The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transit agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers in Canada and has numerous connections to systems serving its surrounding municipalities.
Established as the Toronto Transportation Commission in 1921, the TTC operates 5 rapid transit lines, 74 subway stations, 43 light rail transit stops, approximately 167 bus routes, and 11 streetcar lines. The TTC is the most heavily used urban transit system in Canada; in , the system had a total of 800,212,000 boardings.
History
Public transit in Toronto started in 1849 with a privately operated transit service. In later years, the city operated some routes, but in 1921, assumed control over all routes and formed the Toronto Transportation Commission to operate them. During this period, streetcars provided the bulk of the service. In 1954, the TTC adopted its present name, opened the first subway line from Union to Eglinton, and greatly expanded its service area to cover the newly formed municipality of Metropolitan Toronto (which eventually amalgamated into the present City of Toronto). The system has evolved to feature a wide network of surface routes, with the subway lines as the backbone. On February 17, 2008, the TTC made many service improvements, reversing more than a decade of service reductions and only minor improvements.
In addition to buses, streetcars, and subways, the TTC also operated the Toronto Island ferry service from 1927 until it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department in 1962. The City of Toronto now operates the ferry through its Fleet Services Division. The TTC also operated a suburban and regional intercity bus operator, Gray Coach Lines, from 1927 to 1990. Gray Coach used interurban coaches to link Toronto to points throughout southern Ontario. In addition, Gray Coach operated tour buses in association with Gray Line Tours. The main terminal was the Metropolitan Toronto Bus Terminal on Elizabeth Street north of Dundas Street, downtown. In 1954, Gray Coach expanded further when it acquired suburban routes from independent bus operators not merged with the TTC as it expanded to cover Metro Toronto. By the 1980s, Gray Coach faced fierce competition in the interurban service in the GTA. The TTC sold Gray Coach Lines in 1990 to Stagecoach Holdings, which split the operation between Greyhound Canada and the Government of Ontario three years later.
The Gloucester subway cars, the first version of TTC subway cars, known as "red rockets" because of their bright red exterior, have been retired. The current T-series trains also have a red interior color scheme. The name lives on as the TTC uses the phrase to advertise the service, such as "Ride the Rocket" in advertising material, "Rocket" in the names of some express buses, and the new "Toronto Rocket" subway cars, which began revenue operation on July 21, 2011. Another common slogan is "The Better Way".
Finances The TTC recovered 69.6 percent of its operating costs from the fare box in 2017. From its creation in 1921 until 1971, the TTC was self-supporting both for capital and operations (it had to pay property taxes until 1967). Through the Great Depression and World War II, it accumulated reserves that allowed it to expand considerably after the war, both with subways and major steady growth of its bus services into the suburbs. It was not until 1971 that the Metro Toronto government and the province started to provide operational funding, required primarily due to rising costs of delivering transit to low-density suburbs in Metro Toronto and large wage increases. Deficits and government funding soared throughout the 1970s and 1980s,TTC annual reports followed by service cuts and a period of ridership decline in the 1990s, partly attributable to recession.
In 1997, the Progressive Conservative government under Premier Mike Harris implemented the "Common Sense Revolution" which, among other things, cut in provincial financing support for the Eglinton West subway line, and cut $718million in municipal transit support, placing the entire burden of financing the system on municipalities and leaving the TTC with a $95.8million/year funding shortfall. The TTC cut back service with a significant curtailment put into effect on February 18, 1996. Since then, the TTC has consistently been in financial difficulties. Service cuts were averted in 2007, though, when Toronto City Council voted to introduce new taxes to help pay for city services, including the TTC. As a result, since 2011, the TTC became the largest transit operator in Anglo-America not to receive provincial or state funding. The TTC has received federal funding for capital projects from as early as 2009. The TTC is also considered one of the costliest transit systems per fare price in North America. For the 2011 operating year, the TTC had a projected operating budget of $1.45billion. Revenue from fares covered approximately 70 percent of the budget, whereas the remaining 30 percent originated from the City. From 2009 through 2011, provincial and federal funding amounted to 0 percent of the budget. In contrast to this, the Société de transport de Montréal receives approximately 10 percent of its operating budget from the Quebec provincial government, and OC Transpo receives 9 percent of its funding from the province. The fairness of preferentially funding transit in specific Canadian cities has been questioned by citizens.
On August 12, 2020, the Province of Ontario promised $404million for TTC operations to compensate for reduced ridership and revenue loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more funding to come later. The TTC projected a shortfall of $700million in 2020.
