronto's main railway station, which serves not only GO trains, but also VIA, Amtrak, and Ontario Northland. GO buses connect with the TTC at a number of stations, and some other GO stations, while not connected to the subway, are served by buses or streetcars.

Suicides in the subway system have occurred in Toronto, but it is not a common problem. Some have suggested the installation of barrier doors to prevent suicides and others from accidentally falling onto the tracks.

The only baby to be born on the subway is Mary Kim of Scarborough, Ontario. On February 6, 2006, her mother, Sun Hee Paik, took the subway with her family to St. Michael's Hospital from their Scarborough home. She did not make it to the downtown hospital and gave birth at Wellesley subway station. Her husband delivered the baby and Toronto EMS arrived later to help finish the birth and send the mother and child to St. Michael's. TTC officials later promised to provide Mary with lifetime transit access.

Passengers are notified that the doors are closing and they are about to leave the station with a three note chime (D-Flat, B-Flat, G-Flat). This chime is instantly recognisable by most Torontonians and has become part of Toronto culture.

Stations

For complete lists and details of stations, lines, and their locations in the Toronto subway/RT system, see "Train network" above and associated links.

Current stations

Most stations are named for the nearest major road crossed by the line in question. A few are named for major landmarks, such as shopping centres or transportation hubs, served by the station. The University Avenue section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line, in particular, is named entirely for landmarks (public institutions and major churches).

All trains stop at every station along their route and run the entire length of their line from terminus to terminus, with the exception of every other train on the Yonge-University-Spadina line during rush hour—these trains terminate at St. Clair West.

Closed stations

The TTC has one closed subway station: the lower level of Bay subway station. This subway station was briefly used for interlining between two of Toronto's lines in 1966, producing an effect similar to the "branching" lines of metro systems in some other cities. Interlining worked in that one would not have to switch trains to go from one line to another. The experiment, which lasted six months, proved to be impractical. A problem could hold up much of the system. It is said that chaos ensued as passengers at Bay did not know which platform their next train might end up on, causing people to wait on the stairs. Switching trains also did not significantly lengthen a commute, since at the point of departure one would have to wait anyhow for an interlined train heading to the desired destination. Today, Lower Bay is best known for its use in movie shoots and special events. The station has been modified several times to make it look like a "common" American subway station, and the TTC owns a pre-built set to disguise it as a New York City Subway station.

The tracks through Lower Bay still exist and are used from time to time to move equipment between lines. The junctions are just north of Museum station northbound and just west of Bloor-Yonge station. A second double-track connection links junctions just east of Spadina (Bloor-Danforth line) and just north (physically west) of St. George on the Yonge-University-Spadina Line.

A lesser known station is Lower Queen. In the plan that produced the original section of the Yonge subway, the TTC planned to build a second subway under Queen Street that would have been used not by dedicated rapid-transit trains but instead by regular streetcars in order to speed up their east-west passage through the downtown section. When the federal government refused to provide funding for the subway project, the TTC deferred the Queen subway, and by the time it came to revisit the east-west question, changing traffic patterns made the route under Bloor Street more sensible. The original Yonge subway's Queen station, however, had been built with a roughed-in streetcar station on a lower level, ready for the second line if it should ever be built. Many people unknowingly pass through this second station every day, as the tunnel that goes under the station so that riders can move between northbound and southbound platforms is a portion of this underground station, with most of the excess infrastructure walled off.

The TTC also planned but did not construct a Lower Osgoode station for the Queen line.

In the 1990s, the TTC began digging Allen Station under Eglinton West for the Eglinton subway project, but it was filled in again when the newly-elected conservative Government of Ontario cancelled the line in 1995.