Operations Buses
Buses are a large part of TTC operations today. However, before about 1960, they played a minor role compared to streetcars. Buses began to operate in the city in 1921, and became necessary for areas without streetcar service. After an earlier experiment with trolley buses in the 1920s, the Toronto trolley bus system that was relaunched in 1947 grew to nine routes, but all trolley bus routes were converted to bus operation between 1991 and 1993. The TTC always used the term "trolley coach" to refer to its trackless electric vehicles. Hundreds of old buses have been replaced with the low-floor Orion VII, and the TTC has acquired many hybrid electric buses. The TTC's hybrid buses, the Orion VII HEVs, were first put on the road in 2006; these were followed by the new 224 Orion VII Next Generation Hybrids in 2008 (. The next order of 190 buses, brought the total number of hybrids to 564, second only to New York City. The TTC added onto their hybrid buses fleet once again in 2009 with an additional 120 Orion VII NG HEV buses. Older TTC Orion VIIs from 2001 to 2006 feature the standard "breadbox" style, whereas newer buses, from 2007 onwards, feature Orion's new, more stylish body. With a total of 2,194 buses, the TTC is the third-largest transit bus operator in North America, behind the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City (more than 5,600) and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (2,911).
The TTC also runs Wheel-Trans, a paratransit service for the physically disabled with special low-floor buses designed to accommodate wheelchairs and to make boarding easier for ambulatory customers with limited mobility.
The TTC ordered 153 Nova LFS Artic articulated buses with all newly ordered buses in service by January 2015. At long, the Nova LFS Artics hold about 112 passengers, compared with 65 on a standard bus.
Some of the newer TTC buses have USB-A ports for passengers to charge their mobile devices.
Subway
, the TTC operates 3 heavy rail lines and 2 light rail transit lines:
Line 1 Yonge–University: Canada's first subway line. A U-shaped mostly north–south heavy rail line that opened in 1954 and was last extended in 2017. Line 2 Bloor–Danforth: An east–west heavy rail line that opened in 1966 and was last extended in 1980 Line 4 Sheppard: An east–west heavy rail line that opened in 2002 Line 5 Eglinton: An east–west light rail transit line that opened in 2026 Line 6 Finch West: An east–west light rail transit line that opened in 2025
From 1985 until 2023, Line 3 Scarborough, a partly elevated light metro line, served the district of Scarborough.
The three subway lines are served by 678 cars grouped in trains of four cars on Line 4 Sheppard, and six cars on Line 1 Yonge–University and Line 2 Bloor–Danforth. The three subway lines share non-revenue track connections and use the same technology. The rolling stock in use consists of the Toronto Rocket trains on Lines 1 and 4 and the T-series trains on Line 2. Line 3 Scarborough had a fleet of 28 S-series cars grouped into trains of four cars each and was not compatible with other subway lines, given that the S-series cars used . It shared no track connections or equipment. Due to the increasing difficulty of performing critical maintenance work on the S-series trains, the existing Line 3 Scarborough service was initially scheduled to be decommissioned permanently in November 2023; instead, the line closed four months ahead of schedule after a derailment on July 24, 2023. The line has been replaced by TTC bus service until the Line 2 Scarborough subway extension to Sheppard and McCowan opens for revenue service in 2030 at the earliest.
All subway lines provide service seven days a week from approximately 5:45 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. the following day (last train runs at approximately 1:45 a.m. in each direction) except for Sundays, when start of service is delayed until approximately 8:00 a.m. During the overnight periods, the subway and its stations are closed to enable maintenance at track level and in the stations themselves. Overnight service is provided by buses and streetcars operating above ground. These overnight routes are issued numbers in the 300-series and are referred to as Blue Night routes, indicated by a typical TTC bus stop sign with a blue band added.
Projects under construction The Ontario Line, which is a rapid transit line and successor to the Relief Line, is expected to be completed by 2030. The Ontario government estimates the line's cost at $10.9billion for the stretch from Ontario Place to Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East at Don Valley station (part of Line 5). It is the largest single expansion in Toronto subway history.
The Scarborough subway extension of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a subway extension, which will continue Line 2 east towards McCowan Road and north towards Scarborough City Centre and to a new terminal at the intersection of McCowan Road and Sheppard Avenue. The $5.5-billion extension will replace the defunct Line 3 Scarborough and is expected to be complete in 2030 at the earliest.
The Line 5 Eglinton west extension will extend Line 5 Eglinton to Renforth station by 2030 or 2031 and will be mostly underground. After its completion, the line will travel through all six of Toronto's districts that were amalgamated in 1998 and bring the Toronto subway to Mississauga.
The Yonge North subway extension is an extension of Line 1 Yonge–University proposed by the government of Ontario, nearly identical to the existing planned Yonge subway extension proposed by the City of Toronto, Metrolinx, and York Region. It would extend Line 1 into Richmond Hill in York Region. The line would travel north from Finch station to Richmond Hill Centre Terminal at Highway 7 and Yonge Street. The estimated cost for the project is $5.4billion, and it is projected to open after the Ontario Line has been completed.
Future plans