That year provincial resources were immediately pulled out of the environment ministry, cutting its budget by nearly half and shifting focus away from urban planning. In addition to cancelling the planned subway line along Eglinton West, extension of the Spadina line to York University was also halted. (Moloney, 2002) By 1998, the province completely eliminated subsidies for the Toronto Transit Commission that had amounted to $104 million in 1995. (Theobald, 2003)

Busiest stations

The system's busiest subway stations are (in order):

  1. Yonge
  2. Bloor
  3. St George
  4. Finch

Track information

For the most part, the subway system is composed of two parallel three-rail tracks. At most stations, particularly the older ones, the rails enter two separate bays in each station, one for Eastbound, one for Westbound (or North/Southbound). The newer stations, with some exceptions, use a single platform between the tracks. Older stations that were formerly termini also use a single platform between the tracks. Along the lines there are also storage tracks, a third set of rails longer than the length of a train, that can be used for resting or turning around. They are formally known in the TTC as centre tracks.

These exist at the following locations:

Pocket tracks are also a variation of centre tracks, but can only be accessed from one end. The other end ends in a blocker. They can be found at: Double crossovers, allowing for the switching of tracks exist at the following locations:

  • East of Kipling Station
  • East of Islington Station
  • East of Jane Station
  • East of Keele Station
  • East of St. George Station (both lines)
  • West of Woodbine Station
  • East of Victoria Park Station
  • West of Warden Station (geographically south of the station)
  • West of Kennedy Station (on the Bloor-Danforth line)
  • South of Downsview Station
  • South of Wilson Station
  • North of Spadina Station (on the Yonge-University-Spadina line)
  • North of Bloor Station
  • South of Eglinton Station
  • South of Lawrence Station
  • South of Sheppard Station
  • South of Finch Station
  • West of Yonge Station (on the Sheppard line)
  • East of Yonge Station (on the Sheppard line)
  • West of Bayview Station
  • West of Don Mills Station
  • West of McCowan Station
  • East of McCowan Station (in McCowan yard)

There is also a single crossover north of Union Station on the Yonge line that allows trains to come into Union from the north, enter what is now the platform designated "Northbound - University line", and turn around, heading back north towards Finch on the proper track. This would have been used when Union was the Yonge terminus until the University line was opened in the 1960s.

Other track "anomalies":

Track gauge

The tracks of Toronto's streetcars and subways (apart from the Scarborough RT) are built to the unique gauge of 1.495 m (4 feet 10 7/8 inches), 60 mm (2 3/8") wider than the usual standard of 1.435 m (4 feet 8 1/2 inches). One popular albeit false belief is that the City of Toronto feared that the Toronto Railway Company, which held the franchise to run streetcars before the TTC was created, would allow Canadian Pacific Railway to operate steam locomotives through city streets. The more practical reason is that early tracks were used to pull wagons smoothly in the days before paved roads, and that they fit a different gauge. Due to the cost of converting all the tracks and vehicles (and the lack of any real benefit in doing so), the unique gauge has remained to this day.

Some proposals for the city's subway system involved using streetcars in the tunnels and possibly having some routes run partially in tunnels and partially on city streets, so the same gauge was used, though the idea was ultimately dropped in favour of dedicated rapid-transit trains. The use of standard-gauge tracks on the Scarborough RT makes it impossible for there to be any track connection between it and the other lines, and so when its ICTS vehicles need anything more than basic service (which can be carried out in the RT's own McCowan Yard), they are carried by truck to the Greenwood subway yards.

Vehicles

The Toronto Transit Commission has a fleet of: Here is a list of rapid transit vehicles used by the TTC since 1954:

Subway trains

Current

Product list and details (date information from the TTC)
 Make/Model   Description   Fleet size   Year acquired   Year retired   Notes 
Hawker-Siddeley Canada RT 75 H4 Subway car 77 1974-1975 2008?
Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC) RT75 H5 Subway car 138 1976-1979 2008?
Urban Transportation Development Corporation RT75 H6 Subway car 126 1988-1990 2008? (Will be converted to be wheelchair accessible during maintenance)
Bombardier Transportation RT75 T1 Subway car 372 1995-2001 All wheelchair accessible 15px

The current subway fleet consists mostly of the new T1 cars and H5 and H6 cars. Some of the H4 cars will be retired as more cars are bought in the future or wear out.

The interior of a T1 subway car, currently the most common model.
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The interior of a T1 subway car, currently the most common model.

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Denotes vehicles specifically designed to be wheelchair-accessible (though level boarding platforms allow a degree of access to all trains).

Retired

All Gloucester and MLW cars have been retired, as well as most early H-series cars (H1-3):

Product list and details (date information from TTC)
 Make/Model   Description   Fleet size   Year acquired   Year retired   Notes 
Gloucester Railway Wagon and Carriage Company G1, G2, G3, and G4 Subway car 108 1954-55 1990 set of cars sent to the Halton Radial Railway Museum in Rockwood, Ontario
Montreal Locomotive Works M1 Subway car 36 1960-1963 1999 set of cars sent to the Halton Radial Railway Museum in Rockwood, Ontario
Hawker-Siddeley Canada RT75 H1 and H2 Subway car 83 1965-1970 2000 - H1; 2008 - H2 (Will be converted to be wheelchair accessible during maintenance)
Hawker-Siddeley Canada H3 (a modified H2 with chopper control) Subway car 5 1971 2008

Future

For their future fleet, the TTC are considering abandoning their strategy of building their trains from married pairs of identical cars, and purchasing permanent six-segment articulated units similar to the model of Bombardier's Movia metro train used by the Shenzhen Metro. These will have only two driver cabins per train, allow passengers to walk between cars to provide increased capacity, reduce noise, and simplify operations. The original plan was to make all seats unpadded, plastic benches that would be parallel to the outside wall; due to the bad reaction from the public on this proposed change, this idea has since been scrapped and the seats in the new trains will be almost identical to those of the T1 trains. Accessible seats will be doubled in the new cars allowing for 12 (per train) locations for special needs comuters Construction would be welded rather than riveted to reduce building costs and increase aerodynamics. The new design would be introduced around 2009.[link]

The T35A08

"T35A08" is the code name for new stock that would be named through a contest.

Beginning June 6, 2006, the TTC began displaying a mock-up of the new T35A08 train at various stations. The mock-up train (T1 # 5345) will be available for viewing on a rotational basis beginning at Davisville station from June 6 to June 20; followed by Finch from June 21 to June 23, Downsview (TTC) from June 26 to June 30, Kipling from July 10 to July 14, and Kennedy stations from July 17 to July 21, 2006. The mock-up train is available for viewing from Monday to Friday in the given dates from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and is also available on Thursdays when the train is in Davisville (TTC) station from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. This means that on Thursdays, one can view the mock-up train twice in Davisville station, when the mock-up is in that station. The locations and viewing times may change without notice.

Scarborough RT trains

Product list and details (date information from TTC)
 Make/Model   Description   Fleet size   Year acquired   Year retired   Notes 
UTDC ICTS (CCR) - LRV Mark I RT car 28 1982-83 replacement pending unless line is scrapped
UTDC ICTS wood mockup 1 1983 ? stored at St. Clair carhouse

Work vehicles

Current subway work vehicles

Retired subway work vehicles

Scarborough RT work vehicles

Others

A HS H1 car is used to simulate subway scenarios and is located at the Special Operations Training Centre of Toronto Fire Services.

Facilities

Here is a list of subway and RT yards and facilities: As well there are:

Source: [TTC Subway Related Properties]

Formerly-planned lines

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[Special]

[http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit ]
Passenger railways of Canada
Metro systems: Montreal Metro | Toronto subway/RT | Vancouver SkyTrain
Light rail: C-Train (Calgary) | Edmonton Light Rail | O-Train (Ottawa) | Toronto streetcars | Toronto Pearson Airport People Mover
Long distance: VIA Rail | Ontario Northland Railway | Canadian National Railway | Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway | Tshiuetin Rail Transportation | White Pass & Yukon Railway
Commuter rail: GO Transit (Toronto) | Agence métropolitaine de transport (Montreal) | West Coast Express (Vancouver)

 

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